Editing Sulis (section)

==Cult at Bath==
{{See also|Roman Baths (Bath)}}
Sulis was the [[genius loci|local goddess]] of the thermal springs that still feed the [[thermal bath|spa]] baths at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], which the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] called ''[[Aquae Sulis]]'' ("the waters of Sulis").<ref>The standard introduction to the archaeology and architectural reconstruction of the sanctuary, with its classic temple raised on a podium at the center, and the monumental baths, with the sacred spring between them, is [[Barry Cunliffe]], ed. ''Roman Bath'' (Oxford University Press) 1969.</ref> Sulis was likely venerated as a healing divinity, whose sacred hot springs could cure physical or spiritual suffering and illness.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Aldhouse-Green|first=Miranda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/437157439|title=Companion to Roman Britain|date=2007|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-99885-4|editor-last=Todd|editor-first=Malcolm|location=Oxford|pages=200, 204–205|chapter=Gallo-British Deities and their Shrines|oclc=437157439|access-date=13 April 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024527/https://search.worldcat.org/title/437157439|url-status=live}}</ref> According to scholar Miranda Green, the cult of Sulis at Bath was active until the mid-fourth century CE.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Miranda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51912602|title=The Concept of the Goddess|date=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-203-45638-6|editor-last=Billington|editor-first=Sandra|location=London|pages=33–35|chapter=The Celtic Goddess as Healer|oclc=51912602|editor-last2=Green|editor-first2=Miranda|access-date=13 April 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024555/https://search.worldcat.org/title/51912602|url-status=live}}</ref> Her name primarily appears on [[Epigraphy|inscriptions]] discovered in an extensive temple area to her at Bath, with only a single instance outside of Britain at [[Alzey]], [[Germany]].<ref>{{CIL|13|6266}}, Alzey (Altiaia, Roman Province of Germania Superior): ''Dea(e) Sul(i) / Attonius / Lucanu[s]''</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Maier, Bernhard, 1963-|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36074567|title=Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture|date=1997|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=0-85115-698-3|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk|oclc=36074567|access-date=7 January 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024525/https://search.worldcat.org/title/36074567|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:The Great Bath of the Roman Baths at Bath.jpg|thumb|An overhead view of the Great Bath of the Roman Baths at Bath]]
At the Roman temple at Bath, several ancient additions to the altar area suggest that sacrifice there was a major part of worshipping the goddess.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Revell|first=Louise|date=2007|title=Religion and Ritual in the Western Provinces|journal=Greece & Rome|volume=54|issue=2|pages=218–219|doi=10.1017/S0017383507000162 |jstor=20204190 |s2cid=161820409 |issn=0017-3835|doi-access=free}}</ref> The open area surrounding the [[altar]] may have been used for processions and public offerings of meats and liquids.<ref name=":1" /> A majority of the finds at the spring consist of coins and [[Bath curse tablets|curse tablets]] (see "Inscribed tablets" section next), with over 12,500 [[Roman coins]] and 18 [[Celtic coins]] having been found in the reservoir.<ref name=":1" /> In addition, items have also been retrieved that were likely private offerings, such as jewelry, gemstones, plates, bowls, military items, wooden and leather objects.<ref name=":1" />

Pewter vessels found in the spring reservoir have led some scholars to conclude that physical contact with the water may have been important for transfer of healing properties, with these vessels being used to pour the water over visitors' bodies.<ref name=":82">{{Cite book|last=Aldhouse-Green|first=Miranda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/437157439|title=Companion to Roman Britain.|date=2007|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-99885-4|editor-last=Todd|editor-first=Malcolm|location=Oxford|pages=200, 204–205|chapter=Gallo-British Deities and their Shrines|oclc=437157439|access-date=13 April 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024527/https://search.worldcat.org/title/437157439|url-status=live}}</ref>

From the evidence of funerary inscriptions discovered on the site, it appears that visitors to the sacred springs may have included retired soldiers, soldiers acting as tourists, and/or soldiers looking for relief from injury or illness.<ref name=":83">{{Cite book|last=Aldhouse-Green|first=Miranda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/437157439|title=Companion to Roman Britain.|date=2007|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-99885-4|editor-last=Todd|editor-first=Malcolm|location=Oxford|pages=200, 204–205|chapter=Gallo-British Deities and their Shrines|oclc=437157439|access-date=13 April 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024527/https://search.worldcat.org/title/437157439|url-status=live}}</ref> In order to afford the inscriptions, those who recorded their visit with altars or tombstones would likely have been of higher status.<ref name=":83" />

The Temple to Sulis Minerva was known for burning coal in the altar-fire instead of wood.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Henig|first=Martin|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10837278|title=Religion in Roman Britain|date=1984|publisher=Batsford|isbn=0-7134-1220-8|location=London|pages=122–123, 146|oclc=10837278|access-date=13 April 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024614/https://search.worldcat.org/title/10837278|url-status=live}}</ref> This coal would have been brought by slaves, who would also assist in cleaning and service for cult meals.<ref name=":4" />

The [[Gilding|gilt]] bronze cult statue of Sulis Minerva "appears to have been deliberately damaged" sometime in later [[Late Antiquity|Antiquity]], perhaps by [[barbarian]] raiders, Christian zealots, or some other forces.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/ |title=The Official Roman Baths Museum Web Site in the City of Bath |access-date=31 March 2009 |archive-date=15 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815083714/http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Inscribed tablets ===
{{Main|Bath curse tablets}}
About 130 [[curse tablets]], mostly addressed to Sulis, have been found in the [[sacred spring]] at the Roman baths in Bath.<ref name= Wilson>{{cite book |title=A guide to the Roman remains in Britain|last=Wilson |first=Roger  |year=1988 |isbn=0094686807 |page=109|publisher=Constable }}</ref> Typically, the text on the tablets offered to Sulis relates to theft; for example, of small amounts of money or clothing from the bath-house. It is evident, from the localized style of Latin ("[[British Latin]]") used, that a high proportion of the tablets came from the native population.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Adams|first=J. N.|year=1992|title=British Latin: The Text, Interpretation and Language of the Bath Curse Tablets|journal=Britannia|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=93|pages=1–26|doi=10.2307/526102|jstor=526102|s2cid=163388305 }}</ref> In formulaic, often legalistic, language, the tablets appeal to the goddess Sulis to punish the known or unknown perpetrators of the crime until reparations are made. Sulis is typically requested to impair the physical and mental well-being of the perpetrator, by the denial of sleep, causing normal bodily functions to cease, or even by death. These afflictions are to cease only when the property is returned to the owner or disposed of as the owner wishes, often by its being dedicated to the goddess.<ref>Cf. {{cite book |title=Bathing in Public in the Roman World |last=Fagan |first=Garrett G. |year=2002 |isbn=0472088653 |page=37|publisher=University of Michigan Press }}, {{cite book |title= Curse tablets and binding spells from the ancient world|last=Gager |first=John G.  |year=1999 |isbn=0195134826|pages=194–195|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> One message found on a tablet in the Temple at Bath (once decoded) reads: "Docimedis has lost two gloves and asks that the thief responsible should lose their minds [''sic''] and eyes in the goddess' temple."<ref>{{cite book |title=Tabellae Sulis: Roman inscribed tablets of tin and lead from the sacred spring at Bath |last=Tomlin |first=Roger |year=1988 |isbn=0947816003 |pages=114–115|publisher=Oxford University Committee for Archaeology }}</ref>

[[File:RIB155Bath.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Latin epitaph of Gaius Calpurnius, a priest of Sulis at Bath, who died at the age of 75 and was commemorated by his wife, a freedwoman<ref>{{CIL|7|53}} = ''RIB'' 155.</ref>]]
The tablets were often written in code, by means of letters or words being written backwards; word order may be reversed and lines may be written in alternating directions, from left to right and then right to left ([[boustrophedon]]). While most texts from Roman Britain are in Latin, two scripts found here, written on [[pewter]] sheets, are in an unknown language which may be [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic]]. If so, they would be the only examples of writing in this language ever found.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tomlin|first=Roger|year=1987|title=Was Ancient British Celtic Ever a Written Language?|journal=Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies|publisher=University of Wales|issue=34|pages=18–35|issn=0142-3363}}</ref>

The only dated tablet of the collection is Bath tablet 94, though no year is given alongside the day and month.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Tomlin|first=RSO|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1143479195|title=Britannia Romana : Roman Inscriptions and Roman Britain.|date=2020|publisher=OXBOW Books|isbn=978-1-78925-548-5|location=Oxford, United Kingdom|pages=335|oclc=1143479195|access-date=21 February 2021|archive-date=29 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429024609/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1143479195|url-status=live}}</ref> This can be inferred, however, by comparison to handwriting used on other tablets, which range from the 'Old Roman cursive' of the second and third centuries CE to the 'New Roman cursive' of the fourth century CE.<ref name=":0" /> As argued by Tomlin in his 2020 publication, this shows the popularity of the inscriptions, and therefore the likely belief in their efficacy, for at least two centuries.<ref name=":0" />