Nemo Non Metuit
Magic in the Roman World

Elizabeth Ann Pollard (Edited by), Fabrizio Conti (Edited by)

9786156405432

Hardback, published 28 February 2023

556 pages, 17 pages of illustrations
21 x 14.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.272 kg

"Magic in Western antiquity existed within a social and cultural context quite different from the subsequent Christian-dominated cultures of medieval and early modern Europe. Yet ancient ideas of magic and stereotypes about various kinds of magical practitioners profoundly influenced later conceptions. The essays collected in this volume all properly set Roman magical beliefs and practices in their own specific contexts. The volume as a whole, however, also looks forward, positioning Roman magic as an essential basis from which later beliefs and practices either developed or in many cases were consciously reshaped in light of the received authority of Roman models.

These essays span the full range of magic's history in the Roman world, from real practices performed via physical objects that we can in some cases still hold in our hands today (gems, curse tablets) to literary constructions that exerted tremendous force on both contemporary and subsequent imaginings about how magic operated and who magicians were supposed to be. Focus falls on the imperial center and on the provinces, and extends chronologically from Rome's own appropriation of the magical practices of earlier cultures to the critical metamorphosis that ideas about magic underwent in late antiquity, as Christian beliefs became dominant across the classical world. With this breadth, the volume provides an excellent introduction to Roman magic and an essential basis for those interested in magic in later periods as well." —Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University

Nemo Non Metuit has the ambitious goal of discussing some of the fundamental themes in the development of the idea of magic, in all its facets, in the long chronological span of the Roman world, between the 8th century BCE and the 5th century CE. At the same time, this volume is the result of a team effort that has brought together both accomplished scholars and young researchers at the beginning of their scholarly careers. Altogether, this ample work is the result of a synergy that brought together different approaches to the study of Roman magic. The broad content of this volume includes studies on magical gems of Etruscan, Greek and Phoenician background; curse tablets; amulets targeting malaria; erotic spells; the use of veneficia or poisons for magical purposes; judicial prayers in Roman Britain; witches in the literary tradition; the role of women in the matter of magic and divination; the figure of the "Orphic witch" in the age of Augustus; sorcerers and rivals of Jesus Christ; early-Christian sermons against magic and superstition; the fight of late-antique Church against magical powers. By addressing such a diverse spectrum of topics, this volume aims to challenge traditional views and open new paths of interpretation in the reconstruction of a long-term cultural-historical object such as magic in connection to the Roman civilization.

• CHAPTER 1 Magical Gems. A Roman development of Etruscan, Greek and Phoenician scarab amulets (8th –
  5th c. BCE) —
  Ronaldo G. Gurgel Pereira
• CHAPTER 2 Change and Continuity in Curse Tablets from the Roman World —
  Charlotte Spence
• CHAPTER 3 Pursuing Health by Pursuing Disease. The Use of Spells and Amulets to Address Malaria in Roman Antiquity —
  Yvette Hunt
• CHAPTER 4 "Erotic" Spells, Stalking, and the Exclusus Amator in Ancient Rome —
  Elizabeth Ann Pollard
• CHAPTER 5 Magic to steal, magic to love, magic to heal: veneficia, defixiones, devotiones in the Naturalis historia by Plinius the Elder —
  Alfredo Viscomi
• CHAPTER 6 Cursing Patterns and Religious Belief. Studying the Prevalence of "Judicial Prayers" in Roman Britain —
  Madeline Line
• CHAPTER 7 How Lucan Kills Magic. Magic and the vates in Book Six of Lucan's Bellum Civile —
  Caolá
  n Mac An Aircinn
• CHAPTER 8 Abjection and Anxiety: The Metamorphosis of the Roman Literary Witch —
  Nicole Kimball
• CHAPTER 9 Foreseeing the Future: The Role of Women between Magic and Divination —
  Angelica Flandoli
• CHAPTER 10 Orpheus and the Evolution of the Roman Witch —
  Britta Ager
• CHAPTER 11 Memories of Apollonius of Tyana: Sorcerer, Holy Man and Rival of Jesus Christ —
  Semí
  ramis Corsi Silva
• CHAPTER 12 Si Crimina Demas: Necromancy in Roman Literature and Statius' Transgressive Manto —
  Anna Everett Beek
• CHAPTER 13 The Magic of Isis-Fortuna in Apuleius' Metamorphoses —
  Ashli Baker
• CHAPTER 14 Pagan and Christian Identities in the Later Roman Empire: Maximus of Turin and His Sermons on Magic and Superstition —
  Fabrizio Conti
• CHAPTER 15 A World Imbued with Sorcery? The Fight between Christian and non-Christian Powers in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Christendom —
  Andrea Maraschi