#8 Pennies and Gravestones

            Traveling by train from London to Bath, through fields of pastureland floating past, was a much-needed refresh after a busy week. In many ways, Bath feels like a smaller, softer London. There are fewer people, there’s more open space and greenery, and there are more ancient things, but the same blend of history and modernity that you find in London is present in Bath. I guess, in a way, people go there now for similar reasons as they did during ancient times: to find rest. The Roman Baths exhibit begins with the explanation that people came to the Roman Baths to “to bathe in sacred waters, seek healing, and pray” (Meet the Romans). Now, Bath is lined with shops, eateries, and spas that boast a similar, if less reverent, kind of escape, and I’m not sure what to make of this disconnect. 

            There’s just something strange about walking past a Levi’s outlet and into a vault housing the gravestones of people that lived centuries ago. All throughout the Baths, there are reminders not only of how people lived but also how they chose to die. One such gravestone of “a man from Aquae Sulis” depicts its owner with a scroll. The wall text notes that this depiction is an effort to show him “as he wished to be remembered” and that the scroll “reflects his learning and status in life” (A Man from Aquae Sulis). The prestige of education and the title that it brought was what this man wanted all of human history to remember about him. What would I want to be remembered of me, I wonder? What would you? 

            This focus on legacy seems to be part of a Roman fascination with time, or at least, that’s my hunch. Further on, an exhibition of the temple pediments that once stood near the Roman baths explains that the point where visitors would go to seek healing was decorated with carvings of “the moon goddess Luna and the sun god Sol” that faced each other (Luna and Sol from the Temple Courtyard). This intersection between the life and death, then, was also where sun and moon, light and dark, and beginning and end of days met. The Romans were constantly surrounded by reminders of how short their lives were and how easy it is to fall prey to time, so they prepared for it. They worked towards healing, prayed, spent moments in deep reflection, and continued to build a habit of doing so until they no longer could.

 

            Yet, part of me wonders if the same kind of attitude that caused the Romans to plan and strategize the act of living also led to an all-consuming self-preservation in some. An artifact called the Beau Street Hoard that was found underneath a Roman building near the baths consists of a collection of eight coin-filled leather bags (The Beau Street Hoard). I found myself stuck at this point in the exhibit for a while and questioning why a mud-hardened fossil would make me feel sick to my stomach, but it’s fear. Isn’t it? Behind the years and behind the dirt encapsulated in this pile of currency, is the fear of one person who trusted so little in others and in their own future that they buried wealth that could have served the greater good.

            One of the Cooling Baths, filled with pennies and modern currency from tourists that have stopped by, struck me in a similar way. On first glance, this glimmering pool seems almost romantic in a kind of campy way: a pile of wishes that people have tossed out into the air and trusted. However, the weight of all that effort, money, and time also grows overwhelming after staring at it for too long. In the end, I think so much of what the Romans believed and what they can teach us comes down to time. Are we using what time we have to do the work of healing in ourselves and our communities, or do we spend too much of it worrying, gathering wealth, and gazing at wishes on pennies that will never come true without our own effort? Or maybe, once again, I’m reading entirely too much into it. 

Back again soon,

Kath

Sources

A Man from Aquae Sulis. Wall text, The Roman Baths, Bath. 

The Beau Street Hoard. Wall text, The Roman Baths, Bath. 

Luna and Sol from the Temple Courtyard. The Roman Bath, Bath. 

Meet the Romans. Wall text, The Roman Baths, Bath.