ROMAN REMAINS IN BATH. 79 



it as first colonized in the time of Claudius, who made an 

 expedition into this island, and he fixes the building of the 

 town about the year A.D. 44, and supposes that it is to 

 Scribonius, the Physician of Claudius, that we owe the 

 discovery of the medicinal properties of the waters, and 

 their subsequent general use. He conceives that Claudius 

 first gave orders for the building of a city, and on his return 

 home left a portion of the Second Legion to build the town, 

 and to collect the bot Springs, and render them avaUable 

 for bathing and medical uses. This is merely conjecture, 

 and as no proof is given of the fact, we must in this in- 

 stance rest contented with the probability. According to 

 Whitaker, the country was not reduced before the year 50 

 of our era, six years after Warner' s erection of the town and 

 Station, " As in that very year a battle was fought betwixt 

 the Romans and Britons, a few miles south of Bath, suffi- 

 ciently important to cause the fabrication of a coin, and 

 the erection of a trophy. (Camden 168, Edit. 1607> We 

 do not find a single memorlal of Claudius, among all that 

 have been dug up of Roman relics at Bath. The highest 

 that any of those relics ascend, is the Emperor immediately 

 subsequent to Claudius. In digging the foundations of a 

 new bot bath, near the Cross Bath, and in removing the 

 rubbish to get at the head of the spring of the bot bath, 

 and to make a new reservoir, a great number of Roman 

 copper and brass coins of the Emperors were found, many of 

 them in fine preservatlon. They were of the Antonines, 

 Trajan, Adrian, and Nero. The last is a proof of the anti- 

 quity of these baths. We infer from this that the baths were 

 first formed in Nero's reign, but enlarged or ornamented in 

 the reign of Adrian, Trajan, and Antonine." All towns 

 were but stations at first, and only a few became colonies, 



