There is a great deal of archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the ‘menagerie of the divine’ that was Roman Britain, yet this evidence is often accompanied with little context that helps us to understand exactly what the significance of such cults was. The chapter introduces the character of Roman popular religion and analyses the evidence for the main categories of godlings in Roman Britain, including genii, the Parcae and mother goddesses and deities of nature such as nymphs and fauns, arguing that such cults became much more significant during the fourth-century ‘pagan revival’ that followed the accession of the pagan emperor Julian in 361. In particular, the extraordinary cult of Faunus revealed by the Thetford Treasure – along with other ecstatic nature cults apparently testified by the archaeological record – suggests that the fourth century was an important time for the development of distinctive and inventive Romano-British interpretations of Roman pagan religion, which may form the cultural background to the strong traditions of otherworldly beings found in later British culture.

This final chapter draws together the themes from the previous chapters to discuss the place of Roman Aquae Sulis as a whole. It then examines the archaeological evidence for the sanctuary’s decay and eventual abandonment in the context of our broader understanding of late- and sub-Roman Britain, and finishes by looking at the Old English poem ‘The Ruin’, thus bringing the story full-circle back to the Middle Ages and the rise of Bath as a healing spa.