Roman Bath: a new history and archaeology of Aquae Sulis

For me, the crux of this book comes on page 132. Peter Davenport explains that ‘the plan of the Classical temple [was altered] into something quite similar to the more usual plan of temples in the north-west of the empire, the so-called Romano-Celtic temple…’. It is not the first time that this change has been noted, as the detailed excavation report of 1985 covers the issue as well, but such is the hold of the Classical temple reconstruction on the visitor’s imagination, ever since it was first proposed in the 19th century, that we envisage Bath as being solely in a Classical style of architecture. It may have started out that way, from the late 1st until the mid-2nd century AD, but