EOMAN KEMAIXS IN BATH. 91 



is a crescent. Tliis crescent led Mr. Warner to consider 

 the temple as dedicated to Luna. There are other frag- 

 ments remaining, which are supposed to represent the 

 Seasons. Thus we see that there formerly stood two 

 temples, on or near the site of the present Abbey Church, 

 dedicated to Minerva, or Sul-Minerva, the Goddess who 

 presided over the waters. 



Whitaker observes that the name Aqua? SoHs does not 

 iinply the dedication of Bath or its waters to the sun, as a 

 Deity, because it is rendered in Greek by the very 

 Romans, vSxroe. ^ipy.«, simply " hot waters,'' not v^XTtx. nXiov, 

 " waters of the Sun." It was called Aquje Solis to mark 

 the heat of the waters, and to discriminate it from the 

 " Aquce" a httle distance from it, now called " Wells." 



A gentleman who has given much attention to the study 

 of the Eoman Antiquities of Bath, has favoured me with 

 the following observations on the origin of the name Aquse 

 Solis, or Aqua3 Sulis, which I here insert : 



" Since the discovery of the votive altars preserved in 

 the Institution, various distinguished antiquaries, as Lysons, 

 Sir R. C. Hoare, the Rev. J. Hunter, the Rev. Canon 

 Bowles, and others, have been of opinion that a deity was 

 anciently held in great veneration here, under the name of 

 Sul, or Sulis ; and that the name given by the Romans to the 

 city, in consequence of this divinity being so venerated, was 

 Aquje Sulis, and not, as conimonly considered, Aquse Solis. 

 These gentlemen, however, are not agreed on many points, 

 in their pathway to this opinion. Lysons assunilates the 

 British deity inscribed on the altars, under the name of Sul, 

 with the Roman Minerva ; and he is probably right, as we 

 always find Sul alluded to as a female divinity : it is always 

 Dca; Suli, not Dco Suli. Mr. Hunter notices this fact, 

 (see his Ictter in tlie Bath Chroniclc, Juno 14th, 1827). 



