Aquae Arnemetiae

53°15′32″N 1°54′54″W / 53.259°N 1.915°W / 53.259; -1.915

Buxton Thermal Baths in early 20th-century

Aquae Arnemetiae was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. The settlement was based around its natural warm springs. The Roman occupation ran from around 75 AD to 410 AD.[1] Today it is the town of Buxton, Derbyshire in England.

Aquae Arnemetiae means 'Waters of Arnemetia'. Arnemetia was the Romano-British goddess of the sacred grove (the name Arnemetia was derived from the Celtic for beside the sacred grove).[2] The town was recorded as Aquis Arnemeza in the Ravenna Cosmography's list of all known places in the world in about 700 AD. The entry is between places with which the town had road connections: Nauione (Navio Roman fort at Brough), Zerdotalia (Ardotalia, later called Melandra fort, near Glossop) and Mantio (Manchester).[3][4]

  1. ^ "Coins from the Buxton Hoard". Wonders of the Peak. June 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  2. ^ Miranda J. Green. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1997.
  3. ^ Patterson, Mark (2016). Roman Derbyshire. Five Leaves Publications. pp. 134–163. ISBN 978-1910170250.
  4. ^ "Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography". www.kmatthews.org.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2020.