(At the Roman Baths in Bath)

LINDSAY ALLASON-JONES
I think the Roman attitude to other people's religion was always a slight fear that other people's gods were more powerful than their gods, and so whenever they went to a new province they may have taken over the province, but they also in a sense took over the gods as well. They tended to adopt these gods, and they would set up temples to the gods and they would worship them, and often equate them with the known gods. So here at Bath we have Sulis, the native god, equated with Minerva, who of course is a well known Roman deity.

GUY DE LA BÉDOYÈRE
When they arrived at Bath the Romans found the local people worshipping their own, Celtic God - Sulis. When they built their grand temple they didn't replace that God with their own goddess, Minerva - they merged them and placed this extraordinary, unmistakably Celtic image on the temple pediment.

I think Bath sums up Roman Britain. It was a special place long before the Romans arrived, and it has remained so long after they left. Britain had became part of Rome - but Rome too had become part of Britain.

Conquerors hardly ever go native and the Romans were no exception. It's here at the Bath that we have one of the best examples of where the organisation of the Roman world met the chaos of the Celtic fringe head on.

With the honey coloured Bath stone and the noise and laughter of all the visitors I think this must have been one of the most beautiful and fascinating places in Roman Britain - perhaps all of Britain's history. But with the wild-eyed Celtic God staring down from the Roman temple no-one would have forgotten where they were. Britain was only ever half-tamed.

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