how old are the roman baths in bath england
Roman Baths (Bath) The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60â€“70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.[8] During the Roman occupation of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of Emperor Claudius,[9] engineers drove oak piles to provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century it was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building,[5] and included the caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (lukewarm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath).[10] After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the first decade of the 5th century, these fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up,[11] and flooding.[12] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suggests the original Roman baths were destroyed in the 6th century.[13]
The Wife of Bath's Tale Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The 'Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale' during the fourteenth century at a time when the social structure was rapidly evolving[1] while Richard II was in reign; it was not until the late 1380s mid 1390s when Richard II's subjects started to take notice of how he was leaning toward bad counsel, causing criticism throughout his court.[2] It was evident that changes needed to occur within the traditional hierarchy of King Richard II’s ensemble; Chaucer chose to address the change of events that he noticed through 'The Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale' to illustrate the imbalance of power within the male dominated society.[3] Women were not identified by their social status, but solely by their relations with men rather than being identified by their occupations; a female was either a maiden, spouse or widow who was only capable of bearing children, cooking and other “women's work”.[4]