The Minerva Vendettas

Not so long ago, in the English city of Bath (formally Aquae Sulis), once a prize Roman outpost famous for its natural hot springs, it was discovered in the deep waters of the Roman spa, small copper tablets dating back to the third and fourth century A.D. In the custom of the Caesars, these ‘curse tablets’ had been carefully etched imploring the goddess Sulis Minerva to exact just punishments for a wide variety of transgressions. And although most of the crimes were of a petty nature, theft of a pair of sandals or the taking of one’s warm cloak, and that the return of such items would be sufficient remediation, some of the inscribed curses were of a far darker nature.