A common Roman past
Ani Lecrivain of Yerevan-based NGO Educational & Cultural Bridges takes a tour of Bath’s Roman past - and discovers a surprise link with her home in Armenia.
I arrived at the University of Bath at the end of June 2022 to spend a month on secondment as part of the Disputed Territories and Memory project.
Staying at Esther Parkin Residence, I noticed a cross that was just behind the residence which bore the following inscription: "Heart+Mind prepared truth, equality, simplicity and peace" which gave a ‘spiritual and sentimental’ nuance to my academic research.
Besides, it would be quite difficult not to think of spirituality when walking around the streets of Bath. Abbeys, churches and cathedrals appear in view with every step, which is no surprise given that Bath has been an ecclesiastical centre since the Middle Ages. As as over of literature and history, I was well served in Bath. The small, often pedestrianised, streets of the city centre give the impression of being out of time. The Royal Crescent and the Circus place us directly in the film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels, in which the typical Anglo-Saxon houses of the city rivalled those built in the Mediterranean style. In some neighbourhoods, you feel like you’re in Italy. The Holburne Museum had an exhibition entitled 'Love Life' featuring the drawings of David Hockney and then, on July 9th, the whole city vibrated to the rhythm of carnival.
The biggest discovery I made was in the Roman Baths. A map, spotted at the beginning of my visit, immediately caught my attention. Aquae Sulis (the ancient name of Bath), along with Britannia and Armenia, was part of the Roman Empire at the same time. This was a nice introduction to the subject of disputed territories. But the most surprising was yet to come. The more I advanced in my visit, the more I became aware that the Roman past of Bath united the city closely with the Armenian city of Garni. Both sites house a temple and Roman Baths. And, while the temple of Garni was built by the Armenian king Tiridates 1st for the god of the sun Mihr, the temple of Bath was erected for the goddess of water Sulis Minerva. Only a few stones remain of the Roman temple in Bath, indeed visitors can only see the steps. Garni’s temple, in contrast, is almost intact, albeit well restored after the earthquake of 1679. On the other hand, the Roman baths of Bath are in an almost perfect state of preservation. It’s possible to see all of the rooms, and in places the walls have retained the colours of the Roman ‘decor’. The discovery of Roman baths next to Garni’s temple is relatively recent and the baths are little restored.
The thermal buildings were created thanks to the genius of the Roman engineers of the 3rd century: transported via the aqueducts, the water was stored in large tanks located in the basement of the thermal baths. The rooms of Garni’s Roman baths are identical to those of Bath and are composed of 5 spaces. The apodyterium is a small room with benches and niches in which the visitor could deposit his belongings. The palestra is where the Romans exercised in order to sweat and evacuate dirt from the body. For non-athletes, another alternative was offered: a 60°C sweat room called the sudatorium. After the effort comes comfort with the hot pool room (caldarium) where Romans benefited from hot baths, they scraped the dirt from their body using strigil and oils as a soap. A lukewarm bath (tepidarium) was offered to prepare the transition between hot and cold. And finally, the cold-water pool (frigidarium) with his firming action on the skin closed the ‘ceremony’ of purification. The cleaning of the baths made it possible to find a very large number of coins that visitors from all over the Roman Empire threw into the pools. I wanted to know if an Armenian currency could be found among these various currencies, but for lack of time, I could not find an answer to my question!
Next stop, the American Museum of Bath - perhaps the only American museum outside the US where one can browse American history from the 14th to the 20th centuries in a single day, with its remarkable collection of folk and decorative arts. Some rooms brought me back to reflecting on memories of disputed territories, in particular a ‘New Orleans Bedroom’ situated on the ground floor of the museum: the city of New Orleans was founded by France in 1718, ceded to Spain in 1762, returned to France in 1800, and then sold to the United States in 1803. Under the political domination of Great Britain from 1812 to 1815, New Orleans was liberated in 1815 and regained peace.
During these explorations in Bath, my inner peace was sometimes shaken by two factors: weather and seagulls! It was hard for my mind and body to accept 11°C in the morning and 17°C in the day during the first week of July, when at the same moment the temperature in Armenia was attempting 37 °C. And those gulls - so big and loud - really put my nerves to the test. True campus dwellers along with the squirrels and ducks, those gulls didn't let me sleep. In contrast, the meetings with colleagues from the University of Bath over coffee, lunch, a conference and a book launch were so enriching and enjoyable, especially after two years of meetings on Zoom.
Dr Ani Lecrivain is a doctor of comparative literature and the author of eight scientific articles and many reports. A certified translator, she is a legal expert interested in legal translation and the history of texts and documents. She has been actively involved in the work of NGO Educational and Cultural Bridges since 2014, and shares her knowledge with young people through a variety of informal education projects.