1916 Tavenner Studies in Magic
1916 Tavenner Studies in Magic
1916 Tavenner Studies in Magic
BY
EUGENE TAVENNER, PH.D .
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Copyright, 1916
BY COLUMBIA UNIVJDBSITY PBmse
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'£(
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NOTE
Thi8 monograph has been approved by the Department of Cl.a8-
mal Philology of Columbia University as a contribution to
knowledge worthy of publication.
CLARENCE H. YOUNG.
Chairman.
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CONTENTS
CBAPl'lDJl PA.Oil
I. lNTBoDUCTION TO THE 8TuDY OP Ro14AN MAGIC 1-60
The Meaning of Mci")'os, MC1L")'elC1L, Magu,a and Magicua 1
Definition of Magic 5
Magic Distinguished from Science . 8
Magic Distinguished from Astrology 10
Magic Distinguished from Superstition 11
Magic Distinguished from Religion 11
The Legal Aspect of Magic and Religion 12
Formal Latin Treatises upon Occult Subjects . 17
The Source, Antiquity, and Prevalence of Italian Magic 19
The Attitude of Latin Authors toward Magic . 25
Agricultural Writers 26
Dramatic Writers . 28
Writers on Philosophy 29
The Lyric and Elegiac Poets 33
The Satirists . 37
The Writers of Prose Romances 40
The Historians 45
The Encyclopaedists . 54
Conclusion . 60
II. MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OP DISEASE 61-123
Medical Magic and Religion . 61
The Gods as Workers of Magic 61
Deification of Diseases 67
Medical Magic Versus Scientific Medicine . 70
Medical Magic Universal among the Early Romans 70
Early Magic Cures not Entirely Displaced by Greek
Scientific Medicine . 73
Preventive or Prophylactic Magic . 76
A. The Amulet . 76
Definition of an Amulet 77
Names Given to Amulets by Latin Authors 79
Antiquity and Continued Use of Amulets in Italy 80
Diseases Prevented by the Use of Amulets 84
ix
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x CONTENTS
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STUDIES IN MAGIC
FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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STUDIES IN MAGIC
FROM LATIN LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC
and pa:ytla.
1 Cf. Pliny, N. H. 30, 5; Iliad 7, 193-196, with Leaf's excellent note:
11, 740-741: 12, 254-255: 13, 434-435 : 15, 321-322: 24, 343-345 (magic
strokes used by the gods): 14, 214-221 (magic girdles): 16, 235: 23,
135-136; Od. 10, ~fl.; infra, 19, n. 97.
• For the derivation of the word cf. A. VaniC!ek, FremdtDl>rter im
GrieclriacJim und Lamni8cl&en, s. v. pa'YO'; Leo Meyer, Handbuch der
GrieclriacJim Etymologie, 4, 318, s. v. 1'4'Yos; Emile Boiaacq, Dictionnaire
4tymologique de la langue grecque, s. v. pa'Y°'·
' Herodotus, 1, 101. The word is found somewhat earlier in Persian.
The great inscription of BehiatOn contains seven instances of the nomina-
tive magua, and five instances of the accusative.
• Cf. Strabo, 16, 762; Lucian, MGKp6/!ko& 4; Xenophon, Cyrop. 8, 1, 23;
Clitarchus, apud Diog. Laert., Vit. Phil., Proem. 6; Heaychius, s. v.
pa-yos; Apuleius, Apol. 25.
• Cf. Apuleius, De Plat. 1, 3; Plato, Ale. 121E-122A; Cicero, Div. 1,
46; 90-91: Fin. 5, 87: Leg. 2, 26; Valerius Maximus, 8, 7, Ext. 2.
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2 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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INTRODUCTION TO THE S'fUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 3
fore to have been a natural transition in the meaning of the
word among the Greeks from that of priest to that of trickster,
and then to that of one who controls natural phenomena; or,
in other words, to our· conception of a magician in the darker
meaning of the English word. We may be reasonably certain
also that in popular usage the word p.o:yos had come to mean
'magician' rather than 'Magian' before the literary usage
makes such a development apparent. 16
We turn now to the word p.a."YEla.. It is certain that Plato
used it in the sense of 'the Magian philosophy and religion.' 18
Aristotle, however, by using the words "Y07/T&Kt} JJ.O."YEla., clearly
indicates that, by his time, the words "Y07/TEla. and p.a."YEla. had
approached each other in meaning so closely that "Y07/TEla. was
considered a species of p.a."YEla..17 The development in meaning
is apparently carried one step further by Theophrastus, the
successor of Aristotle, who uses the word J.1.4"YEla. without any
limiting adjective in the sense of "Y07/TEla.. 18 That a leading
Greek philosopher in the early part of the third century B.c.
used the word p.a."YEla. in the sense of 'magic ' is a further proof
that the word p.6."Yos had also by his time come to mean a
'magician.'
A distinction seems to have been made, however, by the
philosophers, after the time of Socrates, between p.a."YEla. and
"Y07/TEla., upon the assumption that, whereas both p.a."YEla. and
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4 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
Lucan, 6, 431; 440; 450; 577; 767; Pliny, N. H. (instances are too
numerous to cite; but cf. Ian's index to Pliny, s. v. magi); Tacitus, Ann.
2, 27; 32: 6, 29: 12, 22; Apuleius, De Deo Socrat. 6: Met. 2, 5: 6, 16;
Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Did. Iul. 7; Augustinus, De Divers.
Quaest. 79, 4; Pseudo-Vergilius, Ciris 374; Pseudo-Quintilian, Deel.
Maior. 10, passim. Cf. also the use of magus as an adjective, Ovid, Amor.
1, 8, 5; Seneca, Herc. Oet. 467.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 5
far as I have been able to discover, of the use of the word magia
with reference to the Persian Magian system of religion and
philosophy.22 Of the very numerous instances of the adjective
magicus, only one is even possibly to be referred to the Magi.28
It is quite apparent, therefore, that to the average Roman magus
meant 'magician,' magia meant 'rnagic' (noun), and magicua
meant 'magic' (adjective); though some few learned writers
persisted at all times in using the first of these terms in its
earlier and historically correct sense of 'Magian.' In fact, this
popular conception of magic is expressly stated by Apuleius 24 to
have been in strong contrast with the proper conception of the
priestly Magi.
II. DEFINITION OF MAGIC
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 7
and that, in addition, he controls the earth, stars, rivers, and
the spirits of the dead by his incantations. This power of
control is caUed 'going against nature,' or exerting a supremacy
over natural forces and phenomena. Such a control of nature
differs, however, from Christian miracles, according to St.
Augustine, in that magicians act through a private agreement
with demons for personal gain, whereas good Christians per-
form miracles from a love of right in general. We may there-
fore say that a cultured Roman would have defined magic
as an art based on medicine, astrology, and religion, whereby
man attempts to control the gods and thereby to control
natural phenomena in accordance with his own selfish desires. ao
This definition, deduced from the Latin authors themselves,
does not differ materially from that of other modern students
of magic. Fowler,31 for instance, defines magic as "the exer-
cise of a mysterious mechanical power by an individual on
man, spirit, or deity, to enforce a certain result." Another
definition runs: 32 "(Magic is) the art, or pretended art, of
controlling occult forces and of producing effects contrary to
the known order of nature.'' Westermarck aa appears to define
io I am not unaware that it may seem illogical to derive a definition
from so many different sources; but, when we consider that we are deal-
ing with folk belief and practice, a phase of human mental life that shows
very little variation as a result either of time or of place, neither the few
centurie8 that separate Pliny the Elder from St. Augustine nor the change
from paganism to Christianity can be thought to have had great effect
upon the Roman attitude toward magic. In fact, even to-day the mental
life of Italy is singularly bound up with magic belief and practice. Cf.
Leland, Etruscan Roman Remaim in Popular Tradition, passim, but
especially 4; 13; 171; 197-198; 256-298; 303-305; Elworthy, E1'il Eye,
1-28; 1~155; 204-211; 257-262; 311; 321; 355-364; 403-404; 429;
Story, Castle St. Angelo and the E1'il Eye, 147-238 (the pages here indicated
treat of the evil eye, and were originally published as a chapter of Story's
work, RolJa di Roma).
11 Rel. Ex'[Jef'. 47.
a New International Encyclopedia•, s. v. Magic.
11 Origi,n and Derelopment of Moral Idea&, 2, 584.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC ' 9
animals,19 and stones,•0 as carefully as does the scientist,
but with a very different method of handling the material.
Science seeks, by patient observation, experimentation, and
reason, to arrive at probable facts and theories in regard to
natural phenomena; whereas magic seeks the secret bond of
sympathia in the world of nature - the unusual, the marvellous.
The magician is a keen observer of the world around him whose
sense of cause and effect has been warped by his mystical trend
of mind or by his ignorance of the true scientific method of
investigation. In particular he is influenced to a very large
extent by the feeling that like affects like, similia similibus.41
There is a peculiar bond in nature, he believes, which exercises
great power. For example, since the word ari8ta means both
a beard of grain and a hair, it follows that (arista holci) circa
caput alligata vel circa lacertum educit e corpore aristas.42
In the same manner, a wax image of a person may be treated
19 Animals favorable to magic are the hyena (Pliny, N. H. 8, 106: 28,
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BOMAN MAGIC 11
He does not at all attempt to control either the stars or the
events, except in so far as his powers of suggestion may influ-
ence the minds of his dupes. It may often have happened
at Rome, as elsewhere, that astrologers also pretended to a
knowledge of magic, in order to gain greater profit ; but in
so doing they undoubtedly went beyond the field of astrology.
With the latter it is not my purpose to deal.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 13
Magia ista, quantum ego audio,· res est legibus delegata, iam inde
antiquitus duodecim tabulis propter incredundas frugum inlecebras
interdict&. Igitur est occults non minus quam tetra et horribilis,
plerumque noctibus vigilata et tenebris abstrusa et arbitris solitaria
et carminibus murmurata. . . .
The fragments read: (a) qui fruges excantassit, and (b) neve alienam
segetem pellexeris. . . . On (a) cf. Pliny, N. H. 28, 18: Non et legum
ipsarum in duodecim tabulis verba sunt : "qui fruges excantassit," et
alibi: "qui malum carmen incantassit"?; Seneca, Nat. Quaest. 4, 7, 2:
Et apud nos in XII tabulis cavetur, "ne quis alienos fructu11 excantassit."
On (b) cf. Servius, on Vergil, Eel. 8, 99: Atque satas alio vidi traducere
messes: Magicis quibusdam artibus hoc fiebat, unde est in XII tabulis:
"neve alienam segetem pellexeris"; Augustinus, C. D. 8, 19 quod hac
pestifera scelerataque doctrina fructus alieni in alias terras transferri
perhibentur; nonne in XII tabulis. . . Cicero commemorat esse con-
scriptum et ei, qui hoc fecerit, supplicium constjtutum?; Apuleius, Apol.
47, quoted above.
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INTRODUCTtON TO THE STUDY OF BOMAN MAGIC 15
assume that Chaldaean astrologers practiced magic, and that
magicians used astrology as an aid. In other words, both
classes were trying to reap the greatest possible reward from
Roman credulity, and would in all probability use every means
to accomplish that end.
But all measures of suppression were in vain; for when,
twenty years later, Augustus, as Pontifex Maximus, ordered
all books upon occult subjects to be burned, the number col-
lected for the fire reached two thousand. 86 Again, in 16 A.D.,
the magicians and the astrologers were expelled from Italy. 88
But they came back in such numbers that it became necessary
to pass a very severe senatus C-OnSUltum in 52 A.D. expelling
all 'IJ'Ulthematici from Italy, 67 and it is very likely that the
magicians also shared in the rigors of this expulsion. 88 Similar
edicts against astrologers were issued by the Emperors in
69 A.D. 89 and in 89 A.D. 70
Up to this point in Roman history there is no evidence that
any except those actively engaged in the practice of magic
were punished under the various laws; but during Caracalla's
reign we find even passive believers in magic condemned and
executed, 71 a practice which was crystallized into law a short
while thereafter. 72 Under laws to be found in the Codez
Theodosianus, 73 countless persons were put to death for be-
lieving in or having recourse to magic practices. 7'
16 Suetonius, Aug. 31. " Tacitus, Ann. 2, 32. 17 llnd. 12, 52.
18 For a similar confusion of magic and astrology cf. Julius Capitolinus,
Marc. Aur. 19, 3. ., Suetonius, Vitel. 14, 4.
70 Hieronymus, Ann. Abr. 2105 - 89 A.D.
n Spartianus, Carac. 5, 7.
71 Julius Paulus, Sent. Receptae 5, 23, 15; 17-18.
71 Lib. 5, tit. 16, numbers 3; 5; 6; 7; 8; 12.
7' For the whole matter of the expulsion of astrologers from Rome
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16 STUDIES IN . MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
many of his magical cures ab agrutibus et plebei8 (De Medic., Introd. 2).
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 17
more remote districts. Though apparently neglected by those
who trace Italian magic to Persia., 79 or begin the history of
Italian magic with the advent of Greek influence, 80 it was cer-
tainly of much greater importance in the daily life of the
Italian peninsula than all the later magic from the East. The
magic of the Italian country people was and is the universal
magic on which the anthropologists have written volumes.
It represents a survival of prescientific times, 81 and accordingly
' it finds some response in the minds and hearts of all who will
make honest confession, whether they are Romans or Ameri-
cans. It is this kind of magic which has survived to the present
day in parts of Italy as la fJecchia religione, 'the old religion,'
that to many peasants is much more powerful than the priests
and the saints. 82 It is this kind of magic which persists in the
inner consciousness of many Latin authors, and often shows
itself, though they do not intend to display it, and though
they believe themselves altogether superior to belief in magic.
Even those who, like Pliny, bitterly oppose magic and magicians,
often exhibit an unusual love for repeating popular beliefs and
stories of magic.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 19
trology against Christianity." Of these writings only Cicero's
De Di1'inatione and the work of Julius Firmicus Ma.ternus
have survived.
The only two works in extant La.tin literature which a.t all
resemble a. treatise on magic a.re the Apologia of Apuleius of
Mada.ura., his defence against the charge of being a. magician ;
and parts of Pliny's Natural History, especially the first thirteen
paragraphs of book thirty. With these latter paragraphs a.s
our ma.in dependence, we shall now consider briefly the source,
the antiquity, and the prevalence of Italian magic.
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20 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LA.TIN LITERATURE
ing to Leaf, on Iliad 18, 418, the animated handmaidens of gold there
described "are a relic of the tradition which everywhere attributes magical
powers to the mythical founders of metallurgy. . . ." When the com-
panions of Patroclus carry his body to burial, they cover it with their
shorn hair, as representative of their own bodies (II. 24, 710-712. Cf.
Tylor, P. C. 2, 401; Rohde, P8Yche 1, 16-17; Frazer, Pauaan. 4, 136).
11 For magic in Thessaly cf. Plautus, Amph. 1043; Horace, Epod. 5,45:
N. H. 24, 160. For his adoption of magic cures, see Pliny, N. H. 24, 156-
158. For his belief in mystic numbers cf. Apuleius, Met. 11, 1. In general,
for the wonder tales that were fathered upon Pythagoras cf. Frazer, G. B. 1,
1, 213; Zeller, Philoaophie der Griechen •, 285 and n. 2; K. Kiesewetter,
Der Occultiamm des Altertuma, 471-472.
101 For the works of Democritus cf. Columella, 11, 3, 64; Pliny, N. H.
24, 160: 25, 13: 26, 19; Vitruvius, De Arch. 9, proem. 14. The frag-
ments of Democritus's De Sympathiia et Antipathiia are contained in
Fabricius's Bibliotheca Graeca, libri IV, pars altera 333-338. For their
genuineness, however, cf. Theodor Weidlich, Sympath. 13 ff. Democritus
is severely arraigned by Pliny for magical teaching (N. H. 28, 112-118 and
elaewhere), but is warmly defended against such a charge by A. Gellius
(N. A. 10, 12, 1-8).
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY o-, BOMAN MAGIC 21
and Pia.to, 1111 he continues, endured unusual hardships in order
to learn of it, and gained great fa.me by publishing its doctrines.
Of these, Democritus especially popularized these attract-
ive chima.eras in the Greek world at a.bout the period of the
Peloponnesia.n War.
Jewish magic, represented by Moses, 1oa Ja.nnes, and Lota.pea,
is many thousand years posterior to that of Zoroaster, says
Pliny (§ 11), and is followed in its tum by the much more
recent Cyprian magic. La.st of all there were Macedonian
additions during the time of Alexander the Great.
Roman magic is then treated by Pliny with disappointing
brevity in five and one-half lines of Teubner text (30, 12) :
Extant certe et apud Its.las gentes vestigia eius in XII tabulis
nostris aliisque argumentis, quae priore volumine exposui. DCLVII
demum e.nno urbis Cn. Cornelio Lentulo P. Licinio Crasso cos. senatus
consultum factum est, ne homo immolaretur, palamque fit, in tempus
illut sacra 'prodigiosa celebrate..
All else that he might have said is condensed into the words
a.liisque a.rgumentis, qua.e priore volumine exposui. UK The
passage referred to by these words is N. H. 28, 10-21, where
a number of ancient Roman beliefs a.re gathered together ; as,
for example, the belief in which, notwithstanding the skepti-
cism of the cultured, the populace persisted, that certain words
may have great magic power, as one sees in the story of the
Vesta.l Tuccia., who, by the power of a. certain formula., carried
water in a. sieve; 106 and the fact that the Vesta.ls, as a body,
possessed a. powerful charm by which they could stop a. run-
away slave, provided he had not yet gone beyond the city
1111 Cf. Apuleius, De Platone 1, 3.
ioa Cf. Apuleius, Apol. 90.
1°' The reason for this brevity seems to have been the author's assumed
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22 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
and n. 3.
111 For magic in Thessaly cf. supra, 20, n. 98.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 23
time when the Italian farmers had become 80 expert at enticing
their neighbors' crops into their own fields by means of magic
that a rigid prohibitory law had to be enacted. We are asked
to believe that within this short time Persian magic obtained
a firm hold in Greece, made its way thence to the cities of Italy,
and thence to the country districts. We are asked also to
overlook the fact that the Twelve Tables have nothing at all
to say about magic in the cities, where Greek influences were
naturally strongest, but are very explicit regarding certain
practices in the country, where Greek influences were scarcely
felt. The facts are all against Pliny's theory, and we are
forced to conclude that this magic of the Italian country dis-
tricts was a native growth, entirely uninfluenced by Persian
or Greek magic. Like all magic, it held its own in the rural
sections long after the more sophisticated inhabitants of the
cities had abandoned such beliefs. Furthermore, all the Latin
authors who refer to this law in the Twelve Tables do so with
the superior air of men who have outgrown an early belief
which was native and characteristic of their crude ancestors.m
If there had been the least suspicion that such a usage was
a foreign importation, it is scarcely likely that these defenders
of Rome's more advanced thought would have failed to say
80. The passage in the Twelve Tables must therefore be counted
as strong evidence for the existence of an early, native Italian
magic.
Early tradition also makes Italy the home of magic. Circe,
116 So Pliny (N. H. 28, 13) to the passage in which he quotes among
other ancient matters the iaw of the Twelve Tables prefixes the words,
Prisci quidem nostri perpetuo talia credidere. He closes the passage with
the words (§ 29), Quapropter de iis ut cuique libitum fuerit opinetur.
Seneca (Nat. Quaest. 4b, 7, 2-3) says, in connection with magic control
of the weather, Et apud nos in XII tabulis cavetur, ne quis alienos
fructus excantas:ilt. Rudis adhuc antiquitas credebat et attrahi cantibus
imbres et repelli, quorum nihil posse fieri tam palain est, ut huius rei causa
nullius philosophi schola intranda sit.
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Circei (N. H. 25, 10-11). Hyginus places her home either in Aeaea (Fab.
127) or in Aenaria. (Fab. 125). (For the location of these two places in
ancient geography cf. Pomponius Mela, 2, 120; 121.) Ovid locates her
dwelling in Circaea art1a (Met. 14, 346-348), wherever they may be. Her
son, Telegonus, was said to have built the Circaean walls of Tusculum
(Horace, Epod. 1, 29-30); her descendants, the Marsi, through their
inherited knowledge of magic drugs, possessed a remarkable power over
serpents (Pliny, N. H. 7, 15: 25, 11; A. Gellius, 16, 11, 1-2). She was
scrupulously worshiped by the inhabitants of Circei in Cicero's time and
later (Cicero, Nat. Deor. 3, 48; Strabo, 5, 234; Wissowa, ReUgion und
Kultua, 49, n. 6, and 542, n. 5). ·
119 Pliny, N. H. 25, 11. The statement does not occur in any extant
w Livy, 1, 36. Cf. Valerius Maximus, 1, 4, 1 (exc. Par. and exc. Nep.);
Apuleius, De Deo Boers.tis 7; Dionysius, Ant. Rom. 3, 71; Cicero, Div.
1, 32; Pliny, N. H. 15, 77.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 25
magic. The taboos surrounding the person of the Flamen.
I>iali8, ™ the strange rite used in pacifying the Lemures,m
the tradition concerning Cunina, the averter of the evil eye,1"
the magic powers popularly attributed to the Vestal Virgins, uT
all point to a remote time when unadulterated Italian religion
was closely interwoven with magic. That this magic survival
represented a part of the religious bone and sinew of the ancient
Italian is the real reason why an essential belief in magi~ has
survived the overlaid stratum of Greek religion, and the more
recently overlaid stratum of Christianity. 128 That is the real
reason, too, why Pliny's fellow Romans preferred to explain
natural phenomena by sympathetic magic 129 rather than by
science, and why the old Italian of Cato's day scorned Greek
medicine, but clung to magic cures 110 and amulets, especially
the bulla. 181
Indeed Pliny's Natural History alone furnishes abundant
proof, even to the casual reader,w that the Roman populace,
at least, firmly believed in magic.
With literary men and the cultured classes the case, however,
was different. Here, the rage for everything Greek was by
1u A. Gellius, N. A. 10, 15. Cf. infra., 54-55; Wissowa., Religion und
Kultua, 34 and n. 1.
m Ovid, Fasti 5, 429-444, quoted infra., 37, n. 195; Varro, a.pud No-
nium Ma.rcellum, 197 (ed. Lindsay).
ut Cf. infra., 4~. m Pliny, N. H. 28, 12-13. Cf. infra., 58, n. 350.
11 • Cf. supra., 16-17. m N. H. 25, 10, quoted supra., 10.
110 Ca.to, R.R. 70; 71; 83; 159; 160; Varro, R.R. 1, 2, 27.
111 Cf. Jahn, Uber den Aberglauben de8 b<lsen Blicks bei den Alten, in
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26 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 27
tuna.tely, of very great difficulty of interpretation.™ He
appears to believe in native magic practices, notwithstanding
the fa.ct that he ridicules divination, probably because the
latter was not a. native Roman belief, 'Qut had been imported
from Etruria.. 137
Va.rro, on the other hand, though allowing one of the speakers
in his De Re Rustica to recite a. purely magic cure for a. certain
disease of the feet, disclaims belief in such practices. 133 Yet
even he seems to believe that the waxing or the waning of the
moon has a. sympathetic effect upon the growth of crops, and
otherwise. 139
Columella.'s work on agriculture is very sane and in the ma.in
free from magic tinge. He wrote, a.s we have said, 140 a. work,
Adversus Astrologos, and in general was a. man of good ha.rd
sense. Yet he bows to the popular belief regarding the effect
of the moon's phases upon crops and other matters. 141
From this presentation of the attitude of the agricultural
writers toward magic it is apparent that Cato, who lived on
most intimate terms with the people and was lea.st affected
by Greek polish, is most frank in declaring his assent to farm
practice that smacks of magic. The other two writers give
ue R.R. 160. For the text cf. infra, 71-72 and n. 38.
m Cf. Memorabilia Dicta (no. 65, p. 109 ed. Jordan) apud Ciceronem,
Div. 2, 51.
11 • R.R. 1, 2, 27. For the text cf. infra, 72.
111 Cf. R. R. 1, 37, especially this rem'a rk (§2): Ego istaec, inquit
Agrasius, non solwn in ovibus tondendis, sed in meo capillo a patre ac-
ceptum servo, ni decresente luna tondens calvos fiam. The viewa of
the speaker apparently coincide with those of the aut.hor. In his formal
opinions, however, regarding magic, Varro seems to have been a ration-
alist. Cf. infra, 45-47.
"° 26, and n. 134; 18, and n. 93.
HJ. For the moon's influence upon crops cf. R.R. 2, 5, 1; 10, 10; 10,
12; 15, 9; 16, l; 18, 2: 5, 11, 2: 6, 26, 2: 8, 5, 9; 7, 4: 11, 2, 11; 2, 52;
2, 85; 3, 22: 12, 16, 1; 19, 3; 43, 2; 43, 9; 53, 3; De Arboribus 15; 26, 2;
29, 1. For menstruation in magic cf. R. R. 10, 360: 11, 3, 38; 3, 50.
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28 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
tate': iste quidem hoc dicit, sed Varro ubique expugnator religionis ait,
cum quoddam medicamentum describeret, 'Ut solent Hirpini qui am-
bulaturi per ignes medicamento plantas tingunt.' For a refutation of
Varro's rationalizing explanation cf. Andrew Lang, Magic and Religion,
270 ff. Cf. Solinus, 2, 26.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY . OF ROMAN MAGIC 29
who was not. The former refers to magic more than twenty
times,148 while the latter is absolutely silent on the subject. 1"
belief in omens, Phormio 705-710; but even this is put in the mouth of
~slave.
110 We have already noted the antagonism of magic and religion, supra,
12-13, 16-17. Cf. also Minucius Felix, Octav. 26, 10-11; 27; Augustinus,
De Divers. Quaest. 79, 4.
m 4, 708-719. For the more prevalent belief cf. Pliny, N. H . 8, 52.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 31
overdoing the magic element at times; 182 but in all these
instances, the magic is in accord with the character in the play,
and does not represent the opinion of the author. Seneca's
real personal belief can best be seen in his remarks concerning
the magic hail averters of Cleonae: 183
Illud incredibile, Cleonis fuisse publice praepositos chalazophylacas,
speculatores venturae grandinis. Hi cum signum dedissent adesse
iam grandinem, quid expectas? ut homines ad paenulas discurrerent
aut ad scorteas? Immo pro se quisque alius agnum immolabat,
alius pullum: protinus illae nubes alio declinabant, cum a.liquid gu.s-
tassent sanguinis. Hoc rides? Accipe quod magis rideas: si quis
nee agnum nee pullum habebat, quo sine damno fieri poterat, manus
sibi afferebat, et, ne tu avidas aut crudeles existimes nubes, digitum
suum bene acuto graphio pungebat et hoc sanguine lits.bat; nee minus
ab huius agello grando se vertebat quam ab illo, in quo maioribus
hostiis exorata erat.
Rationem huius rei quaerunt. Alteri, ut homines sapientissimos
decet, negant pOBBe fieri, ut cum grandine aliquis paciscatur et tem-
pestates munusculis redimat, quamvis munera et deos vincant. Alteri
suspicari ipsos aiunt eBBe in ipso sanguine vim quandam potentem
avertendae nubis ac repellendae. Sed quomodo in tam exiguo sanguine
potest esse vis tanta, ut in altum penetret et illam sentiant nubes?
Quanto expeditius erat dicere: mendacium et fabula est. . . . Rudis
adhuc antiquitas credebat et attrahi cantibus imbres et repelli, quorum
nihil posse fieri tam pa.lam est, ut huius rei causa nullius philosophi
schola intranda sit.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 35
one passage 182 the charge that his mistress has bewitched
him he answers by saying that she has indeed bewitched him,
but by her beauty rather than by the usual magic means. In
another passage 183 he speaks of himself as having his arms
bound by the magic bonds of love. This tendency to speak
metaphorically of the magic of love leads us to suspect that
Tibullus was following a sort of poetic tradition regarding magic
in love, without necessarily indicating his personal views.
A study of Propertius leads me to the same conclusion. He
does at times, indeed, seem to strike a genuine Italian note,
as when he attributes the estrangement of lovers to the evil
eye,184 or to some magic drug, or indicates a general popular
belief in the efficacy of rhombuses and other instruments of
magic. 186 Popular beliefs are also probably reflected when he
describes a Zena as having been a powerful sorceress, 188 and
mentions the magic power of saliva 187 and of certain herbs. 188
But, like Tibullus, Propertius shows a tendency to speak
metaphorically of love's magic. He informs us 189 that, in
accordance with Calliope's injunction, his function will be to
compose verses by means of which the lover shall charm his
mistress from her austere husband ; it is very apparent that
this magic of a well composed love song is quite different from
the common black magic with which we are concerned. At
other times his references to magic are of the purely literary
and traditional type. 190
111 1, 5, 41-44. Cf. also 1, 8, 23-24. 181 1, 8, 5-6.
1" 1, 12, 9-10. But even in this passage the poet seems to think
that the intiidia comes from the gods.
186 3, 6, 25-34: 2, 28b, 35-38.
1ae 4, 5, 1-18. Professor Kirby F. Smith maintains (Studie& in Honor
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 37
the Roman householder sought to drive the lemurea from his home by a
religio-magic ceremony. In spite of certain verbal indications that the
poet is here reporting popular beliefs and practices, he does not seem to
be wholly out of sympathy with the ancient custom. The passage runs
as follows:
Nox ubi iam media est, somnoque silentia praebet
et canis et variae conticuistis aves,
ille memor veteris ritus timidusque deorum
surgit; habent gemini vincula nulla pedes:
signaque dat digitis medio cum pollice iunctis,
occurrat tacito ne levis umbra sibi.
Cumque manus puras fontana perluit unda,
vertitur, et nigrn.s accipit ante fabas,
aversusque iacit. Seel dum iacit, "Haec ego mitto,
his" inquit "redimo meque meosque fabis."
Hoc novies dicit, nee respicit. Umbra putatur
colligere et nullo terga vidente sequi.
Rursus aquam tangit, Temesaeaque concrepa.t aera,
et rogat, ut tectis exeat umbra suis.
Cum dixit novies "Manes exite paterni ",
respicit, et pure sacra peracta putat.
'" He does indeed tell us (9, 29, 9-10) of a certain old woman who had
during her life been a powerful sorceress, and that sleep at Rome waa
much disturbed by the noisy efforts of magicians to call down the moon
(12, 57, 15-17); but these are only passing references.
m These are (ed. Marx) vss. 62-63, 575-576, 1201-1202, and the
passage quoted in the following note.
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38 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
loosed, incomptum caput, 16 (cf. also 27); gruesome details, 17-18; frog
as magic animal, 19; owl, 20; magic plants, 17, 21-22, 67~; water
from Lake Avemus, 26. The usual feats of magic, such as controllilig
stars and moon, are mentioned, 45-46; night and Diana are addressed,
49-54; etc. It is not unlikely that such murders of children actually
occurred. C. H. Moore, in his edition of the Odes and Epodes, page 415,
quotes Cicero, In Vat. 14 cum inaudita ac nefaria sacra susceperis, cum
inferorum animas elicere, cum puerorum extis deos manes mactare soleas, ·
etc., and C. I. L. 6, 19, 747 lucundus Liviae Drusi Caesaris f(ilius) Gryphi
et Vitalis.
In quartum surgens comprensus deprimor annum,
cum pOl!Sem matri dulcis et e.'ISe patri.
Eripuit me saga manus crudelis ubique,
cum manet in terris et nocet arte sua.
Vos vestros natos concustodite, parentes,
ni dolor in toto pectore fixsus eat.
There can be no doubt that the Roman populace believed implicitly in
such magic practices.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BOMAN MAGIC 39
. in the abandoned cemetery of the F.squiline,200 attempting,
by means of sympathetic magic, involving a waxen and a
woolen image, to subdue an obdurate lover; again all the cus-
tomary magic details are employed. 201 That Horace is deriding
magic in both of these poems seems to me apparent from his
mock palinode, Epode seventeen.202 And yet, notwithstanding
his skepticism regarding magic and marvels, 2oa he exhibits a
fondness for wandering among the fakers of the circus. 211'
Even in his later, more sophisticated prime, he does not en-
tirely deny the power of divination 206 and he mentions sorcer-
esses in the same breath with gods. 208 There are charms, he
tells us, to dispel avarice, as well as a manual of magic con-
taining cures for vanity ot spirit.207 The evil eye is still to him.
a possible source of danger,208 though he may smile at those
who are the slaves of dreams, magic terrors, omens, witches,
hobgoblins, and Thessalian portents.tot
Persius heaps scorn upon popular magic beliefs,210 yet he
100 Sat. 1, 8, 17-50. Cf. supra, 9-10, and n. 43.
101 Magic details are: the gruesome in magic compounds, 22, 26-29;
magic herbs, 22, 49; black as a magic color, 23, 27: nudity in magic, 24;
hair unloosed, 24; sympathia or similia similibus, 30-33; wolf's beard and
serpent's tooth in magic, 42; licium or magic thread, 49-50. Hecate and
Tisiphone are invoked, 33-34.
ios This conclusion is sound, I think, even if we agree with E. H. Sturte-
vant (Clmis. Re'D. 26 [1912], 19-21) that Canidia was a reality. For &
similar slighting attitude toward divination, cf. Sat. 1, 9, 29-34. For
Horace's general attitude toward marvellous tales, see A1'B Poet. 338-340.
ioa Cf. Sat. 1, 5, 99-101. 1°' Ibid. 1, 6, 113-114.
106 Carm. 1, 11, 1-3.
108 Ibid~· 1, 27, 21-22. The playful spirit of this and the preceding
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 41
was a principal actor; 214 whereupon the host launches upon a
tale of personal experiences with 8trigae. 216 Both stories are
accepted in good faith by the assembled guests as being matters
of fairly common occurrence.214 Later in the Satirae mention
is made of sorceresses who know how to draw down the moon,217
excite desire, 218 and even control all the forces of nature. 21a
We are not here concerned with the small details about good
luck days,220 the auspicious right foot, 221 how to win a fortune
by snatching an incubo's cap,222 astrology,223 and tlie efficacy
of spitting upon one's breast to appease Adrasteia; 224 all these
things, however, lend to the entertaining work of Petronius the
true flavor of real life among the Roman populace. In the·
whole work there is not a suggestion that any of the charactera
disbelieves a single miraculous tale. It is true that the nar-
rator, who probably represents the author's views, does display
throughout an amused superiority to all that is going on around
him ; but in no instance does Petronius utter a word 'against
magic. He was either not altogether free from beli~f in such
tales as the above, or else he had the good judgment not to.
mar his excellent picture of social life among the vulgar rich
11' 62. For a full discussion of the werwolf cf. Kirby Flower Smith,
in Pub. of the Mod. Lang. Aasn. of America, 9 (1894), 1-42; S. Baring-
Gould, The Book of W ere-wolttea (London, 1865); and especially Wilhelm
Hertz, Der Werwolf (Stuttgart, 1862). Friedlaender, in his edition of the
Cena Trimalchionis1 (Leipzig, 1906), 317, refers also to J. Grimm, Deu.Uche
Mythologie (Berlin, 1877), 915 ff.; Keller, Tiere de8 kla8siachen AUertums,
165 ff.; and particularly Pischel, on Petroniua, Sat. 62 (Abhand. f. M.
Hertz (1888], 70).
1 11 63. For a similar story compare Ovid, Fast. 6, 141-168; quoted in
part infra, 64. For a definition of striga cf. Festus (ed. Lindsay), p. 414.
111 When the first story is completed, Trims.lchio (63) attests his be--
lief with the words, "scio Niceronem nihil nugarum narrare," and, at the
conclusion of the second story, the general attitude is expressed (64) by
"Miramur nos et pariter credimus, osculatique mensam rogamus Noc-
tumas, ut suis sedibus se teneant, dum redimus a cena."
117 129. 119 134. 121 30. 123 39; 126.
111 131. no 30. m 38. 124 74.
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42 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
§ 366. 3, quotes Augustinus, Ep. 2, Quaest. 6 (2, p. 42&, ed. Gaume, Paris,
1838); Epist. 136, 1; Ep. 138, 18; Laetantius, Inst. 5, 3, 7; Monceaux,
Apulk magicien, in Re11. de dew: mondu, 1 (1888), 572. Yet Augustinus,
at least, shows (C. D. 8, 19) his acquaintance with the Apologia and Apu-
leius's formal condemnation of magic therein contained. 111 1, 1.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 43
the fortunes of this human ass and bis final restoration to bis
original form, not through magic, but through the intervention
of Isis. 281
We have noted above 282 that, when Trimalchio's guests
told their wonderful, weird stories, no one in the company dis-
believed. We may now go one step further in stating that
Apuleius himself apparently believed in the magic stories
which he relates. He is very likely speaking for himself when
he makes one of bis characters say at the conclusion of a magic
story: 211
Ego vero . . . nihil impossibile arbitror, sed utcumque fata SM
decreverint ita cuncta mortalibus provenire: nam et mihi et tibi
et cunctis hominibus multa usu venire mira et paene infects, quae
tamen ignaro relata fidem perdant. Sed ego huic . . . credo. . . •
to the magic control of nature; for the two witches of the story preceding
this pa.a.sage had given ample proof of their control over natural forces.
The fates, then, in this instance seem merely to have decreed that the two
women of the story should have these magic powers.
m Cf. H. T. Peek, Trimalchi-O's Dinner, 1-44, for an interesting account
of prose fiction among the Greeks and the Romans. Pages 40-44 especially
concern us here. 111 Cf. Mackall, Latin Literature, 241-242.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROllrlAN MAGIC 45
fence, extant under the title of Apologia, brilliantly ridicules
the charge, from which he was no doubt acquitted. 240 As a
matter of fact, in his defence Apuleius even seems to condemn
magic as illegal and as dangerous to the best interests of the
community,241 though in another place he expressly states his
belief in the existence of magi.242 From all the evidence at
our command it seems fair to conclude that Apuleius, as a
mystic dabbler in literature, science, and philosophy, was
intimately acquainted with all the magic lore of his day, be-
. lieved in it to some extent, and knew thoroughly how to utilize
it in his popular writings ; but that his later reputation as a
practicing magus is not based upon any substantial evidence.
He is the victim of the popular fallacy that they who know
about magic practice it themselves.248
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 47
great polymath was more interested in the anthropological and
philological aspect of the story than in the popular and the
superstitious. Va.rro's researches in the history of certain kinds
of magic a.re also a.ttested,w and we a.re informed that he at-
tempted a rational explanation of such phenomena.. In fa.ct
there is no evidence whatever that he was not rationalistic
throughout, at lea.st when expressing his formal opinions,
regarding magic.
Turning now to the Roman historians whose works have
survived either in their entirety or to a large extent, we shall
find that, though Tacitus a.lone has given us a rather clear
indication of his views upon magic, 261 most of the historians •
have given some evidence of their beliefs concerning the sub-
ject. In general they impress us as men whose intellectual
advancement compelled them to contemn popular superstition
and magic, though their early training and unveneered natures
yielded unconscious assent, at lea.st in pa.rt, to those very be-
liefs and practices. It was this mixture of ra.tiona.Iism and
magic practice which led Caesar to secure a sa.fe carriage ride
by means of a thrice repeated cha.rm,264 though he did not hesi-
tate to a.Ilow his personal ambitions to outweigh popular belief
whenever occasion demanded. 266 Nor did he fa.il to interpret
nisi vi divina fieri non putarent. . . . Romanos etiam Lupercos ex illorum
mysteriorum veluti semine dicit exortos. For a similar rationalizing
tendency cf. Lingua Latina 7, 44; 97 (edd. Goetz und Schoell, Leipzig,
1910), where the origin of the argei and the bulla is discussed. Cf. also
Servius on Vergil, Aen. 11, 787, quoted supra, 28, n. 147.
•t Cf. Augustinus, C. D. 7, 35 Quod genus divinationis (i.e. necroman-
tiae) idem Varro a Persis dicit albtum .•.• Quid mihi ergo Varro illorum
sacrorum alias neecio quas causas velut physicas interpretatur?
163 See infra, 50-51.
164 Pliny, N. H. 28, 21 Caesarem dictatorem post unum ancipitem vehi·
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 49
tate bim.212 Attus Navius cleaves a whetstone with a ra.zor,2 a
the protecting divinities are evoked from the cities of the enemy
by means suggesting magic, 284 sacred places are not to be spat
upon,266 and pestilences a.re controlled by driving the sacred
nail. 288 In all these passages the magic element had apparently
become fossilized before Livy's day, and was unrecognized as
such by him. On the other hand, he must have recognized
as magic the custom of beating on metal in order to assist the
moon from an eclipse ; 287 in this case, however, the absence
of any adverse comment cannot be interpreted as approval.
It is probable, I think, that Livy believed somewhat in the
religio-magic stories of early Rome, though to him the magic
element had become entirely submerged in the religious
overgrowth. 268
Though Velleius Paterculus seems to have believed in astrol-
ogy m and omens,270 his formal conclusion about such matters
is represented by the following words: 271 Sed profecto ineluc-
tabilis fatorum vis cuiuscumque fortuna.m mute.re constituit
consilia corrumpit. A similar fatalistic. belief is characteristic
of Curtius Rufus also, 272 who, though delighting to tell marvel-
lous stories to a public which wanted them, dealing out omens
second-hand under the label dicuntur, 278 and frankly admitting
- 1, 31, 5-8. "' 5, 21, 3-5; 22, 3-6.
In 1, 36, 4. 116 5, 40, 8.
* 7, 3, 3-9: 8, 18, 4-13: 9, 28, 6; 34, 12. Cf. Cambridge Companion
to Latin Studiu, § 147; Fowler, Roman Futirol.8, 234-235.
111 26, 5, 9. The Campanian multitude is described as beating upon
brazen vessels: qualis in defectu lunae silenti nocte cieri solet, edidit
clamorem, ut averteret etiam pugnantium animos.
11 • It may be, of course, that the inclusion of prodigies, marvels, and
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 51
to the facts narrated,281 he yet seems to believe that the Em-
peror acts merely as the a.venue through which the numen of
the god operates. In his more mature years, as represented in
the Annales, when he has to describe the magic details sur-
rounding the death of Germa.nicus, he carefully inserts the
non-committal word creditur.282 He speaks respectfully, how-
ever, of the magorum sacra when he writes of the expulsion of
the magi from Italy. 288 He is, of course, superior to the popular
magic beliefs connected with eclipses of the moon, 2 " as was
every other cultivated Roman of his day.
We may conclude, therefore, from his a.vowed belief in as-
trology, and his failure to express any disbelief in the possi-
bility of magic, though he possessed so many opportunities
for doing so, that he really believed in magic, at least in a.
modified manner. 286
Suetonius is careful not to express a personal opinion
regarding the many details of omens,284 superstition,287
Tiber. 72; etc. 117 Aug. 6; 92: Caes. 88: Nero 56.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BOMAN MAGIC 55
ta.boos surrounding the person of the Fla.men Dia.lis ; •10 but,
since to him these curious details were caerimonia,311 and inter-
esting only to the curious scholar, we cannot draw from this
important passage any conclusion as to his personal views
concerning magic. He does, however, speak of magic prac-
tices in another passage 312 as deridicula 11anitas and f allax
inlece'bra, and seeks to justify the inclusion of such matters
in his work. In the same spirit of mental superiority he
apologizes for repeating stories about the evil eye and similar
marvels: 313
Haec atque alia istiusmodi plura legimus; sed, cum ea scriberemus,
tenuit nos non idoneae scripturae taedium nihil ad ornandum iuvan-
dumque usum vitae pertinentis.
Again, he vigorously defends the philosopher Democritus
against the charge ma.de by Pliny that he was a devotee of
magic and an authority upon the subject.314
But, notwithstanding his formal disapproval of magic, he
appears to share the popular belief regarding the magic charms
of the Marsi and the Psylli,316 the possibility of change of
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 57
magi are very often held up to scom,121 though at other times
he speaks of their beliefs and practices apparently with com-
plete approval. 324 To be more specific, he discredits the belief
in such powerful magic animals as the werwolf,326 the sf:rix,32&
and the bubo.827 He does not believe in the magic control of
lightning,328 hail,829 crops,330 or health.331 He derides the belief
in magic plants,382 gems,aaa and amulets, 384 and regarding popular
superstitions of various sorts bids ea.ch of his readers ut cuique
libitum fuerit opinetur.336 Prodigies too, he maintains, are,
within the interpretative control of each individual.338
On the other hand, he appears to believe in the evil eye,137'
fire-walking, 338 power to vanish,339 and power to change one's
sex.uo He also believes in the influence of the moon's phases
Then follows a list of wonderful herbs and the powers attributed to them
by Asclepiades, all of which Pliny ridicules: Ubinam istae fuere, cum
Cimbri Teutonique terribili Marte ulularent aut cum Lucullus tot reges
Magorum paucis legionibus sterneret? etc. For a more detailed discus-
sion of magic in its relation to the prevention of disease cf. infra., 61-123.
w 24, 160: 26, 19-20: 28, 85-86; 89-90; 92-106; 188 (cf. 30, 16): 29.
53; 68; 76: 30, 1-28: 32, 49: 37, 155-156; 165; 169; 192.
IM 25, 129: 28, 69: 29, 59; 66; 138: 37, 133; 135; 142; 144.
at6 8, 80-82.
m 11, 232. For a discussion of the atrix in ancient literature, cf. Samuel
Grant Oliphant, The Story of the Strix: Ancient, in Transact. of Am. Philol.
Aun. 44 (1913), 133-149; ib. 45 (1914), 49-63.
117 29, 81-82. aao 18, 41-43. Yet cf. 28, 17-18.
au 2, 140-141: 28, 14. 511 17, 267: 26, 18-20: 28, 7.
au 17, 267: 28, 29; 77. m 25, 10-11; 25: 26, 18-20.
111 37, 118; 155-156; 164-165; 169; 192.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ROMAN MAGIC 59
where by him, 361 Pliny admits that there a.re effective magic
plants,151 gems,• anima.ls,aw and 8Jllulets.166 He even suggests
countercharms to his detested magic, which are themselves
magic.au
In view of this conflicting evidence we must agree with Dr.
Thorndike li7 that "in regard to magic in particular Pliny
seems to have flattered himself that his position was quite
different from what it actually was," and, to quote that scholar
further, 168 that "it hardly seems paradoxical to say that he
hated the magi but liked their doctrines," just as Tacitus 119
believed in astrology but despised astrologers.
If, therefore, we are justified in assuming that Pliny was a
representative man of science and learning among·the Romans,
and that he was even superior to the average man of letters in
his tendencies toward a rational view of the phenomena. of
nature and human coil.duct, the evidence in his case can but
strengthen the conclusion, already frequently drawn, that
· Roman · authors, as a rule, when expressing the sober verdict
of their reason, unequivocally and honestly condemn all magic
practices; but in their hearts they cherish, and in their writings
unwittingly display the magic heritage of the Italian ra.ce.880
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CHAPTER II
MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE
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62 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
on the whole to be more reasonable than any other that has yet been
proposad. Vigorous opponents of Frazer's view are, however, not lacking
(see, e. g., Lang, Mag. and Rel. 46-75). Mr. F. B. Jevons (Hiat. of Rel.
24-40) has suggested another view, which regards neither magic nor
religion as of necessarily earlier occurrence.
' Cf. Frazer, G. B. 1, 1, 24o-242. 1 Met. 9, 297-315.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 63
In the foregoing passage Juno not only uses silent charms to
accomplish her purpose, but crosses her knees and interlocks
her fingers, 0 with the expectation that by such action she will
lock up or prevent the birth of the child. It naturally follows,
therefore, that, when the goddess is induced through a stratagem
to unlock her fingers and uncross her knees, the magic power
vanishes.
That this story contains genuine Italian elements seems clear
from the following passage in Pliny : 7
Adsidere gravidis vel cum remedia alicui adhibeantur digitis pec-
tinatim inter se implexis veneficium est, idque compertum tradunt
Alcmena Herculem pariente; peius, si circa unum ambove genua;
item poplites alternis genibus inponi. Ideo haec in consiliis ducum
potestatiumve fieri vetuere maiores velut omnem actum inpedientia;
vetuere vero et sacris votisve simili modo interesse.
From this it would appear not only that Juno used magic to
accomplish her ends; but also that the ancient Roman law-
makers, Pliny's maiores, considered magic acts like hers more
powerful than either worldly powers or religion.
The second story of Ovid represents as a magician the ancient
Italian goddess, Carna, whose function it was to protect in-
fants frdm the assaults of striges. 8 In writing of an infant who
has been attacked by these creatures, the poet says :
1 For similar uses of the interlace in preventive magic, see, besides
the passage from Pliny, quoted below, Leland, Etruac. Rom. Rem. 165-172.
Closely related to the interlace is the taboo on knots in general, of which
Frazer has given some interesting examples (G. B. 2, 293 ff.). Cf. also
infra, 100.
7 N. H. 28, 59.
1 Fasti 6, 147-168. For strigea cf. supra, 57, n. 326. Carna seems to
have been the protectress of the heart, liver, viscera, etc. Hence her
protective acts in this case are easily understood. Cf. Wiseowa, Religion
und Kultus, 236. For the antiquity of the goddess and her cult cf. Fowler,
R. F. 130-133; Roecher, Lez. 1, 854-855.
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64 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 65
consider a mere magician. The frightened nurse runs to her,
as to an earthly friend, for aid, which the goddess gives in
person. Like any mortal magician she touches the door-posts
and the threshold of the nursery three times with the arbutus
twig, sprinkles the entrance with holy water, and practices
a perfect bit of sympathetic magic by sacrificing a pig of two
months, with the accompanying conjuration that the strigea
shall accept this substitute and return the entrails of the infant
to their proper place. The entrails of the pig are then placed
in the open air, probably in order that the strigea may have
easy access to them, unmolested by any backward glances of
mortals. Finally, the window is made impassable for striges
by means of a twig of the mystic whitethorn, the home is
freed from the possibility of further unwelcome visits of these
creatures, and the color of health returns to the cheek of the
stricken infant.
Ceres, 14 Diana,16 and even Aesculapius 18 also resorted to
medical magic, but their acts are connected with Greek myth 17
rather than with Roman folk lore. Of strictly Italian flavor,
however, is the tradition that the miraculous medical .powers
of the Marsi were given only to those of the tribe whose descent
from the magician-goddess, Circe, was uncontaminated by
alien blood. 18 From this we may be permitted to conclude that
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66 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
Circe herself leed her magic drugs not only to effect transform~
tions, but also to produce cures.19
If the tradition, as represented in the passages quoted above,
is correct in attributing medic~magic functions to the early
Italian gods, we should expect to find the priests who served
those gods equally versed in curative magic. Such a union of
the priestly office with that of the medical magician is indeed
represented by Vergil 10 as characteristic of Italy at the time
of the arrival of Aeneas. In those early days popular and
ev~n state customs exhibit a mixture of medical magic with
religion. 21 The g<>sis were besought for medical aid with a.
combination of prayer and spell,22 and pestilence was thought
to be controlled by the ancient custom of driving a nail "into
the wall of the cella of Minerva in the Capitoline temple." 28
11 Her more obscure sister, Angitia, says Solinue (2, 29), was famous
for her healing art. Such traditions would make it much easier to explain
the continued worship of Circe at Circeii as Circe sancti&Bima (cf. Wiseowa,
Reli,giqn und Kultus, 542, n. 5).
10 Aen. 7, 750-758. Cf. supra 24.
21 Augustine (C. D. 6, 9) has preserved for us the details of a religious
custom which shows how closely early Italian religion was allied to magic:
mulieri fetae poet partum tree deoe custodes commemorat (ec. Varro)
adhiberi, ne Silvanus deus per noctem ingrediatur et vexet, eorumque
custodum eignificandorum causa tree hominee noctu circuire limina
domus et primo limen eecuri ferire, poetea pilo, tertio deverrere scopis, ut
his datis culturae eignis deus Silvanus prohibeatur intrare, quod neque
arbores caeduntur ac putantur sine ferro, . . .
a Cf. Ovid, Fasti 3, 255-258:
Dicite "Tu nobis lucem, Lucina, dedisti I"
Dicite "Tu voto parturientis adeel"
Si qua tamen gravida est, reeoluto crine precetur,
ut eolvat partus molliter ilia suos.
11 Cf. Fowler, R. F. 234. In describing the revival of this custom
A. U. C. 390, Livy says (7, 3, 3-5): cum piaculorum magie conquisitio
animoe quam corpora morbi adficerent, repetitum ex eeniorum memoria
dicitur, peetilentiam quondam clavo a dictatore fixo sedatam. Ea re-
ligione adductus eenatus dictatorem clavi figendi causa dici iUBBit. This
passage, taken with Livy, 8, 18 and 9, 28, 6, makes it quite certain that
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 67
(2) Dei.fimtion of Disea.8e8. - Of similar nature and of
equally early origin was the Roman custom of deifying the
diseases themselves. Of these the numen 24 of the dread fevers
which annually exacted such heavy toll from the Romans
seems to have been especially revered. In ridicule of what
appears to have been a very general belief in the divine attri-
butes of various diseases, Pliny exclaims : 26
numina . . . innumerabilia invenimus, inferis quoque in genera
discriptis morbisque et multis etiam pestibus, dum esse placataa
trepido metu cupimus. ldeoque etiam publice Febris fanum in
Palatio dicatum est... ,11
It is quite apparent from the words of Pliny that not only was
the numen of fever especially revered by the Roman populace,
but that there were many other diseases also of which the
numina were held in like respect. Just what diseases were
the purpose of driving the nail was corrective and curative. Epilepsy ~as
cured in a si.mila.r way (cf. Pliny, N. H. 28, 63). For the superstitions
connected with nails in general, including the archaeological evidence,
cf. Jahn, BDa. Blick 106ff.; Marquardt, ROm. Staata". 3, 106-107.
" For the word numen as used in Roman religion cf. Fowler, Rel. Exper.
118-119. • N. H. 2, 15-16.
• There were at le&Rt three such temples in Rome in the first century
of our era, according to Valerius Maxinius, 2, 5, 6: Febrem autem ad
minus nocendum templis colebant, quorum adhuc unum in Palatio, alterum
in area Marianorum monumentorum, tertium in summa parte vici longi
extat, in eaque remedia, quae corporibus aegrorum adnexa fuerant, defere-
bantur. But only the first of these is mentioned elsewhere (cf. Cicero,
De Leg. 2, 28: Nat. Deor. 3, 63 [Pliny, N. H. 2, 15-16, quoted above];
Aelian, V. H. 12, 11). Other passages which mention a temple to Febris
without specifying the location (such as Augustinus, C. D. 3, 25: 4, 15;
Seneca, Apoc. 6; Theodorus Priscianus Physicus, 3 [p. 250 Rose]) prob- ·
ably refer to the Palatine temple. For epigraphical evidence of the cult
Wissowa (Religion und Kultua, 246) quotes inscriptions dedicated to dea
Terti4na (C. I. L. 7, 999) and Quartana (C. I. L. 12, 3129). It should be
noted that Valerius Maximus, in the passage quoted above, is speaking
of numerous temples to disease erected by anliquorum simplicitaa, of
which number the three that were existent in his own day comprised
probably only a small proportion. Cf. also Roscher, Ia., s. v. Febria.
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68 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 69
prayer to such deities seems, in fact, but a step in advance of
the belief that man could control disease by purely magical
means. This conception of disease as a deity seems to supply
a connecting link between the purely magical idea of direct·
control of nature, and the religious idea of gods, who will
relieve trouble if they are placated by prayer and sacrifice.
We are thus enabled to catch a glimpse of the early Roman as
he tried by preternatural means to gain control over natural
phenomena. Whether this eft'ort took the form of a prayer
or a spell must have depended, at least during the period of
transition from magic to religion, upon the disposition of the
individual who sought relief; and we may be allowed to sur-
mise that during this period there was only the slightest dif-
ference between prayer and spell, between priest and magician.30
As the priestly class grew stronger, and as the more intellectual
classes, including the lawmakers, gradually deserted magic for
religion, legal worship among the Romans succeeded in freeing
itself from all active magic ; 31 but it is probable that the or-
dinary Roman, even of the most enlightened era, as he stood
in the temple of Fems and similar temples, uttered a prayer
that closely resembled a magic spell.32
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 71
Many early cures indicate this popular mixture of magic
with medicine. Epilepsy, for instance, was thought to be
cured, or at least alleviated, by spitting upon the afflicted
person. Plautus furnishes the earliest literary reference to
such a custom. In the Captivi (550-555) we read:
Ty. et illic isti qui sputatur morbus interdum venit.
Proin tu ab istoc procul recedas. He. Ultro istum a me.
Ar. Ain, verbero?
Me rabiosum atque insectatum ease hastis meum memoras patrem,
et eum morbum mi ease, ut qui med opus sit insputarier?
He. Ne verere: multos iste morbus homines macerat,
quibus insputari saluti fuit atque is profuit.17
tation of line 553. It may be noted, however, that both the text and the
interpretation of these lines are somewhat in doubt. Cf. Elmer's critical
note, pp. 167-168, and Fay's article in The Clauical Reoiew, 8, 391. That
the custom of spitting upon epileptics persisted at Rome until the first
century of our era is attested by Pliny (N. H . 28, 35, quoted infra, 108),
though this passage would seem to indicate that in Pliny's day the a.ct
was intended to protect the spitter rather than to cure the epileptic.
We may infer from the silence of Greek authors (Theophrastus, Charact.,
De Superstit., fin., furnishes the only reference to the subject in Greek
literature) that the practice was of native Italian growth. A good treat-
ment of The Saliva Superstition in Classical Lit,erature is given by Frank W.
Nicolson in the Harvard Studies, 8 (1897), 23 ff., though the author's
promise to give all the literary references is scarcely fulfilled. For the
universal custom of spitting in magic, cf. Elworthy, Eril Eye, 412 ff.
18 R . R . 160 (cf. Pliny, N. H . 28, 21). For the text and a thorough dis-
cussion of this incantation see Heim, Incant. Mag. 533-535; 565-566; Keil,
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72 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
We read also in this passage •0 that not only did the Sasemae
include many such marvels in their agricultural works, 41 but
that other early agricultural writers embodied similar items
-of medical magic in their farmers' guides.
There can scarcely be any doubt that the magic cures men-
tioned by Plautus, Cato, and :Varro represent ancient Italian
folk belief. The same is true, also, of the large number of
traditional popular cures of a magic character given by Pliny
and other Latin writers. That these remedies are of ancient
origin is further shown by the fact that in their preparation
the use of iron is frequently for bidden. This circumstance
Catoni8 De Agri CuUura, 106. The original text was probably as I have
given it, though it has suffered much from subsequent interpolations.
That this remedy was not of Greek origin we may infer both from our
knowledge of Cato's hostility to Greek medicine (cf. Pliny, N. H. 29, 14)
and from the general nature of the remedy itself.
" R.R. 1, 2, 27.
•o R. R. 1, 2, 28 Multa, inquam, item alia miracula apud Sasernas
invenies, quae omnia sunt diversa ab agricultura, et ideo repudianda.
Quasi vero; inquam, non apud ceteros quoque scriptores talia reperiantur.
41 For a probable instance of such magic in the works of the Sasernae
cf. Varro, R.R. 1, 2, 26: Tam hercle quam hoc, si quem glabrum facere
velis, quod iubet ranam luridam conicere in aquam, usque quo ad tertiam
partem decoxeris, eoque unguere corpus. (Here the hairless frog is prob-
ably thought to have a sympathetic effect in producing a hairless head.)
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 73
seems clearly to indicate that such magic<rmedical remedies
were in common use before the iron age.42
(2) Early Magic Cures not Entirely Di8placed by Gruk
Scientific Medicine. - Even after the introduction of Greek
scientific medicine, the common people of Rome and Italy
continued to use magic cures. The popular opposition to the
more advanced medical theories of the Greeks is probabJy
well reflected in Cato's advice to his son to avoid Greek physi-
cians and to cling to the old Italian folk medicine. 41 This
popular system of magic cures shows itself at times even in
the writings of the foremost champions of the Greek school
of medicine at Rome. If we may trust the prejudiced report
of Pliny," AscJepiades, the great Greek physician, resorted to
magic in his practice of medicine; nor does Celsus disdain
to quote, 46 for what it may be worth, a magic cure derived
exclusively from auctores ex populo.
• For the prohibition of the use of iron in medical magic cf. Celsus,
4, 8; Pliny, N. H. 15, 124: 23, 163: 24, 12; 68; 103; 172; 176: 30, 102;
Marcellus Empiricus, 19, 52: 20, 106: 23, 35: 25, 13; 14: 26, 25; Pela.-
gonius, 7, 39; Serenus Sammonicus, 41Hlli Pseudo-Pliny, 2, 21 (ed.
Rose). Similar in intent are those passages where the magic remedy is
to be prepared with implements of wood (Cato, R.R. 70: 71; Scribonius
Largus, 152; Marcellus Empiricus, 28, 40; Serenus Sammonicus, 306) or
of bronze (Columella, 6, 5, 4; Scribonius Largus, 16; Pliny, N. H. 28,
198: 29, 109: 32, 41; Marcellus Empiricus, 29, 45). It is interesting to
note that after the taboo on iron had somewhat subsided the strange new
metal was actually considered efficacious in certain kinds of magic (cf.
Pliny, N. H. 25, 167: 28, 42; 63: 29, 130: 30, 106: 34, 151; Marcellus
Empiricus, 8, 49: 27, 87). Cf. also Kroll, Anliker Aberglaube, 6-8; Frazer,
G. B. 2, 225 ff.; and for a like prohibition in Roman religion cf. Wissowa,
Religion und Kultm, 34.
0 Pliny, N. H. 29, 14 hoc puta vatem dixisse: quandoque ista gens
(sc. Graeca) suas litteras dabit, omnia conrumpet, tum etiam magis, si
medicos suos hoc mittet. . . . Interdixi tibi de medicis.
" N. H. 26, 18-20.
46 Med. 4, 7 Vulgo audio, si quis pullum hirundinis ederit, angina toto
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74 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
n N. H. 28, 47-49. The passage begins with the words, Magorum haec
commenta sunt, but one is at a loss throughout to determine where the
Magorum commenta end and popular Italian beliefs begin.
" Cf., e.g., N. H. 28, 232.
" N. H. 30, 98.
60 N. H. 28, 35-46. It is true that throughout this passage Pliny indi-
cates that he is quoting from popular beliefs (cf. the words quidam •••
adgraoont [37], dicitur [41; 42], tradunt [43; 46]); but nowhere does he
give convincing evidence of personal disbelief in what he is relating. Upon
this point cf. Thorndike, Place of Mag. 44 ff. How widely Pliny had
culled from books on medical magic is shown by the fact that he cites
no fewer than twenty-five authors for items on magic cures. These are:
Apollonius (28, 7); Archelaus (28, 34); Artemon (28, 7); Asclepiades
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 75
that the magic act of spitting thrice as one utters a charm is
a helpful custom in all medicine.11 In the light of such evi-
dence, we must conclude, I think, that Pliny depended upon
scientific medicine wherever it had proved its efficacy in curing
specific diseases, but recognized the possibility that an even
greater power resided in magic cures, which he did not hesi-
tate to recommend in cases where scientific medicine had
failed. It is this more or less unconscious acknowledgment of
the superior power of medical magic which proves that among
the intellectual classes, no less than among the masses, there
still survived an implicit belief in the old Italian folk remedies,
which could never be entirely supplanted by Greek science.n
With the decline of classical Latin literature the gulf be-
tween the cultivated classes and the superstitious masses of
Rome gradually decreased in width, so that in the later Em-
pire there appears a growing tendency among Latin authors
to identify themselves in thought as well as in style with the
daily life of Rome and Italy. Accordingly, we find in the later
literature of Rome, just as in her earlier literature, a fuller
and franker indication of a very general belief in medical
(26, 18-20); Bithus Durrachinus (28, 82); Caecilius (29, 85); Cato (28,
21); Chrysippus philosophus (30, 103); Dallon (28, 262); Democritus
(24, 156-158: 26, 19-20: 28, 7; 113-118); Deotimus (28, 83); Granius
(28, 42); Icatidas medicus (28, 83); Lais (28, 82); Marcion Zmyrnaeus
(28, 38); Meletos (28, 7); Metrodorus (37, 178); Ofilius (28, 38); Orpheus
(28, 34); Osthanes (28, 5-6; 256; 261); Pythagoras (24, 156-158); Salpe
(28, 38; 82; 262); Sotira obstetrix (28, 83); Theophrastus (28, 21); Varro
(28, 21). There are also numerous references to the works of the Magi
as a class.
• 1 N. H. 28, 36 'We beg the pardon of the gods,' he says, 'for a too
ambitious hope by spitting upon the breast,' et iam eadem ratione terna
despuere precatione in omni medicina mos est atque ita effectus adiuvare,
incipientes furunculos ter praesignare ieiuna saliva.
0 How readily the Roman mind associated trickery and magic with
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.76 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
A. THE AMULET
stition and folk medicine (cf. lines 41o-411; 439-443; 482-484; 609-
612; 651-655; 907; 916-918; and especially the celebrated description
of the amulet known 88 the abracadabra [935-946]), notwithstanding the
author's affected superiority to such beliefs (cf. lines 828-830; 925-931;
1003-1005). The most available text is probably that of Baehrens, Poet.
Lat. Min. 3, 103 ff.
16 Hadrian 25, 1-4: Caracalla 5, 8.
11 Cf. 16, 8, 2: 19, 12, 14. In the former of these passages we have the
statement that fourth century medicine openly embraced magic cures:
si quis super occentu soricis vel occursu mustelae vel similis signi gratia
consuluisset quemquam peritum, aut anile incantamentum ad leniendum
adhibuiBSet dolorem - quod medicinae quoque admittit auctoritas -
reus . . . delatus. . . . ·
57 The usual text is that of Rose (Leipzig, 1875). In the same MS with
the Pseudo-Pliny (Cod. St. Galli, 752) are found very many other passages
giving magic cures, for which cf. Rose in Hermu, 8, 48 ff.
11 De Med. Herb. 19, 4: 24, 1: 91, 2 (ed. Ackermann, Ntlrnberg, 1788) •
.. 17, 12; 19.
eo This author is a veritable storehouse of late Roman folk medicine.
Reference will be made to his work very frequently in the succeeding
pages.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 77
It is to this interesting subject, therefore, that we shall now
turn our discussion. ei
(1) Definition of an Amulet. - The etymology of the word
amuletum is doubtful. a This, however, is of small importance
to our discussion, since most of the amulets mentioned by
La.tin authors a.re not called amuleta by name, though they
are such in fact. It is essential, however, to the prosecution
of our study, that we arrive at a satisfactory definition of
what an amulet is. F. B. Jevons ea defines it thus:
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78 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
" Cf., e.g., N. H. 28, 38 Inter amuleta est editae quemque urinae
inspuere, similiter in calciamentum dextri pedis, priusquam induatur,
item cum quis transeat locum, in quo aliquod periculum adierit.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 79
the finger, or upon the part of the body that was to be protected
from disease. ee
(2) NameB Giren to Amulets by Latin Authors. - Various
names are applied to amulets by Latin authors. N aevius 70
called them '[17"aebia, and this seems to have been the old Latin
name for them. 71 We have seen 72 that Varro was familiar
with the word amuletum, as was Pliny also. 73 By the time of
Marcellus Empiricus the words phylacterium 74 and '[17"ae-
ligamen 76 seem to have taken the place of amul.etum. In by
far the greater number of cases, however, the Latin authors
are content to indicate in numerous ways 78 the use of amulets
without giving any particular name to the object by means
of which the desired end is accomplished.
19 Cf. infra, 102-103.
70 Varro (L. L. 7, 107), in speaking of the origin of certain words, re-
marks: ih Stigmatia (a comedy of Naevius) 'praebia' a praebendo, ut sit
tutus, quod sint remedia in collo pueris.
71 Cf. Festus, s. v. praebia (p. 276, ed. Lindsay): Praebia rursus Ver-
rius vocari ait ea remedia, quae Gaia Caecilia, uxor Tarquini Prisci, in-
venisse existimatur, et inmiscuisse zonae suae, .•. Ea vocari ait praebia,
quod mala prolubeant.
71 Cf. supra, 77, n. 62. From this passage it is apparent that the spelling
in Varro's day varied between amoletum and amuletum. Varro also calls
amulets scaetJOlae (L. L. 7, 97).
71 Cf. N. H. 23, 20: 25, 115: 28, 38: 29, 66; 83: 30, 82; 138: 37, 50;
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80 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 81
believed by the Romans to have been introduced from Etruria ; st
but it is more probably of purely Roman origin,87 since the
use of such amulets is of universal occurrence. 88
The buUa was not, however, the only form of alnulet used
by the early Italians. Many of the taboos which were placed
upon the person of the Flamen Dialis 89 may be referred to a.
very ancient belief in amulets. Among other protective meas-
ures we ma.y, for instance, mention the fact that the ring worn
by him must be broken ; this latter precaution was ta.ken, no
doubt, for fear that "the powerful spirit embodied in him
might be trammelled and hampered in its goings-out and
comings-in by such corporeal and spiritual fetters . . . ." 10
Though the amulets we have just mentioned came into use
at a remote period in the life of the Romans, they by no means
stood alone. In fact, the Romans of the historical period not
only retained the buUa and the taboos surrounding the Flamen
Dialis, but added greatly to the number of amulets. We have
already shown 91 that the dramatic writers of the third cen-
tury B.c. made casual mention of the protective power of the
bulla as though it were a matter of common experience to their
audiences; as, indeed, it must have been. It would seem that
there was never a time when the Roman populace was free
constat, unde mos bullae duravit, ut eorum, qui equo meruissent, filii
insigne id haberent, ceteri lorum. . . .
11 See Juvenal, 5, 164.
• 7 A bit of evidence that points strongly to Roman origin is the fact
that, when the Roman boy assumed the toga flirilia, he dedicated his buUa
not to any of the newer gods, but to the Lares, the most ancient of the
native gods. Pseudo-Aero, on Horace, Sat. 1, 5, 65, says: solebant pueri,
postquam pueritiam excedebant, eis Laribus bullas suas consecrare. Cf.,
also, Persius, 5, 31; Petronius, Sat. 60; Roscher, Lez. 2, 1877, 38-53.
" Fowler, Rel. Erper. 60.
" A. Gellius, N. A. 10, 15 (cf. supra, 54-55).
10 Frazer, G. B. 2, 315 f. (cf. ib. 13-14).
91 Supra, 79, n. 70; cf. Plautus, Epid. 639f.: Rud. 1171; Jahn, B61.
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82 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
29, 85, quoted infra, 90, and n. 121), Callistratus (Pliny, N. H. 37, 51),
and Scribonius Largus (Comp. 171). Cf. also supra, 73.
98 See N. H. 28, 228-229: 29, 81-83: 30, 64.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 83
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84 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
101 Many other amulets to be found in Marcellus Empiricus are for the
cure of headache rather than for its prevention. Such, for instance,
are those mentioned in 1, 85: 2, 7.
ICM See infra, 121-122.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 85
The green lizard, also, could be worn as a powerful means of
preventing pains in the eyes, according to Marcellus (8, 50) :
Lacerti viridis quem ceperis die Iovis luna vetere mense Septembri
aut etiam quocumque alio oculos erues acu cuprea 106 et intra bullam
vel lupinum aureum claudes colloque suspendes: quod remedium
quamdiu tecum habueris, oculos non dolebis.
tJeniaa, prohibebit, and dolentis of the same act; but one should not expect
to be able to draw too strict a line of distinction between amulets to pro-
tect against future disease, and amulets to cure present ailments.
107 Cf. supra, n. 105.
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86 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
The head of the dragon and the tongue of the fox possessed
similar power. Of the former Pliny says (N. H. 29, 128):
negatur annis multis continuis lippiturus . . . qui draconis
caput habeat. Of the latter the same author tells us (N. H. 28,
172) : vulpinam linguam habentee in armilla lippituros negant.
The fly, also, could be used as an amulet to avert lippitudo. 1oe
Of the woodland sorrel we are told (Marcellus Empiricus,
8, 41): quamdiu earn tecum habueris, non lippies.
That amulets of inscribed parchment were useful in this
field of preventive magic we see from Pliny (N. H. 28, 29):
M. Servilius Nonianus princeps civitatis non pridem in metu lippi-
tudinis, priusquam ipse earn nominaret aliusve ei praediceret, duabus
litteris Graecis PA chartam inscriptam circumligatam lino subnectebat
collo, Mucianus ter consul eadem observatione viventem muscam
in linteolo albo, his remediis carere ipsos lippitudine praedicantes.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 87
dextera II medii {sc. digiti) lino leviter colligati destillationes
atque lippitudines arcent. 110
3. Toothache. - I have found only one case of the preven-
tion of toothache by means of an amulet. It is in Pliny (N. H.
27, 89):
In hoc {i.e. quadam parte gallidragae) crescente aestate vermiculos
nasci tradit, quos pyxide conditos adalligari cum pane bracchio ab
ea parte, qua dens doleat, mireque ilico dolorem tolli. Valere non
diutius anno et ita, si terram non adtigerint.111
4. Diseases of the Throat. - Of throat afflictions two were
thought preventable by means of amulets. Goitre, we are
told (Marcellus Empiricus, 15, 67), may be prevented in the
following manner : Caput viperae linteolo conligatum colloque
suspensum tolles . . . prohibet inn'aSci. Equally efficacious
was the following method of preventing 8. cough (Pseudo-
Pliny, 1, 17): 112 scribes in charta virgine hoc nomen Ial-
dabra.e 113 et de spongia nova tollis lapillum, alligabis tibi et
suspendes ad collum.
5. Diseases of the Stomach and Bowels. - The amulet most
effective in protecting one from abdominal pains in general
seems to have been the ankJe bone of a ha.re. 114 We read in
110 The tying together of the fingers was doubtless thought' to bind up
enjoined that the object possessing the magic' power must not touch the
earth. For an explanation of this prohibition see infra, 120, n. 292.
112 P. 206, I. 1 of Codex St. Galli 751. Cf. Heim, Incant. Mag. 557.
111 For meaningless words, 'Eq.~ia "fp6.µµa:ra., on amulets cf. infra, 100.
114 The facts regarding European superstitions concerning the hare
will be found in Hazlitt, Faith& and Folklme, 1, 305. The custom of carry-
ing in one's pocket or about one's person a 'rabbit foot' is so common in
the United States, or at least in the Southern States, that I think no proof
of the custom is necessary. Such amulets are especially prized by negroes
and small boys as a means of protection against various physical ills and
to secure good luck. The foot of the hare was much used by the Romans
as an amulet in the cure of physical ailments (cf. Pliny, N. H. 28, 220;
Marcellus Empiricus, 28, 21: 29, 35: 36, 26-28).
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Pliny, 2, 18 (p. 62, ed. Rose): 2, 45 (p. 247, l. 13 Cod. St. Galli 751, quoted
by Heim, l. c.); and Marcellus Empiricus, 26, 129-130 to curative rather
than to preventive medicine.
111 Repeated in Pseudo-Pliny, 2, 21 (p. 64, ed. Rose). The injunction
that the amulet be not allowed to touch the earth is quite common. Cf.
supra, 87, n. 111 and infra, 120, n. 292.
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(e) Painful Deli-oery. - Here we may cite Pliny (N. H. 28,
114): eundem (i.e. chamaeleonem) salutarem esse parturi-
entibus, si sit domi, si vero inferatur, perniciosissimum.
9. Galling of the Skin. - The pertinent passages here are
Pliny (N. H. 26, 91): Intertrigines negat fieri Cato absinthium
Ponticum secum habentibus; (24, 47) : Virgam populi in
manu tenentibus intertrigo non metuitur; and (24, 63).:
Virgam (sc. viticis) qui in manu habeant aut in cinctu,
negantur intertriginem sentire.
10'. Tumor8. - The most general means of protection
against all tumors (8trumae) is that mentioned by Marcellus
Empiricus (15, 52) :
Contra omnes strum&B et feminis et maribus utilissimum est, si
cor lacertae viridis lupino argenteo clausum in collo suspensum semper
habeant.
Another interesting amulet for the prevention of the same
disease is given by Pliny (N. H. 23, 130):
Corticem eius (i.e. caprifici) intumescentem puer impubis si de-
fracto ramo detrabat dentibus, medullam ipsam adalligatam ante
solis ortum prohibere strum88.
Finally, we find one and the same substance used first as a cure
for 8trumae, and then as an amulet to prevent the return of
the affiiction. The whole passage, found in Pliny (N. H. 26, 24),
throws an unusually clear light upon the folk lore of the times :
Sideritis latifolia clavo sinistra manu circumfossa adalligatur,
custodienda sanatis ne rursus sata taedium herbariorum scelere . . •
rebellet, quod et in iis, quos Artemisia sanaverit, praedici reperio,
tern in iis, quos plantago.
Such a substance can, of course, be classed as an amulet only
in the broad sense that it protects its owner from physical ills. m
m That the Romans extended the meaning of the word amulet so as
to include such means of protection I have shown, supra, 78. The nega-
tive principle which underlies the practice here mentioned is apparent also
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 93
Romans thought it possible to prevent such fears by means
. of amulets is clear from Pliny (N. H. 28, 98) : Contra nocturnos
pavores umbrarumque terrorem unus ex magnis dentibus (sc.
hyaenae) li.Jio alligatus succurrere narratur. Other parts also
of the hyena were credited with this same power; compare
Pliny (N. H. 28, 115): Pedem (sc. hyaenae) e prioribus dex-
trum pelle hyaenae adalligatum sinistro bracchio contra la-
trocinia terroresque noctumos pollere, item dextram mamillam
contra formidines pavoresque. . . . The tooth of even so
companionable an animal as the dolphin was believed to possess
a similar power to drive away fears, according to Pliny (N. H.
32, 137) : Adalligatus idem (i.e. dens delphini) pavores re-
pentinos tollit. Idem effectus et caniculae dentis.
13. E'[J'Uepsy. - I have found in Latin literature only one
instance of the use of amulets to prevent epilepsy, namely,
Pliny (N. H. 30, 91) :
Magis placet draconis cauda in pelle dorcadis adalligata cervinis
nervis vel lapilli e ventre hirundinum pullorum sinistro lacerto adnexi.
. . . Quin et e nido earum lapillus . . • dicitur . . . adalligatus in
perpetuum tueri (sc. a morbo comitiali).
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94 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
snake-bite did so, not because they depended upon the power of
the vegetable as an amulet, but because serpents were supposed
especially to dislike and to shun the odor of the parsnip. Yet
such an explanation would scarcely suffice in the case of the
man who, instead of carrying the parsnip in his clothes, ate
it; iaa for he was equally protected. Upon the whole I think
that such measures of protection are to be regarded as
amulets.
(5) Materials of Amulets. -The foregoing passages make
it clear that the Romans practiced prophylactic magic by
means of amulets made of mineral, vegetable, and animal
materials. By arranging these amulets in groups according
to the material of which each is composed we shall be able to
determine not only the relative importance of the three princi-
pal sources of amulets, but also the general nature of medical
amulet.s themselves.
(a) Minerals. - We are told that rings of gold, silver, copper,
or iron are equally efficacious as amulets in preventing lippi-
tudo, 134 a disease from which one might also be protected by
wearing about one's neck an inscribed golden lamella.136 Precious
stones and similar materials were used, especially for warding
off the various diseases of infants. We find malachite,m
coral,117 and amber 118 thus employed. The last named sub-
stance was also used to prevent lippitudo. 189 There were cer-
tain small stones, also, which seem to have derived their power
as amulets, in part at least, from the sources from which they
m Gargilius Martialis, Med. 33 Negant feriri a serpentibus qui pasti-
nacam secum ferant vel ante gustarint. Cf. Pliny, N. H. 20, 31; 69; 133;
223; 232: 22, 52; 60: 25, 163; Ps.-Apuleius, De Med. Herb. 4, 7.
iu Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 49 (supra, 85).
116 Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 59 (supra, 86).
ae Pliny, N. H. 37, 114 (supra, 92).
U7 Pliny, N. H. 32, 24 (supra, 92).
111 Pliny, N. H. 37, 50 (supra, 92).
119 Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 49 (supra, 85).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 97
were obtained. We read, 140 for instance, that a stone found in
the head of a snail could free the person who wore it from all
fear of headache. A similar stone, found in the stomach of a
swallow, if worn as an amulet, was thought to protect the
wearer from all pains in the eyes, 141 and from epilepsy.142 Still
another stone, found in the womb of the hind, was commonly
thought to prevent miscarriage. 141 Finally, it was believed
among the populace that one might avert a cough by
swearing about one's person a stone taken from a new
sponge.144 ,
(b) Vegetable Materials. - The vegetable kingdom also con-
tributed to the number of prophylactic amulets. Woodland
sorrel, according to one authority, 146 protected the wearer from
the danger of lip'[Jitudo, while the myrtle twig offered a like pro-
tection against ulcers of the groin. 1" Wormwood, poplar, or
vitex twigs, if worn about the person, were thought to protect
the wearer from skin galls. 147 Tumors, we read, could be pre-
vented by wearing about one the bark of the wild fig tree 148
or ironwort. 149 Tertian fever, too, might be avoided · by the
simple means of wearing upon one's person grains of cummin
prepared according to certain directions; 160 and snake-bite
need never be feared by him who had with him hiera botane,
trifolium acutum, 161 or a parsnip.162
uo Marcellus Empiricus, 1, 41 (supra, 84).
Hl Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 45 (supra, 84).
ut Pliny, N. H. 30, 91 (supra, 93).
la Pliny, N. H. 28, 246 (supra, 90).
H• Pseudo-Pliny, 1, 17 (206, 1 Cod. St. Galli 751; supra, 87) .
la Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 41 (supra, 86).
Hs Pliny, N. H. 23, 163 (supra, 88).
147 Pliny, N. H. 24, 47; 63: 26, 91 (supra, 91).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 101
who practiced magic, like his modern counterpart, attributed
greater power to unintelligible than to intelligible words.181
Certain other medical amulets were ma.de more effective by
incantamenta or fJOta pronounced in connection with their
use.1" It is a noteworthy fact that one of our amulets 186
bears an inscription which, we a.re told, may be used as an
incantamentum, or may serve equally well in its inscribed
form as a powerful element of the amulet. On this account
we should probably consider inscriptions occurring upon
amulets as incantamenta perpetua rel muta.
(7) Other Details in the Preparation of Medical Amulets. -
Into the preparation of prophylactic amulets there often
entered many additional elements which were thought to
increase the virtue of the amulet proper. It was popularly
believed, for instance, that certain days, or certain times of
the day, were peculiarly suitable for ma.king amulets; that
odd numbers, especially the number three, increased t)le
efficacy of an amulet in various ways ; and that all persons
concerned in the preparation, application, or use of an amulet
should be pure. Since, however, these ideas are not restricted
to that branch of prophylactic magic which employs amulets,
and since they a.re all based upon the notion of sympathia, it
181 This seems to be indicated by Ovid's words concerning Circe (Met.
14, 365-366):
Concipit ilia preces, et verba venefica dicit
ignotosque deos ignoto carmine adorat. • • •
The evidence of Lucan (6, 686-687) points in the same direction:
confudit murmura primum
dissona et humanae multum discordia linguae .•••
See also Pliny, N. H. 28, 20 Neque est facile dictu, externa verba atque
ineft'abilia abrogent fidem validius an Latina et inopinata, quae inridicula
videri cogit animus semper aliquid inmensum exspectans ac dignum deo
movendo, intmo vero quod numini imperet.
184 See Pliny, N. H. 28, 48 (supra, 89); Marcellus Empiricus, 32, 19
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102 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
28, 29 (supra, 86) concerns amulets for averting lip'j)i,tudo; Serenus Sam-
monicus, 1031-1032 (supra, 92) bas to do with a means of warding off
teething troubles; the amulet mentioned in Pseudo-Pliny, 1, 17 (supra, 87)
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 103
(supra, 88). The golden bulla was also believed to have prophylactic
power (cf. the reference to Marcellus just given and infra, 104, n. 206).
111 Pliny, N. H. 28, 41 (supra, 89).
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104 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
requirement of gold in magic, see Pliny, N. H. 20, 29: 28, 259: 29, 130:
33, 84; Marcellus Empiricus, 29, 23; 26.
201 Pliny, N. H. 28, 29 (supra, 86).
101 Pliny, N. H. 29, 64 (supra, 93).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 105
the light of the sun under whose eye the diurnal fever operatee,209
while the stolen container of wool symbolizes the stealthy
approach of the nocturnal fever. In like manner amulets in-
tended to avert tertian fever were encased in red conta.iners,210
while those used against qua.rta.n fever were encased in bla.ck.m
We should be very careful, however, not to draw too general
a conclusion from these fa.cts. 212 It seems wiser to limit our-
selves to the statement that Roman prophylactic magic prac-
tice recommended specific colors as peculiarly suitable for the
containers of specific amulets, and that these colors are prob-
ably to be explained upon the basis of sympathia. More than
that we can not say.
for preventing quartan fever we find the colors of the containers reversed,
the red container being recommended (Pliny, N. H . 30, 99).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 107
currere videris, numera, et celeriter numera, donec se condat;
tot enim annis, quot numeraveris, non lippies.
2. Toothache. - For the prevention of toothache Pliny
mentions two popular practices, both of them based upon the
belief in the magic power of odd numbers, more especially of
the number three. We are told (N. H. 28, 56): frigida (sc.
aqua) matutinis inpari numero (sc. colluere ora) ad cavendos
dentium dolores . . . certum experimentum est. And again
we read (N. H. 32, 37): Quod si dentes ter annis colluantur
testudinum sanguine, immunes a dolore fiant. A much more
elaborate method of preventing toothache is given by Marcellus
Empiricus (12, 46) in the following words :
Cum primum hirundinem videris, tacebis et a.d aqua.m nitidam
accedes atque inde in os tuum mittes; deinde digito obscoeno, id est
medio, tam manus dextrae quam sinistrae dentes fricabis et dices:
'Hirundo, tibi dico, quomodo hoc (i.e. aqua) in rostro iterum non
erit, sic mihi dentes non doleant toto anno.' Iterum alium annum et
deinceps sequentibus similiter facies, si volueris remedii huius quotannis
manere beneficium.
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108 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
piricus (14, 52): Uvam toto anno non dolebit, qui, cum
primum uvam viderit procedentem, sinistra manu digito medi-
cinali et pollice granum vulsum sic tra.nsglutierit, ut dentibus
non contingat.
5. Pains in the N eek were believed to be prevented by the
use of saliva, as Pliny tells us (N. H. 28, 37): Credamus ..•
cervicis dolores (sc. arceri) saliva ieiuni dextra manu ad dextrum
poplitem relata, laeva ad sinistrum.21•
6. Epilepsy. - For the prevention of epilepsy the Magi,
according to Pliny (N. H. 28, 259), used the following means :
Cerebrum caprae Magi per anulum 217 aureum 218 traiectum,
priusquam lac detur, infantibus instillant contra comitiales
ceterosque infantium morbos. With this we may compare
the custom prevalent among the Romans of averting epilepsy
from one's self by spitting upon the epileptic. We read in
Pliny (N. H. 28, 35): Despuimus comitiales morbos, hoc est
contagia regerimus.21 0
7. Skin Diseases. - Under this head I have included all
diseases that are apparent on the skin, even though they may
be more deeply seated.
(a) Tetter, Leprosy, and Cancer. - For the prevention of all
of these the saliva of a fasting person seems to have been the
popular means. Upon this point we may quote Pliny (N. H.
28, 37) : Credamus ergo et lichenas leprasque ieiunae (sc.
salivae) inlitu adsiduo arceri; item . . . carcinomata malo
terrae subacto. . . .220
111 Cf. supra, 71, n. 37.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 109
(b) Wrinkle8. -Here we may cite Pliny (N. H. 22, 65):
Virus folii (i.e. heliotropii) in urina pueri inpubis tritum quidem
cum aphronitro et inlitum ventri mulierum, ne rugosus fiat,
praestare dicitur.221
(c) Varico8e Veins. - Pliny informs us (N. H. 30, 76) that
this trouble may be prevented in the following manner : Varices
ne nascantur, lacertae m sanguine pueris crura ieiunis a ieiuno
inlinuntur. This recipe is repeated with some additional details
by Marcellus Empiricus (34, 8): Varices ne nascantur, lacertae
sanguine crura puero ieiunus inline; in totum carebit hac
foeditate. From these two passages it is quite 8.fParent that
the fasting 228 of him who was to be protected and of .him who
applied the ointment was an essential element.
8. Al4tninal Diuase8. - In speaking of the good old days .
of simple fare Ovid remarks (Fasti 6, 180-182):
Terra fabas tantum duraque farra dabat
quae duo mixta ei.mul sextis quicumque Kalendis
ederit, buic laedi viscera posse negant.
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110 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
109); Pliny, N. H. 23, 110 (supra, 106): 24, 174 (supra, 107) : 29, 128
(supra, 106): 30, 33 (supra, 107); Marcellus Empiricus, 14, 52 (supra, 108).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 117
tected from toothache for the space of a year (Pliny, N. H. 27, 89: cf.
supra, 87) by enclosing a certain worm in bread, and the latter, in turn,
in an amulet case. It seems likely that the bread was supposed to keep
the worm alive for a year, and that when the worm died and decayed, the
tooth was believed to do likewise.
m Marcellus Empiricus, 12, 46 (supra, 107).
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Other references to the Ides, without specification of the month, are 14,
68: 29, 23.
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 119
182 Scribonius Largus, 163 (supra, 95). Cf. Pliny, N. H . 24, 170 (supra
94): 25, 107 (supra, 110, n. 224). That certain medical amulets were ap-
plied to the person before sunrise we know from Pliny, N. H. 23, 130
(supra, 91): 29, 85 (supra, 90). For numerous magical acts to be per-
formed before sunrise cf. Pliny, N. H. 20, 29; 217: 24, 133: 25, 145:
28, 78: 32, 115; Pseudo-Pliny, 2, 54 (p. 252, l. 29 Cod. St. Galli 751;
cf. Heim, Incant. Mag. 560); Marcellus Empiricus, 14, 65: 15, 101:
26, 41.
281 H. Usener, in an article entitled Dreiheit (Rheinisches Museum, 58
[1903], 1-47; 161-208; 321-362), deals admirably with the r6le played
by the number three in Roman religion. Of its important r6le in Roman
magic, however, he does not treat at all. For the number three and its
multiples in Roman magic the important literary references are Cato, R . R.
70; Varro, R.R. 1, 2, 27; Cicero, Cat. 3, 9; Vergil, Eel. 8, 73-78; Pseudo-
Vergil, Ciris 36~377; Tibullus, 1, 2, 53-56; Livy, 27, 37: 31, 12, 5--9;
Ovid, Fasti 2, 571-582: 4, 54~554; 727: 6, 155--156; 753-754: Met.
7, 152-156; 188-198; 261 ff.: 14, 58; 387; Seneca, Med. 771-772; Pliny,
N. H. 8, 106: 20, 171 : 21, 42: 22, 135: 24, 172: 25, 148; 167: 26, 93:
27,131: 28,21: 29,100: 30,35; 51; 101; 108: 34,151.
Among the Romans all odd numbers were considered of better omen
than even numbers, and hence more efficacious in medicine. Cf. Mommsen,
Hist. of Rome (Eng. Trans.), 1, 271 and n. 1; Fowler, R. F. 3; Varro,
R. R. 3, 9, 4; 12; Pseudo-Vergil, Ciris 36~377; Scribonius Largus, 16;
Columella, 8, 5, 8; Pliny, N. H. 23, 156: 24, 82: 28, 23; 33; 56: 30, 44;
108; Gellius, 15, 7, 1; 3; Marcellus Empiricus, 1, 50; 78; 100: 7, 7 :
8, 49: 9, 2: 15, 9: 16, 26; 32; 40; 64; 86: 20, 35: 25, 21: 27, 42; 47;
52: 34, 67. Cf. C. P. Clark, Numerical PhratSeology in Vergil (Princeton
University DiSBertation, Princeton, 1913).
89). This injunction is very common in other fields of magic also. That
the earth was looked upon as a contaminating substance seems clear
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 121
inference, also, that the direction to prepare amulets with
implements of reed,2111 copper, or glass 294 was but another way
of forbidding the polluting touch of iron.
(i) Sympathetic Incantamenta. -Finally, the element of
sympathia may at times appear in the incantamenta which
frequently accompany the use of amulets in preventive medi-
cine. We have shown,296 for instance, how swellings in the
groin were believed to be prevented by the inhibiting. power of
a knotted string, each knot of which was tied in the name of a
certain widow. We can ·readily understand how the knots in
the string were supposed to hold in check any tendency toward
swelling in the groin, but we should be at a loss to know why
each knot must have pronounced over it the name of a widow,
were it not for a passage in Marcellus Empiricus. The latter
author tells us,m that the widows whose names were thus used
in the incantamentum, while the knots were being tied in the
string, must be anm fliduae. In other words, the incanta-
mentum was to be composed of the names of those whose
abdomens would never again be swollen in pregnancy, in order
to insure that the abdomen of him who wore the amulet would
not swell with disease. Likewise, in using bored cherry stones
as an amulet 297 to prevent pains in the eyes, the wearer of the
amulet must utter a vow not to eat any cherries during the
year within which the amulet was to be effective ; because,
from Marcellus Empiricus, 29, 35. There we are told that a certain cura-
tive amulet is to come into contact neither with the earth nor with any
woman. The well established fact of the ceremonial impurity of women
may be taken as proof that the earth is to be placed in the same category.
111 Marce'llus Empiricus, 1, 85.
1 " Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 49-50 (supra, 85). In this instance the
main operation employs glass and copper, but the use of iron is allowed
in a detail of secondary importance. For the taboo on iron in Roman
medical magic, see supra, 73, n. 42.
IN Pliny, N. H. 28, 48 (supra, 89).
1N 32, 19 (supra, 89).
m Marcellus Empiricus, 8, 27 (supra, 84).
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MAGIC AND THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE 123
practiced similar acts was equally unaware of the fundamental
ideas underlying his acts. It is, then, not difficult to under-
stand why, after the lapse of centuries and the various changes
in the modes of civilized thought, it has become almost im-
possible to arrive at a complete understanding of the principle
of sympathia as it operated among the ancient Italians in the
field of prophylactic magic.801 It seems reasonable to conclude,
however, from the preponderating importance of the idea of
sympathia in all the cases where we can trace the association
of ideas, that practically all the prophylactic magic of the
Romans was based upon this principle.•02
'°' Much valuable light could doubtless be thrown upon this subject
by one who had the leisure to live with Italian peasants for a number of
years, and the knack of eliciting from them their secret thoughts regard-
ing such matters. Such a work has been done for Etruria by Leland
(Etru&c. Rom. Rem.), and the result is both in~ting and profitable.
aoa The author regrets that the necessary limits placed upon the length
of a doctoral dissertation force him to end the discUBBion of Roman magic
at this point. He hopes soon to be able to publish additional chapters
upon curative and causative medical magic among the Romans, together
with other chapters upon Roman magic which seem to him to be of unusual
interest not only to the classical scholar, but to the anthropologist, and
to the large number of people who are interested in the strange beliefs
and practices of a bygone age.
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 1
BARINa-GouLD, S. The Book of Were-Wolvea (London, 1865).
BLUKLER, MARTIN FREDERICK. A HiBtory of Amtdeta (Halle, 1710.
English translation by S. H., Gent., privately printed, Edinburgh,
1887).
BducllE-LECLERCQ, A. Histoire de la divination dana l'antiquite
(Paris, 1879).
BRUNS, CAROLUS GEORGIUS. FonteB Juris Romani Antiqui'
(TUbingen, 1909).
Companion to Latin Studie82 (edited by Sir John Edwin Sandye,
Cambridge, 1913).
CU¥oNT, F'RANz. Oriental Religiona in Roman Paganism (Chicago,
1911).
DEL Rio, MARTINus. DiBquisitionum Magicaru.m Libri Sex (Coloniae
Agrippinae, MDCLXXIX).
DIETERICH, ALBRECHT. Abraxaa (Leipzig, 1891).
- - Papyrua Magica Mmei Lugdunenais Batavi (Leipzig, 1888).
DILL, SillUEL. Roman Society from Nero to M arcm A urelim (London,
. 1905).
ELWORTHY, FREDERICK TBoMAs. The Evil Eye (London, 1895).
ENNEMOSER, JOSEPH. The History of Magic (English translation,
London, 1893).
FAHZ, LuDoVIcus. De Poetarum Romanorum Doctrina Magica (dis-
sertation, Giessen, 1904).
FosTER, WALTER EUGENE. StudieB in Archaism in Aulm GelliUB
(Columbia University dissertation, New York, 1912).
FOWLER, W. WARDE. The Religiom Experience of the Roman People
from the Earliest Times to the Age of AugmtUB (London, 1911).
- The Roman Festivala of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908).
1 Books and articles to which reference has been made only once or
twice in this dissertation have not been included in this index. In all
such cases, however, the full title of the book or article will be found in
the footnote to the citation.
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126 STUDIES IN MAGIC FROM LATIN LITERATURE
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INDEX RERUM
Abdomen, amulets attached to, pomanes, Hog, Hyena, Lizard,
102-103. Oaprey, Shreto MOU88, Snail,
Absinth as an amulet, 91. Stork, Swallow, TorUliM, Viper,
Adver8U8 Aatrologoa, work of Colu- Wolf, and Worm).
mella, 18. Anise, twig of, as amulet, 89.•
Aeaea, home of Circe, 24. Antipatlria, 95 (cf. Sympathia).
Aesculapius resorts to magic, 65. Apollonius of Tyana, 44.
Agricultural writers, attitude of, Apuleius, Apologia of, the most
toward magic, 26-28. complete Latin treatise on magic,
Agrippa expels magicians and as- 19; 44-45: attitude of, toward
trologers from Rome, 14. magic, 32; 42-45: Metamorphoaea
Amber as an amulet, 92. of, dominated by magic, 42--44:
Ammianus Marcellinus, attitude of, publication date of Metamor-
toward magic, 53; 76. ph0888 of, 44, n. 238: mysticism
Amulets, 52; 53; 57; 59; 76-105: of, 43-44: reputation of, as a
antiquity and continued use of, magus, 42; 44-45.
80-83: colors of containers, 104- Arbutus, twig of, used in magic,
105; 116: not confined to objects 64; 65.
suspended from the neck, 78: Artemisia used as an amulet, 91;
definition of, 77-78: details in 117.
preparation of, 101 (cf. Daya, Asclepiades, the physician, uses
Odd numbera, Purity, Sunriae, magic, 56; 73.
Three aa a magic number): ety- Asp, head of, as amulet, 87; 114.
mology of the Latin word amu- Astrologers, 8BB&iled by Columella,
letum, 77: inscriptions on, 100- 18: by Minucius Felix, 18: de- .
101: invention of, 80: materials fended by Julius Firmicus Mater-
of, 96-100; 103-104: names given nus, 18-19: ~elled from Italy,
to, 79 and n. 75: used by phy- 15: from Rome, 14: Nigidius
sicians, 82: where worn, 102-103. Figulus, reputed an astrologer,
Angerona as a dea, 68, n. 27. 17-18.
Angitia, sister of Circe, 66, n. 19. Astrology, adds strength to magic,
Animals, use of, in magic (see Asp, 5: attitude of Cicero toward, 30:
Bat, Bonu, Bubo, Bug, Cat, of Curtius Rufus, 50: of Favori-
Chameleon, CoU, Croccdile, Deer, nus (apud A. GeUium), 55, n. 314:
Doe, Dog, Dolphin, Dragon, Fly, of Julius Capitolinus, Lampri-
Foz, Gazelle, Goat, Hare, Hip- dius, Spartianus, 52, n. 293: of
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130 INDEX BERUM
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INDEX RERUM 131
Colt, milk teeth of, as amulet, 92; Democritus a student of magic, 20
116. • and n. 101; 21; 56.
Columella, attitude of, toward Derotio, 51, n. 282.
magic, 27-'-28. Diana addressed in magic, 38, n.
Communio, 6. 199: resorts to magic, 65.
Contagio, 30. Didius Julie.nus, belief of, in magic,
Contra Mathematico8, work by 52, n. 296.
Minucius Felix, 18. Digitm medicinaliB used in prophy-
Coral used as an amulet, 92. lactic magic, 108.
Cornelius Hispallus expels astrolo- Digitm obscoenus, 107.
gers from Rome, 14. Disease, prevention of, by magic,
Cough prevented by amulet, 87. 61-123.
Counterche.rm, 59. Diseases, deification of, 67-69.
Crocodile, heart of, used as amulet, Diurnal fever prevented by use of
94; 117. . amulet, 104-105.
Crops, control of, by magic, 57: Divination ridiculed, 27; 30.
growth of, influenced by the Doe, stone found in excreta, heart,
moon, 27: protected by magic, or womb of, used as an amulet,
16: transferred by magic, 13-14. 90.
Crossing of knees in magic, 6~ Dog, gall bladder of male, used as
(cf. lnterlccking of fingers). an amulet, 78: tooth of, so used,
Cummin used as an amulet, 94. 93.
Cunina, averter of the evil eye, 25; Dolphin, tooth of, used as amulet,
46. 93.
Curtius Rufus, attitude of, toward Dragon, head of, used as amulet,
magic, 49-50. 86; 114; 122: tail of, so used, 93.
Cyclamen used as an amulet, 82. Dramatic writers, attitude of,
Cyprian magic, 21. toward magic, 28-29.
Dream seers condemned, 30.
'1aLpo116 invoked in 'YOf/TELa and
µa-(E£a1 3-4; 6, n. 29; 7. Earth not to be touched in prepar-
Darkness, fear of, prevented by ing amulets, 87; 88; 89; 120, n.
amulets, 92-93; 116. 292.
Days, certain ones, favorable to Eclipses explained rationally, 30.
magic, 85; 86; 106; 109; 118- Egypt prominent in magic, 12.
119. Empedocles, a student of magic, 20.
Deer, genitals of, used as amulet, Emperors, two, practice magic, 53.
90: skin of, used as amulet con- Encyclope.edists, attitude of, toward
te.ine~, 90: tendons of, used to , magic, 54-59.
attach amulet, 93. '&f>&r,a -yp6.µµa.-a (unintelligible
Delatores spy out magic, 53. words) in magic incantations,
Delivery, painful, prevented by 71-72; 85; 86; 87; 88; 100 and
use of amulet, 91; 116. n. 181.
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132 INDEX RERUM
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134 INDEX BERUM
Left arm, amulets attached to, 93; Lucretius, attitude of, toward magic,
94; 102 and n. 188. 29-30.
Left hand specified in preparation Lyric and elegiac poets, attitude of,
of amulets, 91; 95: in prepara- toward magic, 33-37.
tion of other means of prophy-
laxis, 106; 108. . Macedonian magic, 21.
Legal aspect of magic and religion,· Ma-yel• distinguished from 'YOfJT"el•,
12-17. 3-4: meaning of word, 3-4: not
Lem.urea expelled by strange rites, found in Homer, 1.
25; 37, n. 195; 46. Magia never used of Magian phi-
Lenae, as a class, skilled in magic, losophy, but of magic, 4-5.
34; 35 and n. 186. Magic, borrows strength from astrol-
Leprosy prevented by magic, 108. ogy, 5-7: confused with astrol-
C. Licinius Mucianus, a believer in ogy, 15, n. 68: distinguished
amulets, 82. from astrology, 10-11: practiced
Licium in magic, 39, n. 201; 85; along with astrology, 14-15:
89; 103. belief in, characteristic of many
Lightning controlled by magic, 57 Latin authors, 17 (see in this
(cf. Nature oontrolled). Index the names of the vari-
Lippitudo, amulet used to prevent, ous Latin authors for their re-
82; 85-87; 104; 114; 118: other spective attitudes toward magic):
means of preventing, 106-107; and curative medicine, Pref.;
122. 16; 49; S0-51; 52-53; 55, n.
Livy, attitude of, toward magic, 315; 56; 57; 58, n. 349: defi-
48-49: prodigia in, 48. nition of, 5-8: distinguished from
Lizard, as amulet, 85; 88; 91; 114: Christian miracles, 6-7: extant
inside of bulla, 80; 114: used in Latin treatises on, 19: forbidden
prophylactic magic apart from by the Twelve Tables (cf. Magic
amulets, 109; 111. illegal): gods controlled by, 12:
Looking behind one forbidden in theory of Greek origin of Ital-
magic, 37, n. 195; 64 and n. 12; ian, untenable, 22-23: growth
65. of, as an element in Latin litera-
Loom, thread from, in amulets, ture, 43-44: gruesome details in,
89. 38, n. 199; 39, n. 201: harmless
Lotapes, a typical Jewish magician, kind of, not condemned, but
21. popular, 16-17: illegal, 12-16:
Love charms spoken of metaphori- sprung from medicine, 5-7: native
cally, 34-35. to Italy, 16-17; 22-25: passive
Love controlled, 33; 34; 35. believers in, executed, 15: theory
Lucan, attitude of, toward magic, of Persian origin of Italian,
31-32. untenable, 22-23: prophylactic,
Lucilius, attitude of, toward magic, among the Romans, Pref.; 61-123,
37-38. especially 76-123: purity in, 38,
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INDEX BERUM 135
n. 199: and religion, 5; 11-17: offspring of mother and son, 33:
distinguished from religion, 11- philosophic versus popular use of
12: legal aspect of magic and word, 5: reputation of Apuleius
religion, 12-17: mingled with 8B a magua, 42; 44-45.
religion, 31; 51; 54; 58, nn. Malachite used as amulet, 92.
349, 350; 66: more powerful Marcellus Empiricus, attitude of,
than religion, 17; 32; 63: op- toward magic, 76.
posed by religion, 12; 15; 17; Marruvian priest, in Aeneid, an
29: prior to religion, 61-62: adept in magic, 28.
survival of, in religion, 24-25; Marsi, descendants of Circe, 24,
37 and n. 195; 40; 46 and nn. n. 118: magic powers of, 55; 65.
247, 248, 251; 48-49 (cf. Medical Martial, attitude of, toward magic,
magic and religWn): antedates 37.
science, 8; 10; 17: distinguished M8811Ylii, priestess of, an adept in
from science, 8-10: more popular magic, 28.
than science, 10; 25: secret, Mathematici. (see Astrologers).
12-13; 16: source, antiquity, and Medea, power of, based upon
prevalence of Italian, 19-25: knowledge of herbs, 8, n. 38.
stories of, generally accepted, 41; Medical magic, endorsed by Pliny,
43: distinguished from super- 74-75: more powerful than scien-
stition, 11. tific medicine, 75: not displaced
Magicians, confused with natural by Greek medicine, 73-76: prac-
philosophers, 10; 45, n. 243: ticed by early Greeks, 70: by
expelled from Italy, 15; 51: physicians at Rome, 73; 76, n.
from Rome, 14. 56: and religion, 61-69: uni-
M agicu8 seldom used of Magian versal among early Romans, 70-
philosophy, but of magic, 5. 73: versus scientific medicine,
Ma.,.°', become known as trick- 70-76.
sters and sorcerers, 2-3: deri- Medical writers, attitude of, toward
vation of word, 1: expert in magic, 60.
astrology, 2: and divination, 2: Medicine, the source of magic, 5:
word first found in Herodotus, later than magic, 8.
1: µ6."Y"'i ignorant of ")'Of1Tel11, 2: M ejUi8 as a dea, 68, n. 27.
introduction of, into Greece, 2: Membrum flirile, of dog, as amulet,
leaders in royal education, 1 : 78: of man, representation of,
meaning of word, 1-3: not inside bulla, 80. (Cf. F<Ueinum).
found in Homer, 1: originally a Menstrual blood in magic, 58.
priestly caste, 1. Metamorphoses, 42 (see also Apu.-
M agua, name applied both to Magi leius; W erwolf).
and to magicians, 4-5; 50, n. Midnight the time of magic, 37,
275: magorum commmta, 74-75: n. 195.
of great influence in popular Milk of mother and daughter as
medicine, 82; 108; 109; 110: magic ointment, 106; 110; 112.
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136 INDEX BERUM
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INDEX BERUM 137
Plants used in magic, 8 and n. 38; Pseudo-Apuleius, attitude of, to-
24, n. 116; 38, n. 199; 39, n. 201; ward magic, 76.
57; 59 (cf. AbBinth, Arbutus, Pseudo-Pliny, attitude of, toward
Art.emi8ia, Cherry &eed8, Cummin, magic, 76.
Cyclamen, Gra'[J6, Heliotro'[J6, Her· Psylli endowed with magic power,
ba impia, Hiera botane, Par&nip, 55.
Pennyroyal, Plantain, Pomegran- Puer impubi&, urine of, used in
ate, Poplar, Sideriti& latifolia, Tri- magic ointment, 109; 111; 115:
f olium acutum, Verooin, Vitez, used 88 agent in preparing amu-
Whitethorn, Wild fig tree, Wild let, 91; 120. .
gra'[J6, Woodland &orrel). Purity in magic, 38, n. 199; 86;
Plato, a student of magic, 21. 120-121 (cf. Parchment, in&eribed
Plautus, attitude of, toward magic, mrgin, used a& amulet: Puer im-
28-29. pubi&).
Pliny the Elder, attitude of, toward Pythagora&, student of magic,
magic, 17; 21-22; 56-59; 74-75: 20.
extant treatise or, on Roman
magic, 19. Quartan fever, cured by magic, 52-
Poisonous animals, bites of, pre- 53; 74; 82-83: prevented by
vented by use of amulets, 95-96. use of amulets, 94: Roman
Pomegranate, part of, eaten in medicine unable to cure, 94.
magic prophylaxis, 106; 112. Quinsy prevented by magic, 107;
Poplar, twig of, used 88 amulet, 122.
91.
Popular conception of a magus, 5. Rain controlled by magic, 40 (cf.
Praebia, name given to amulets, 79. Nature controlled).
Prayer and spell mingled, 66; 68- Red, use of, in magic, 93; 94; 104-
69. 105.
Preventive or prophylactic magic, Religion, adds strength to magic,
76-123. 5: defined by Cicero, 12: de-
Priests, early Italian, versed in fined in modern terms, 16:
medical magic, 66; 69. distinguished from magic, 11-12:
Prodi,gia, in Livy, 48: in Tacitus, fostered by Roman thought and
50: in Valerius Maximus, 54: law, 12-13; 16 (cf. Magic and
within the interpretative control religion).
of each individual, 57. Rhombus, use of, 35.
Propertius, attitude of, toward Right foot, auspicious, 41.
magic, 35-36. Rings 88 amulets, 81; 85; 114: in
Prophylactic magic among the other medical magic, 108.
Romans, Pref.; 61-123, espe- Rural districts, home of Roman
cially 76-123. magic, 16-17; 22-23.
Prose romance, attitude of writers
of, toward magic, 40-45. · Sabaoth, used in spells, 69, n. 30.
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INDEX BERUM 139
Superstition · distinguished from 78; 84; 106; 107; 119, n. 283;
magic, 11. 120.
Swallow in medical magic, 84; 93; Threshold in magic, 64 and n. 10;
107; 111; 122. 78.
81/fnpathia, based on acts and Throat, diseases of, prevented by
positions, 117-118: on appear- amulets, 87.
ance of the amulet, 115-116: Throwing behind cine in magic, 37,
on growth and withering of the n. 195; 46, n. 248.
amulet, 117: on incant.amenta, Tibullus, attitude of, toward magic,
121-122: on natural qualities of 34-35.
the amulet material, 116-117: Tisiphone addressed in magic, 39,
obscure, 122-123: based on odd n. 201.
numbers, 119-120: on purity, Toothache prevented by amulets,
120-121: on seasons, 118-119: on 87: by other magic means, 107;
source of the amulet, 113-115: US.; 120.
basis of prophylactic magic, 9; Tortoise, blood of, used in magic
· 113-123: Cicero's belief in, 30: prophylaxis, 107; 111; 120.
essential to amulets, 78; 101- Treatises, formal Latin, upon occult
102; 105; 107-108; 113-123: subjects, 17-19.
Pliny's belief in, 58: Stoic belief Trifolium acutum used 88 amulet,
in, 30. 95.
Tuccia carries water in a sieve, 21.
Taboo, in amul~, 77; .113: defi- Tullus Hostilius, victim of attempt
·nition of, 78, n. 65. at magic, 22; 48-49.
Tacitus, attitude of, toward magic, Tumors prevented by amulets, 91;
50-51. 115-116; 117.
Tartarus lighted up by magic, 42. Twelve Tables, Laws of, forbid
Teeth not to be touched, 106; 108. magic (cf. Magic illegal): prove
Teething, troubles of, prevented by existence of early Roman magic,
use of amulets, 92; 114-115; 21-23.
116.
Telmessus, a center of magic, 20. Unloosing in magic, 37, n. 195; 38,
Temple sleep, 65, n. 16. n. 199; 39, n. 201; 40; 106; 118.
Terence, attitude of, toward magic, Urinary diseases prevented by amu-
28-29. lets, 88; 114.
Tertian fever, cured by magic, Uvular complaints prevented by
52-53: prevented by amulets, 94. magic, 107-108.
Tetter prevented by magic, 108.
Thessaly prominent in magic, 12; Valerius Maximus, attitude of,
20 and n. 98; 22; 36, n. 193; 42. toward magic, 54.
Three 88 a magio number, Pref.; Vanish, power to, 57.
37, n. 195; 47; 48, n. 259; 56, Varicose veins prevented by magic,
n. 317; 58 and n. 349; 64; 65; 109.
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140 INDEX RERUM
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INDEX LOCORUM
Aelian Met. 1, 1 42
De Nat. An. 2, 18 70, n. 34 1, 9-20 42, n. 227
V. H.12, 11 67, n. 26 1, 20 43
Aeschines 2, 1 20, n. 98; 42
In Ctes. 137 2, n.11 2,5 4, n. 21
Aeschylus 2,21-30 42,n.227
Agam. 1021-1022 70, n. 34 3, 15 12
Eumen. 648-650 70, n. 34 3, 16--18 42,n.m
Op. Incert. 24 3,21 9, n. 39; 42
Ammianus Marcellinus 3, 24-25 42
16, 8, 2 53; 76 6, 16 4, n. 21
19, 12, 14 53, n. 300; 76 6,26 5,n.22
83, n. 102 9, 29-31 42, n. 227
29,2,2-3 53 10, 31 68,n.27
29, 2, 28 53,n.300 11, 1 20, n. 100
Anecdotum Latinum 11, 6; 12, 13 43
77; 199; 200 69,n.30 De Plat.1, 3 1, n. 6; 4, n. 20;
Apuleius 21,n.102
Apol. 25-26 1, n. 6; 4, n. 20; 5 Aristotle
27 10; 44; 45, n. 243 apud Diogenem Laertium,
31 8, n. 38; 24, n. 116 Vit. Phil., Proem. 1 2, n. 9; 3
36 45, n. 242 Arnobius
40 70,n.34 Adv. Gent. 1, 52 20,n.99
41 44,n.239 Augustine
42 18, n. 87; 46; 120, n. 291 De Civ. Dei 3, 25 67,n.26
43 45 4, 11 68,n.27
47 12-13 4, 15 67,n.26
66 44, n. 239 5,3 18, n. 88
71 44, n. 239 6, 9 66, n. 21
00 20,n.99;21,n.103; 7, 21 46, n. 247
44,n.239 7,35 47,n.252
102 44,n.239 8, 16 4, n.19
De Deo Socrat. 6 4 and n. 21 8, 19 12, n. 53; 13, n. 56;
7 24, n. 123 42,n. 225
24 8, n. 38; 24, n. 116 10, 9 5,n.22
Flor.15 19, n. 96; 20, n. 100 18, 17 46
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142 INDEX LOCORUM
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INDEX LOCORUK 143
6, 26, :I 27, n. 141 Elegiae in Maecenatem
7, 5, 17 64, n. 10 110; 112 8,n.38
8, 5, 8 119, n. 283 Elmer, H. C. 71, n. 37
8, 5, 9; 7, 4 27, n. 141 Elworthy, F. T. 7,n.30;71,n.37
10,349-350 9, n.39 Ennemoeer, J. 48, n. 261
10, 360 27, n. 141 Euripides
11, 1, 31 18; 26, n. 134 Orest. 1497 ff. 2
11, 2, 11; 2, 52; 2, 85; 3, 22
27, n. 141 Fabricius 20, n. 101
11, 3, 38; 3, 50 27, n. 141 Fahz, L. 32, n. 165; 36, n. 191
12, 16, 1; 19, 3; 43, 2; Fay,E. W. 71,n.37
43, 9; 53, 3 27, n. 141 Festus
Companion to Lat. Studies 9, n. A ngerona 68, n. 27
40; 49, n. 266; 68, n. 27; praeb&a 79, n. 71
70, n. 33 striga 41, n. 215
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Julius Firmicus Maternus 18-19
6, 19, 747 38, n. 199 Foster, W. E. 44, n. 238
7, 999: 12, 3129 67, n. 26 Fowler, W. Warde 7; 16, n. 75;
Cumont, F. Pref. 24, n. 120; 25, n. 131; 48,
Curtius Rufus 3, 3, 10 50, n. 275 n. 261; 49, n. 266; 63, n. 8;
4, 3, 23; 6, 12 50, n. 276 66; 67, n. 24; 68, n. 27;
4, 6, 17 49 80, n. 84; 81, n. 88; 85, n.
4, 7, 26; 7, 29; 10, 7 50 n. 105; 119, n. 283
276 Frazer, J. G. 8, n. 37; 9, n. 41;
5, 1, 22 50, n. 275 10, n. 43; 19, n. 97; 20, n.
7, 4, 8; 7, 8 50 100; 28, n. 143; 40, n. 213;
8,9,33 49; 50 62, n. 3; 63, n. 6; 73, n. 42;
8, 10, 4: 9, 1, 34 50, nn. 274, 81; 92, n. 122
277 Friedlaender, L. 41, n. 214
Froehner, W. 79, n. 75
Damigeron Frontinus
De Lapidibus 9, n. 40 Strat. 1, 11, 12-14 54
Daremberg et Saglio 1, 12, 1-8 54
8, n. 38; 17, n. 80 1, 12, 2 48,n.255
Del Rio, M. • 79, n. 75 2, 1, 16 48; 54
Dieterich, A. 20, n. 99; 68, n. 27
Dill, S. Pref.; 14, n. 62; 26, n.133 Gargilius Martialis
Diogenes Laertius 1, 6 33, n. 17:1 Med. 33 96
Dionysius Gehring, A. 1, n. 1
Ant. Rom. 3, 71 24, n. 123 A. Gellius
Dioscorides N. A. 7, 6, 10 17, n. 83
Da Mat. Med. 3, 124 24, n. 116 9, 4, 11-12. 55
9, 4, 14-15 56
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144 INDEX LOCORUM
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146 INDEX LOCOBUM
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INDEX LOCOBUM 147
34, 67 119, n. 283 Ars.Amat.2,99-100 20,n.98
36, 26-28 9, n. 39; 87, n. 114 Fasti 2, 571-582 119, n. 283
Marcus Antoninus, 5, 7 40, n. 213 3,255-258 66,n.22
Marett, R. R. 69, n. 30; 78, n. 65 4, 549-554 65; 119, n. 283
Marquardt, J. 67, n. 23; 77, 4, 727 119,n.283
n. 64; 80, n. 78 5,429-444 25; 37,n.195
Martial 9, 29, 9-10 20, n. 98; 35, 6, 141-168 12, n. 53; 41, n.
n. 186; 37, n. 196 215; ~; 119, n. 283
12, 57, 15-17 37, n. 196 6, 180-182 109
Maury, A. 2, n. 10; 15, n. 74; 20, 6, 746-754 65; 119, n. 283
n. 99; 22, n. 110; 83, n. 102 Heroidee
Mayor, J. B. 11, n. 46 6, 91-93 8, n. 38; 10, n. 43
Meyer, L. 1, n. 3 Med. Fae. 36 4,n.21
Michel, C. 40, n. 213 Met. 5, 549-550 e, n. 39
Minucius Felix 6, 432-434 9,n.39
Oetav. 7, 98; 149 8, n. 38
26, 10-11 6, n. 29; 20, n. 99; 7, 152-156; 188-198 119, n.
2g, n. 150 283
27, 29 29, n.150 7, 224-233 8,n. 38
Mommsen, Th. 7, 255-257 12, n. 53
15, n. 74; 119, .n. 283 7, 261 ff. 119, n. 283
Monceaux, P. 7, 264-265 8, n. 38
42,n.225; 44,n.237 9, 297-315 62
Moore, C. H. 38, n. 199 10,452-543 9,n.39
Morgan, M. H. 40, n. 213 14, 14-22; 34 8, n. 38;
24, n. 116
14, 42-58 8, n. 38; 24, n. 116;
Naevius
119, n. 283
apud Varronem, L. L. 7, 107 79
14, 266-270 8, n. 38; 24, n.116
Nemesianus, Cyn. 44 24, n. 116
14, 346-348 24, n. 116;
New International
24, n. 118
Encyclopaedia 7; 19, n. 96 14, 355-360 24, n. 116
Nicolson, F. W. 71, n. 37 14, 365-366 101, n. 183
Nonius Marcellus 46, n. 248 14, 387 119, n. 283
14, 403 24, n. 116
Ogle, M. B. 64, n. 10 15, 791 9, n. 39
Oliphant, 8. G. 57, n. 326 Rem.Amor.249 20,n.98
Ovid 263 8, n. 38; 24, n. 116
Amor. l, 8, 5 4, n. 21
1, 14, 39-40 20, n. 98
3, 6, 17-18 36 Pacuvius
3, 7, 27-28 20,n.98 Frag. ex incert. fab. 39
3,7,29 10, n. 43 24, n. 116
Digitized by Goog Ie
148 INDEX LOCOBUM
Digitized by Goog Ie
INDEX LOCORUM 149
24, 12 73, n. 42 27, 57 56, n. 320
24, 47; 63 91 27, 60 24, n. 116
24,68 73, n. 42 27,89 87
24, 82 119, n. 283 27, 90 9
24, 103 73,n.42 27, 105 106
24, 104 64, n. 12 27, 131 119, n. 283
24, 133 119, n. 282 28,6 20, n. 99
24, 149 58 and n. 341 28, 7 57, n. 331; 74-75, n. 50
24, 156-158 20, n. 100; 28, 10 70, n. 36
75, n. 50 28, 10-14 56
24, 160 20, nn. 100, 101 28, 10-29 21-23
24, 164 2,n.7 28, 12-13 25, n. 127
24, 170 12, n. 53; 94 28, 13 23, n. 115; 70, n. 35
24, 172 58 and nn. 344, 349; 28, 14 57, n. 328
119, n. 283 28, 17 57
24, 172-176 73,n.42 28, 18 13, n. 56
24, 174 107 28, 19 34
25, 10-11 8, n. 38; 10; 24, 28,20 101, n. 183
nn. 116, 118; 25; 57 28, 21 47; 70, n. 34; 71, n.
25, 13-14 20, n. 101; 38; 74-75, n. 50;
56, n. 321 119, n. 283
25, 25 57, n. 332 28, 22 57, n. 337
25, 50 58, n. 347; 59 28, 23 58, n. 345; 119, n. 283
25, 106 110 28,28 58
25, 107 110, n. 224 28, 29 23, n. 115; 57, n. 329;
25, 115 79, n. 73; 82, n. 94 82; 86
25, 126 96, n. 133 28, 3o-33 58, n. 344
25, 127 59, n. 352 28, 33 119, n. 283
25, 129 57; 59, n. 352 28, 34 74-75, n. 50
25, 145 119, n. 282 28, 35 71, n. 37; 108
25, 147 24, n. 116 28, 35-39 58
25, 148 58, n. 346; 28, 35-46 74 and n. 50
119, n. 283 28,36 581 n. 346; 75
25, 163 96, n. 133 28, 37 106; 108
25, 167 58, nn. 346, 349; 73, 28, 38 74-75, n. 50; 78, n. 68;
n. 42; 119, n. 283 79, n. 73
26, 18 56, n. 320 28,39 80,n.84
26, 18-20 56; 57, nn. 323, 28, 41 89; 120, n. 291
331, 332; 73; 75, n. 50 28, 42 73, n. 42; 74-75, n.
26, 19 20, n. 101; 56, n. 321 50; 82, n. 97; 86-87
26, 24 91 28, 44 106
26, 91 89; 91 28,47-49 74
26,93 119, n. 283 28, 48 89
Digitized by Goog Ie
150 INDEX LOCORUM
Digitized by Goog Ie
INDEX LOCORUM 151
30, 138 79, n. 73 37, 165 9, n. 40; 57, n. 323
30, 143 58, n. 344 37, 168 9,n.40
30, 144 9,n.39 37, 169 9, n. 40; 56, n. 320;
32, 24 59, n. 355; 92 57, nn. 323, 333, 334
32, 37 107 37, 172; 176 9, n. 40
32, 41 73, n. 42 37, 178 75, n. 50
32, 44 59, n. 355 37, 185 9, n. 40
32, 49 56, n. 321; 57, n. 323 37, 19'2 9, n. 40;
32, 74 59, n. 355 57, nn. 323, 333
32, 9'2 58, n. 349 37, index auctorum 19, n. 96
32, 115 119, n. 282 Pliny the Younger
32, 137 93 Epist. 1, 18 52, n. 291
33, 8 57, n. 339 Plutarch
33, 10 80, n. 85 Rom.12 18, n. 92
34, 151 64, n. 10; 73, n. 42; De Superst. paarim 11, n. 46
119, n. 283 Pomponius Mela
36, 100 58,n.348 2, 120; 121 24, n. 118
36, 141; 142 9,n.40 Porphyrio
36, 151 9, n. 40; 90 on Horace, Sat. 1, 5, 65 80, n . 81
37,50 79, n. 73; 92 Propertius
37, 50-51 82 1, 12, 9-10 35
37, 51 88, n. 116 2, 1, 51-56 35
37, 54 9,n.40 2, 1, 53; 1, 54; 4, 7 8, n. 38;
37, 114 92 24, n. 116
37, 118 9, n. 40; 56, n. 320; 2,4, 7-8 35,n. 190
57; 79, n. 73 2, 28b, 35-38 35, n. 185
37, 124 9, n.40 3, 3, 47-50; 6, 25-34 35
37, 133 19, n. 96; 57, n. 324 3, 12, 27 8,n. 38
37, 135 9, n. 40; 57, n. 324; 59 4, 5, 1- 18; 7, 37; 7, 72 35
37, 142 9, n. 40; 57, n. 324; Prudentius
58, n. 344; 59, n. 353 Hamart. 220 68,n.27
37, 143 9, n.40 Pseudo-Aero
37, 144 9, n. 40; 57, n. 324 on Horace, Sat. 1, 5, 65 81,n.87
37, 145 9, n. 40; 9'2 n. 123 Pseudo-Apuleius
37, 147 9, n. 40 De Med. Herb. 4, 7 96,n. 133
37, 150 19, n.96 19, 4; 24, l; 91, 2 76
37, 153; 155 9, n. 40 Pseudo-Asoonius
37, 155-156 57,nn.323, 333 Verr. p. 199 80, n. 81
37, 156 9, n. 40 Pseudo-Pliny
37, 157; 159 19, n. 96 1, 17 87
37, 160; 162 9, n. 40 2, 18 88, n. 116
37, 164 9, n. 40; 56, n. 320 2, 21 73, n. 42; 88, n. 117; 89,
37, 164-165 57, n. 333 n.118
Digitized by Goog Ie
152 INDEX LOCORUM
Digitized by Goog Ie
INDEX LOCORUM 153
Solinus 59 47; 51, n. 286
2, 26 28, n. 147 81 51, n. 286
2,29 66, n. 19 88 51, n. 287
33, 20 92 Cal. 57 51, n. 286
37, 15 90 57,2 52, n. 288
Sophocles Claud.
Oed. Tyran. 387 2, n. 11 1, 2; 22; 29, 3; 46 51, n. 286
Sotion Domit. 14, 1 52, n. 288
apud Diogenem Laertium, Nero 6, 4 52
1, 6, Proem. 6 33, n. 172 34, 4 12, n. 52; 52, n. 290
Spartianus 36 52, n.288
Carac. 5, 7 15; 52-53; 83 56 51,n.287; 52,n. 292
5, 8 76, n. 55 Otho 4, 1; 6, 1 52, n. 288
Did. Jul. 7, 1 52, n. 294; Tiber. 69 52, n. 288
4, n. 21 72 51, n. 286
7,9-10 52 Vespas. 7 52, n. 290
7, 10 120, n. 291 Vitel2,4 52,n.290
Geta 2, 6; 3, 1 52, n. 293 . 14, 4 15; 52, D . 288
3, 2 ff. 52,n.294 Suidas
Hadrian 2, 4; 16, 10 52, n. 293 s. vv. 'YOTl'"dc& and µe1'Yde1 2, n. 8;
25, 1-4 76 4, n.19
Pescen. Nig. 9, 5-6 52, n. 293 Symmachus
Sever. 1, 6 ff. 52, n. 294 Epist. 1, 47, 1 24, n. 116
2,8-9 52, n. 293 Synesius
3,4 52,n. 294 Epist. ad Diosc. 20,n.99
4, 3; 15, 5 52, n. 293
Statius,
Theb. 3, 140-146 20,n.98 Tacitus
3, 510-512 9,n. 39 Ann. 1, 28 51
3, 557- 559: 4, 504 20,n. 98 2, 27 4, n. 21; 50, n. 278
Story, W.W. 7,n.30 2, 27-28 50
Strabo 2, 27-32 51
5,234 24, n. 118 2, 32 4, n. 21; 15; 50, n. 278
16, 762 1, n. 5 2,69 50,n.280;57
Sturtevant, E. H. 39, n. 202 3, 13 50,n. 280
Suetonius 3,22 50,n.278
Aug.6 51 4, 22; 52 50, n. 280
31 15 4, 58: 6, 2o-21; 22 50, n. 278
90 52 6, 29 4, n. 21; 50, n. 280
92 51 and n. 287 12, 22 4, n. 21; 50, nn.
94 51, n. 286 278, 280
94,5 18, n. 88; 52 12, 52 15; 50, n. 278
Caes. 32 48 12, 65 50,n.280
Digitized by Goog Ie
154 INDEX LOCORUM
Digitized by Goog Ie
INDEX LOCORUM 155
1, 2, 28 72 7, 10-24 28
1, 37 27 7, 19-20 24, n.116
2, 9, 4; 3, 9, 12 119, n. 283 7, 189-191 28, n. 144
Sat. Men. 7, 19o-191 24, n. 116
Agatho, fr. 8 9, n. 39 7,282-283 28, n. 144
fragg. 284; 285; 490 40, n. 212 7, 750-758 24; 28; 66
apud Augustinum, C. D. 6. 9 11, 785-788 28
12, D. 50 Eel. 7, 25-28 28, n 142
C. D. 7, 21 46, n. 247 8, 73-78 119, n. 283
7,35 2,n.7;4,n.20;17,n.79 8, 74-75; SO-Sl 10,n.43
18, 17 46 8, panim 28, n.142
apud Charisium 1, 105, 9 Georg.
77, n. 62 3,28o-283 28 and n. 242
apud A. Gellium, 3, 10 46, n. 249 Vitruvius
apud Lactantium De Arch. 9, Proem., 14 20,
lnstit. Div. 1,20,36 46 n.101
apud Nonium Marcellum, Vopiscus
p. 197 25, n. 125; 46, n. 248 Aurel 5, 1 ff.; Tac. 17, 1 ff.
apud Servium 52, n. 294
adAen. 11, 787 28,n. 147
apud Tertullianum Walde, A. 77, n. 62; 80, n. 78
Ad Nat. 2, 11 46, n. 245 Weidlich, T. 9, n. 41; 20, n. 101;
Velleius Paterculus 30,n.160
2, 24, 3 2, n. 7; 4, n. 20; 49 Welcker, F. G. 8, n. 38; 70, n. 34
2, 46, 3 49 Westermarck, E. 7-8
2, 57, 1-3 . 49, n. 270 Wimmer, F. 3, n. 18
2, 57, 3 49 Wissowa, G. 24, nn. 118, 120;
2, 59,6 49,n.270 25, n. 124; 63, n. 8; 66, n.
Vergil 19; 67, n. 26; 73, n. 42
Aen. 4, 483-493 24; 28
4, 509-516 24, n. 122; Xenophon
28, n. 146 Cyrop.8, 1,23 1, n. 5
6, 136-155 28,n. 143
6, 276 68, n. 27 Zeller, E. 20, n. 100
6,405-410 28, n. 143
Digitized by Goog Ie
Digitized by Goog Ie
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