When Romans lost their clothes at the baths, they cursed the thieves to Sulis

Wars & Conflicts · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the Roman city of Bath, victims of petty theft turned to divine intervention rather than the police. By inscribing curses on lead-alloy sheets and depositing them in a sacred spring, they sought justice from the goddess Sulis Minerva, demanding she punish the culprits until their stolen goods were returned.

Discovered between 1978 and 1983 in the sacred spring beneath the King's Bath, the collection of about 130 curse tablets provides a rare window into the lives of the Romano-British population. Dating from the second to fourth centuries AD, these defixiones were not intended to be seen by human eyes. Instead, they functioned as 'prayers for justice,' a ritualistic mechanism where the victim formally gifted their stolen property—such as jewellery, money, or clothing—to the goddess Sulis Minerva. By making the theft her loss, the victim compelled the deity to identify the thief and exact retribution.

The tablets, crafted from lead alloyed with tin, reveal a society deeply concerned with petty crime. While some inscriptions were professionally produced, others were the work of amateurs, featuring crude markings or illiterate imitations of script. The formulas used were remarkably consistent, often following a template likely sourced from a handbook. Victims would name the suspect and request specific, often gruesome, afflictions—ranging from the loss of eyes and mind to the internal consumption of limbs—to force the thief into returning the items. This practice highlights the tension between public bathing, a common site for theft in the Roman world, and the religious systems used to navigate social grievances.

Beyond their role in ancient justice, these tablets serve as a vital linguistic record. Most are written in the colloquial Vulgar Latin of the region, known as 'British Latin,' offering evidence of everyday speech patterns. Two inscriptions potentially contain a British Celtic language, though scholars have yet to reach a consensus on their decipherment. Recognized by UNESCO in 2014, the tablets remain a cornerstone for understanding Romano-British religion and the popular attitudes toward crime and social order during the Roman era.

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