Roman Magic

by: M. Horatius Piscinus

Here are some examples of magical practices that were accepted by the

Romans. You will run into them occasionally. I will begin with the one spell

given by Cato in De Agricultura CLX

Luxum ut ex canles: To cure a dislocation by a charm. If any joint is

dislocated it will be made well by this incantation. Take a green reed four or

five feet long, split it in half and let two men hold the halves at their hips.

Begin to sing a charm: MOTAS VAETA DARIES DARDARES ASTATARIES

DISSUNA PITER until the halves come together. Keep brandishing a sword

over them. When they have come together and one half-reed touches the

other, seize them in the hand and cut them off to the right and left, bind

them on the dislocation or fracture and it will be cured. However, go through

the form of incantation daily over the man who has suffered the dislocation.

Or use this form: HUAT, HAUT, HAUT, ISTASIS TARSIS ARDANNABOU

DANNAUSTRA.

This last incantation seems to be archaic Latin and may have been HUAT

HAUAT HUAT ISTA PISTA SISTA DAMNABO DAMNA USTRA, or in Classical

Latin AVET AVET AVET ISTA PESTIS SISTAT DAMNABO DAMNA VESTRA,

meaning "I pray, pray, pray, may this trouble cease; I will harm what harms
you"

The person who studies the art of magic and other occult arts was mostly

called a magus (when he studies and practiced magic). A magus could

summon Gods, Daemons, Heroes, souls, if they were eager to help or serve

the magus by means of his magical knowledge, technique and experience.

When he summoned daemons, heroes and souls- he could either help, heal,

destroy and/ or kill. One of the important concept in magic is sympathy. Not

compassion but cosmic sympathy as it means action and reaction in the

universe. Even Wiccans know this that when magic is used to create an

action, one might always suspect that there will be a reaction coming your

way. So the magi protects himself from this reaction. Just as the microcosm

reflects and reacts to the macrcosm because both influence one another and

share a deep affinity. This was held with variations by pythagoreans, Stoics

and Platonists. Another example of sympathy is being described by Tacitus

upon the death of the popular emperor Germanicus under mysterious

circumstances. When the people found out that magic wasn't excluded as a

possible answer to the mysterious death, the people went to the temples,

and kicked out the statues of the gods to let their Gods know their pain and

to react on it. According to George Luck, this is still done today by Italian

fishermen. Theurgy as it was described by Iamblichus in his work "On the

mysteries of Egypt" as it means "higher magic". He defines it as a activity

surpassing the understanding of man , an activity based on the use of silent

symbols that are fully known only to the gods but isn't quite understood by

the higher magus or theurgist. In fact the Theurgist uses the cosmic

sympathy to work through him and allow him to work. The secret lies is

"power through sympathy" and "sympathy through power" as G. Luck says.

In fact he gives us 4 different positions on the relationship between magic

and religion that were argued.

1) Magic becomes religion

2) Religion tries to reconcile personal powers where magic has failed to do

so.

3) Magic and religion have common roots.

4) Magic is a degenerate form of religion.

There is a difference between the magi and a religious person. When a

religious pray for something and thank the deity in question later on, he

does this in a somewhat submissive manner while the magi can do this as

well but sometimes he uses threats to compel the Gods to do his bidding.

This isn't always the case. The magi can be like the religious person and be

submissive and grateful towards his Gods. The difference between the two

lies in how they approach their Gods. One does is through prayers and

rituals (which is also kind of magic) to strengthen his request while the magi
uses magic to put strength behind his request he wants to make to his Gods.

Although there are 4 different fundamental positions mentioned by George

Luck in Arcana Mundi, which I did mention here, one thing is certain and I

agree with the author that the roots of magic lie in prehistoric times and will

survive any religion and civilisation under one form or another. This I'm

certain of. I think what I said here also applies to the Hellenic religion

concerning magic.

One reason I posted Cato's spell is to illustrate that it does not have the

character of the kind of magic employed by magi or theurgists, nor does it

admit to a subserviance that Orcus has posed of religious prayers. Roman

prayers are described as contractual because they are often not submissive

at all. As part of the contract, too, there is in Roman practice what Orcus

mentions, that men could punish gods for not fulfilling their end of the

bargain. Approach, as Orcus says, can be used to distinguish between magic

and religions, but I do not think Roman practice would fit either definition

that he gave, or that George Luck provides.

The first part of Cato's spell uses sympathetic magic, a kind sometimes

referred to as natural magic. It does not use symbols, or correspondences in

the manner used in theurgy. He mimics an action he hopes will be duplicated

in something else; that is, he acts with the natural properties of the reeds in
order to effect an action on the injured body.

Cato's prayer or incantation, carmen can mean either, is not a submissive

prayer, since it threatens to do harm to whatever is causing the injury, and

includes a statement of will, his will for the body to heal, rather than calling

upon any god or daemon to effect a cure. There is implied that some

supernatural agent is at work, that caused the injury and could heal it, which

he threatens. There is implied that he can do harm to whatever the agent of

injury is, and that he can do so through a magical power of words. Since the

prayer contains an either/or condition, heal or be harmed, it may be said to

be contractual. Yet it is not the typical sort of prayer we normally see in the

Religio Romana. The implied agent here is probably a lemur, or one of the

evil manes; that is, the spirit of a deceased person who delights in mischief

by harming others. Cato does not call on some higher daemon or deity to

compel the agent of injury, or the lemur, to reverse the harm it has caused,

as a magi would. Instead he deals directly with the lemur, in the same way

that Ovid describes the rite of Lemuria when he makes an offering to the

Manes but also orders them to leave. Cato's prayer does not fall under the

kind of rites performed to celestial deities as in the cultus civile. But it does

fall into a category of practices in the Religio Romana that deal with the

Manes, primarily in the culti geniale, and so there is a religious element in

Cato's spell. But the salient feature is Cato's willing the leg to heal. He does
not ask. He does not leave it to the gods to decide. He acts in a magical way

to affect a natural process.

One place where practice in the cultus civile may be considered magical in

nature is with all the tabus placed upon the flamen Dialis, as recorded by

Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights X.15.1-25. One of those tabus was that "the nail

parings of the Dialis and his hair trimmings are buried in earth under a

fruitful tree." Elsewhere there is mention of a distinction being made

between "fruitful" trees and other trees considered to be evil or cursed.

Certain trees were regarded as protective, purifying, or beneficial. The

whitethorn was carried in bridal processions as one means to protect the

bride from the evil eye of onlookers, and was also hung over the lintel of the

grooms house as a means of guarding his house from evil influences. The

"Sabine herb" mentioned in marriages rites and purifications was the variety

of juniper. Pliny said that its odor, when burned or rubbed on the skin, would

repel the approach of serpents (Hist. Nat. 24.36) which is also mentioned by

Virgil (Geor. 3.414) Certain religious articles were required to be made from

specific trees. The fetiales carried spears made of cornel (Livy I.32.6-14).

The fasces were made of elm (Plautus Asinaria 262-4). The lituus of augures

was made of a single tree branch, without knots, and having a natural curl,

taken from a "fruitful" tree. What were these "fruitful" trees is mentioned by

Veranius, Ex Pontificalum Quaestionum Libris, quoted by Macrobius. "The

beneficial trees (felices arbores) are thought to be the oak, the forest oak,

holm oak, cork tree, beech tree, hazel, service berry tree, white fig, pear

tree, apple tree, the vine, the plum tree, cornel (red dogwood), cherry tree,

and the Italian lotus (Sat. 3.20.2)." Other trees also bore fruit, were

considered beneficial, and had medicinal, protective, or other magical

properties, such as the elder and rowan, but were not, in the context of the

Religio Romana, especially with the cultus civile, regarded to be among the

"fruitful" trees.

Why particular varieties of trees held significance is described by Pliny the

Elder. "Trees were the templa of the gods, and, following ancient established

rituals, country places even now dedicate an outstandingly tall tree to a god.

Even images of shining gold and ivory are worshipped less by us than forests

and their silence. Different types of trees are dedicated to their own deities

and these relationships are kept for all time. For example, the Italian holm

oak is sacred to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle

to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules. We also believe that the Silvani and

Fauni and various goddesses are, as it were, assigned to forests by heaven

(Hist. Nat. 12.3)."

Thus there is the idea that trees can hold the numina of a specific god,

depending on the kind of tree, or that they are inhabited by or protected by

certain di inferi. By bringing parts of these trees into one's house or ritual

you also bring the influence of the deity. Rustic shrines we are told had

rough cut wooden images of gods, or simply smooth planks, for the same

reason. By templum Pliny does not mean an edifice or house of a god, but a

holy item associated with a god. By bringing the wood of a particular tree

into your shrine you also brought the numen of that deity, whereby a

connection was made to the deity himself. In addition to trees, herbs and

certain stones were considered in the same way, associated with specific

deities and offering certain magical properties. Pliny the Elder is a treasure

trove of such associations. Although you might argue, as I have done in the

past, that there is some differences to be drawn, this conception of the

properties of trees is very close to Hermetic correspondences, and the

manner in which they were employed in the Religio Romana would have to

be regarded as magical in nature.

A binding spell generally refers to a kind of love spell, binding another

person to you. There is another type of binding spell that inhibits a person

from taking certain actions or speaking, but from its nature it is used

referred to as a curse or defixio.

The supernatural agents generally used in Roman magic would be the Manes

and Di inferi. In later periods, that is, during the imperial era, numina were
directly callled upon almost as though they we separate entities so that they

might appear to be a supernatural agent in their own right. But a numen is

always a power extending from a god or goddess. In Cato's case, there is an

assumption that ills are caused by the action of some supernatural being.

Plague, in Livy's record, is always viewed as a divine punishment. Illness of

an individual, or with Cato an injury, some lesser supernatural being is

usually thought to be the cause. This has to do with a bigger question I

suppose, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The Romans most

often thought such things happened by the action of wicked individuals,

either living or dead. Defixiones call upon the deceased to act in a vengeful

manner. Brides are covered with protective amulets to prevent the jealous

eyes of others to do her harm. Then too is the provision of the XIITabulae

against harmful witchcraft. Some actions that could not be attributed to any

living person were believed to be the work of the larvae who were simply

evil spirited ghosts, but ghosts nontheless. Most, if not all really, magical

practices of the Romans is in the nature of protection against evil magic, or

in healing which can be viewed as protective magic as well. Elsewhere there

is some love magic found, employing natural charms, but most spells of that

nature are foreign introductions.

With the Romans the supernatural is populated with greater and lesser gods

and goddesses of the heavens, the greater and lesser gods and goddesses of
the earth called the Di inferi, then the semi-divine creatures of the earth like

the fauni and silvani, and there are the spirits of the dead, the Manes, who

may be placed into different categories. There are no other supernatural

agents recognized by the Romani.

Here are a few thoughts and observations on the legality of magic in the

Roman world. This doesn't address just what was and wasn't magic to the

Roman legal mind, in some ways they never answered the question

themselves. Regarding the legality of magic however, the Romans expressed

a distrust of magical rites. The Twelve Tables of the early republic outlawed

most, if not all magical practices and made them a capital offense. While

these tables are fragmentary, the table on crimes, Table VII (?) and the

table on public laws, Table IX contain the seminal laws that influenced later

rulings.

During the period of the late republic, the Senate pronounced several

senatusconsulta banning or expelling non-Roman cults thought to employ

magical rites. Livy gives a detailed account of the suppression of the Bacchic

cult in 186 BC in book XXXIX of his History. Valerius Maximus (1.3) records

the expulsion of magi – astrologers 139 BC. Other measures passed include

one in 33 BC by Octavian and Agrippa banning magicians and astrologers

(from Dio Cassius 49.43).

Traditionally, Romans were supposed to scorn such arts and not resort to

them. Cato writes in his text De Agricultura that the owner of a farm should

not bother consulting magicians and astrologers (I.5). The fact that he feels

he needs to include this passage might indicate that many of Cato’s fellow

farmers did consult such practitioners.

As Dictator, Sulla expanded the scope of the Twelve Tables with his Lex

Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis in 82 BC. This measure apparently clarified

and added to earlier measures that addressed homicide. A section of this law

reiterated and expanded the definition of poison, which it formally outlawed.

Poison was in some ways thought to be associated with magic. It also

outlawed the use of charms and probably binding magic – defixiones.

During the Imperial period, there were a series of laws and imperial edicts

issued by emperors that built upon the previous legal documents. In 16 AD,

according to Suetonius, the Senate at the instigation of Tiberius voted to

expel astrologers, sorcerers and diviners. In 69 AD both Vitellius and

Vespasian pronounced edicts banning astrology and other arts (Tacitus 2.62

and Dio Cassius 65.4 (?)). Domitian also repeated this measure (Suetonius).

Later, Diocletian enacted an empire-wide ban on magical practices in 296.

The fact that these same laws were repeatedly enacted demonstrates the
futility of the efforts to stop the practice of magic.

Legal pronouncements on the subject appear in later collections of Roman

law. Justinian’s Codex records a pronouncement from Constantius II to his

Caesar Julian in 357 concerning the matter of magic of all kinds (IX.xviii.5).

Constantius forbade all uses and applications of it under penalty of death.

The Jurist Julius Paulus discussed the use of magic and perhaps gives the

most complete answer preserved of the penalties for using outlawed magic:

"Whoever performs or commissions unlawful nocturnal rites, in order to cast

a spell, to curse or to bind someone, will be crucified or thrown to the

beasts… It is the prevailing legal opinion that participants in the magical art

should be subject to the extreme punishment, that is, thrown to the beasts

or crucified. But the magicians themselves should be burned alive. It is not

permitted for anyone to have in his possession books of the magical art. If

they are found in anyone’s possession, after his property has been

expropriated and the books burned publicly, he is to be deported to an island

or, if he is of the lower class, beheaded (XXI.1-4)."

Paulus’s works date from the late 2nd or early 3rd century. His

pronouncements, while harsh seem to be worded to allow some room for

practitioners of “legitimate” magic, whatever that might be, freedom from

the laws of the time. This might reflect a series of pronouncements

stemming from the Jurist Ulpian (?) who reasoned that the study of magic

should not be a punishable offence, however the practice of it should be.

This thread is also found in some passages of the Codex (IX.xviii.2). As time

passed the rulings against magic grew stronger, more harsh and more

inclusive so that by the time of Justinian, most all the arts or practices that

might be construed as magic were completely outlawed in practice and in

theory.

Authors like Suetonius, Tacitus, Dio Cassius and Ammianus Marcellinus

record various instances where members of the Roman nobility were

accused and tried on charges of using or commissioning magical rites. These

were often astrological forecasts or defixiones. Ammianus wrote of an

attempt by several officers to determine who would succeed the emperor

Valens and the savage response of the emperor when he discovered the

results (Ammianus 29.1-17). It is also interesting to note that most of the

archaeological evidence of magic in the Graeco-Roman world such as spell

books, votives, tablets etc. come from the third to fifth centuries. Magic

survived in some respects and even flourished despite the attempts to

eliminate it.

From M. Terentius Varro Reatinus

Rerum Rusticarum de Agricultura I 2.27

If your feet hurt: "I think of you; heal my feet. May Terra restrain plague.

May this health remain in my feet." Nine times must you recite this (charm),

touching the earth, and then spit on the ground. This must be recited in due

seriousness.

EGO TUI MENINI; MEDERE MEIS PEDIBUS.

TERRA PESTEM TENETO. SALUS HIC MANETO IN MEIS PEDIBUS

And for the season, a few defixiones

Appel no. 53: Against bath house thieves:

Proserpina, Goddess who is called Atacina in Turibrigia, through your

majesty I ask, I pray, I implore that you vindicate me of each and every

theft that is made against me, whosoever has altered my life, violated me,

lessened me by taking these things that I have listed below: six tunics, "two

cloaks, on of these being of Indian linen "I do not know (who took them).

May you call down upon him the worst possible death.
Dea Atacina Turibrig(ensis) Proserpina, per tuam maiestatem te rogo oro

obsecro, uti vindices, quot mihi furti factum est; quisquis mihi imudavit

involavit minusve fecti eas [res], q(wae) i(nfra) s(criptae): tunicas VI

"[pa]enula lintea II, in[dus]ium cuius I c v "m ignoro ia " [eum tu pessimo

leto adficias (vel simile quid)].

Appel no, 54:

This I put before Your numen, I hand over to You, I consecrate to You, I

sacrifice to You this ravenous wolf, this pimp who is called Caucadius, who is

the son of Salusties, a bastard of Venus by a whore of Venus, in order that

You, raging hot Water, with You Nymphs, who I call upon with whatever

name You wish to be addressed, that You may destroy him, You may kill him

within a year's time.

Letinium Lupum qui et vocatur Caucadio, qui est fi[lius] Salusti[es Vene]ries

sive Ven[e]rioses, hunc ego put vostrum numen demando devoveo

desacrifico, uti vos Aquae ferventes, siv[e v]os Nimfas [si]ve quo alio

nomine voltis adpe[l]lari, uti vos eum interematis interficiatis intra annum

itsum.

Appel no. 59:

I pray to You who reigns over the infernal regions, to You I commend Julia
Faustilla, daughter of Marius, that You may quickly carry her off, abduct her

to the nether regions and there may You count her among the spirits of the

dead.

Te rogo, qui infernales partes tenes, commendo tibi Iulia Faustilla, Marii filia,

ut eam celerius abducas et ibi in numeru tu abias .

Appel no. 56:

Gods of this Earth, to you I commend, if anyone (else) would propose holy

rites or seek bonds of marriage with dearest Ticene, no matter what he may

propose, may you put an end to all he says. Gods of this Earth, to you I

commend these limbs, her complexion, her figure, head, and hair, her

shadow, brain, brow, eye lashes, mouth, nose, chin, cheeks, lips, her

speech, her breath, her neck, her sense of humor, shoulders, heart, lungs,

intestines, stomach, arms, fingers, hands, navel, viscera, female organs,

blood, ankles, the top of her feet, down to her toes. Gods of this Earth, if

these I see begin to waste away, then a sacrifice I'll gladly make on the

anniversary to you gods of our fathers 'may you waste (her) property.

Di iferi, vobis, comedo, si quiccua sactitates hebetes ac tadro Ticene Carisi,

quodquod agat quod imcidant omnia in adversa. Dii inferi, vobis comedo ilius

memra, colore figura caput capilla umbra cerebru frute supercilia os nasu
mentu bucas labra verbr alitu colu iocur umeros cor fulmones intestinas

ventre bracia dititos manus ubblicu visica femena genua crura talos planta

titidos. Dii iferi, si vider tabescente, vobis sactu ilud libens ob anuversariu

facere dibus parentibus ilius ?ta peculiu tabescas.

But if you're into magical healing there is Marcellus Empiricus

De Medicamentis

14.67

Neither blood nor bile the ant has, chase (him) away from these ovaries,

(that) the cancer will not consume you.

Formica sanguinem non habet nec fel, fuge uva, ne cancer te comedat.

15.11

Synanche

(To cure a sore throat)

Come forth! Today Daughter, the One before the Daughter

Today created, before she was created,

This sickness, this disease,

This pain, this swelling, this redness,

This goiter, these tonsils,

This tumor, these little tumors,

This swelling gland, these swelling little glands,

With pious rite I call out, I summon; I entice with songs that You come

forth

From these limbs, from these bones, (from this body).

EXI, <SI> HODIE NATA, SI ANTE NATA

SI HODIE CREATA, SI ANTE CREATA;

HANC PESTEM, HANC PESTILENTIAM,

HUNC DOLOREM, HUNC TUMOREM, HUNC RUBOREM,

HAS TOLES, HAS TOSILLAS,

HUNC PANUM, HAS PANUCLAS,

HANC STRUMAM, HANC STRUMELLAM,

HAC RELIGIONE EVOCO DUCO ExCANTO

DE ISTIS MEMBRIS MEDULLIS.

36.70 Chase away, chase away, gout and all the pains of the sinews from

my feet and from all my limbs.

Fuge, fuge, podagra et omnis nervorum dolor, de pedibus meis et omnibus

membris meis.