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Rome and the magic

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

Roma e il paranormale –
At Rome, magic (and with magic all its links like spiritism, necromancy and so on) was considered a crime and to practice it one risked a death penalty. Already in the 138 B.C. a “Senatus Consultus” decided the expulsion from Italy of all astrologers and magicians. One of them Lucius Pituanus was definitely thrown out: They hurled him from the Tarpeian cliff. Another one, Publius Marcius, was executed by order of the consuls out of the Esquiline gate after that, as in the ancient times, the capital punishment had been announced by the sound of trumpets (Tacitus, Annals II. 32). Thus magic and all its links were not things about which one could easily play with. However in the imperial Rome, as long as they were called and protected by mighty personages, there were quite a lot of magicians and, also if anybody who consulted them was guilty of a capital offense, many were their clients. Thus we know that the senator Firmius Cato, intimate friend of Libo, pushed this young man, loose and predisposed to too much imagination, to trust the Caldeans promises, rely on the necromants’ enchantments and even believe to the dreams interpreters
Recognized, approved and totally legal was another kind of magic typically Roman, which, as it was connected with the local cults, was considered a religious expression. It was the one that was practiced pronouncing some appropriate magic formulae contained in the twelve tables (the formulae of the vestal Tuccia). These magic phrases were powerful enchantments that had allowed this priestess to bring water in a sieve. However we must also remark that from the body of Tuccia, as a vestal, radiated a magic force so strong that it was believed that these virgins could even stop the fugitive slaves provided that they had not already overtaken the limits of the town (N.H. XXVIII. 3. 12). Another magic book that was allowed was Numa’s one. However the ones who wanted to try their hand at it had to be very careful about the way in which they pronounced the holy words listed in this book: To make a mistake, also if only of one word, or not to pronounce this word in the correct way could be fatal and Tullius Ostilius experimented it once when he was trying to make Iovis come down from the sky. Not having said in a correct way the magic words he was stricken by the lightning and reduced to ashes.
It is for this reason that in the Roman literature we don’t have many stories of phenomenal magic feats as in the Egyptian papyri. Of course also in ancient Rome there were witches as Canidia, the one we find in Oratio’s satyrs. Canidia, who wandered about the graveyards trying to find items to employ in her enchantments, and then, just to realize some ghastly sorcery, cruelly killed a little boy. She was an awful being not handsome and young as the Greek witches, but old and ugly as later on were all the ones that, starting from the Middle Age, peopled the European legends.
Then, notwithstanding all the laws and vetoes, at Rome there always was some sorceress, and , what is more, not one of these malevolent beings risked to be left without clients. There always were so many suitors that wanted to enchain the heart of the girls they loved and paid for some potent sorcery, and there were also so many jealous woman who, wanting to see their rivals dead, bought powerful poisons. In this situation the witches didn’t need to worry about money. However to sell poison could be discovered and put both the witch and the client in serious trouble. To make away with an enemy there were other methods as good and as deadly: If one didn’t want to perpetrate the material crime, it was possible for him to eliminate the object of his hate with magic. It was enough to find some skilled sorceress and pay her for inscribing certain awful maledictions on some leaden tablets. These enchantments were called “tabulae maledictoriae”: The ancient Rome’s people blindly trusted their effect, and, as they were traced on lead and as lead last an eternity, we still found some of them.