BRITISH AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES OF BATH. 



Rev. Prebendary Scarth, M.A. 



"D ATH was known to the Ancients under the title of Udata 

 Therma, Aqua Calidce, according to the Geography of 

 Ptolemy, who wrote about A.D. 120. It was then known 

 as one of the principal cities of the Belgic Tribe which 

 inhabited the South and West of Britain. 



In the 14th Iter of Antoninus it is called Aqum Solis. 



In consequence of several altars having been found in 

 Bath, dedicated to the Goddess Sul or Sul-Minerva, it has 

 been conjectured that the name was " Aquce Sulis." It 

 may have been so, but no direct proof of this has yet been 

 obtained, although of late the idea has become current 

 among some whose opinions are entitled to respect. 



In the Ravenna list, it is simply called Aquis. 



Solinus, who wrote, as some suppose, as early as the year 

 A.D. 80, but most probably at a later date, mentions the 

 "CalidiFontes," "adusus Mortalium," and further describes 

 them as " opiparo exculti apparatu," which shews that baths 

 and bathing-rooms had then been built and adorned; he 

 also speaks of Minerva as the presiding divinity, which 

 quite accords with the inscriptions found on Roman altars 

 dug up in Bath. He tells us also of the " perpetui ignes " 

 kept burning in her temple, and states that they were fed 

 with a peculiar fuel, which seems, from his description, to have 

 been coal, then no doubt a great rarity, but which is known 

 to have cropped out at the surface of the ground not far 

 from Bath. 



