The Roman Baths

The next stop was the roman baths. This was an ancient temple built around 43 AD. However, it wasn’t discovered until the 19th century. It was one of the only natural hot springs in all of Europe (?) and to the Romans it was sacred and associated with the God Minerva. The spring pours out a quarter of a million liters a day. The few things I thought were most interesting from this site were small things that archeologists have recovered such as jewelry, makeup and pottery. Also, a golden statue of the head of Minerva was discovered in the 1700s when a sewer was being built. It appears that the head was hacked off from the rest of the statue, possibly by Christians or barbarians. Also, the Romans used to write written curses to the Gods. These were letters complaining to the Gods, and many of them were asking the Gods to do something bad to people who had wronged them. They had a few examples of them, and personally a lot of them were very petty. For example, one man wrote a note complaining about a man who stole one of his gloves. In the note he wished for the man to “lose his eyes and mind.” Pretty bizarre. Finally, one of the coolest architectural aspects was the floors of the building. They were elevated so that the steam from the hot spring would circulate below the floor. This would heat the floor.