Editing Religion in ancient Rome (section)

== ''Superstitio''<!--THIS IS THE LATIN FORM, hence the italics; DO NOT CHANGE TO ENGLISH 'superstition'--> and magic ==
{{See also|Magic in the Greco-Roman world}}
[[File:Pompeii - Villa del Cicerone - Mosaic - MAN.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Mosaic]] from [[Pompeii]] depicting masked characters in a scene from a play: two women consult a witch]]
Excessive devotion and enthusiasm in religious observance were ''[[superstitio]]'', in the sense of "doing or believing more than was necessary",<ref name="Rüpke, in Rüpke ed, 5">Rüpke, in Rüpke (ed.), 5.</ref> to which women and foreigners were considered particularly prone.<ref>See Beard et al., Vol. 1, 217.</ref> The boundary between ''religio'' and ''superstitio'' is not clearly defined. The famous tirade of [[Lucretius]], the Epicurean rationalist, against what is usually translated as "superstition" was in fact aimed at excessive ''religio''. Roman religion was based on knowledge rather than faith,<ref>[[Clifford Ando]], ''The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2008), p. 13.</ref> but ''superstitio'' was viewed as an "inappropriate desire for knowledge"; in effect, an abuse of ''religio''.<ref name="Rüpke, in Rüpke ed, 5" />

In the everyday world, many individuals sought to divine the future, influence it through magic, or seek vengeance with help from "private" diviners. The state-sanctioned taking of auspices was a form of public divination with the intent of ascertaining the will of the gods, not foretelling the future. Secretive consultations between private diviners and their clients were thus suspect. So were divinatory techniques such as astrology when used for illicit, subversive or magical purposes. Astrologers and magicians were officially expelled from Rome at various times, notably in 139 BC and 33 BC. In 16 BC Tiberius expelled them under extreme penalty because an astrologer had predicted his death. "Egyptian rites" were particularly suspect: Augustus banned them within the ''pomerium'' to doubtful effect; Tiberius repeated and extended the ban with extreme force in AD 19.<ref>Beard et al., 230–31.</ref> Despite several Imperial bans, magic and astrology persisted among all social classes. In the late 1st century AD, Tacitus observed that astrologers "would always be banned and always retained at Rome".<ref>Phillips, in Rüpke (ed.), 14.</ref><ref>Ogden, in Flint et al., 83: citing Pliny, ''Natural History'', 28.17–18; Seneca, ''Natural Questions,'' 4.7.2.</ref><ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 231–233, citing Tacitus, ''Histories'', 1.22. Tacitus' prediction was accurate: in the late 3rd century, Diocletian issued a general ban on astrology.</ref>

In the Graeco-Roman world, practitioners of magic were known as ''[[magi]]'' (singular ''magus''), a "foreign" title of Persian priests. [[Apuleius]], defending himself against accusations of casting magic spells, defined the magician as "in popular tradition ''(more vulgari)''... someone who, because of his community of speech with the immortal gods, has an incredible power of spells (''vi cantaminum'') for everything he wishes to."<ref>Apuleius, ''Apologia'', 26.6.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] offers a thoroughly skeptical "History of magical arts" from their supposed Persian origins to Nero's vast and futile expenditure on research into magical practices in an attempt to control the gods.<ref>Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 30.1–18; see also Beard et al., Vol. 1, 219.</ref> [[Philostratus]] takes pains to point out that the celebrated [[Apollonius of Tyana]] was definitely not a ''magus'', "despite his special knowledge of the future, his miraculous cures, and his ability to vanish into thin air".<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 217–219 & 224, citing Philostratus, ''Life of Apollonius'', I.2, IV.18, V.12, VII.11,20,33-4,39, VIII.5,7,19,30.</ref>

[[Lucan]] depicts [[Sextus Pompeius]], the doomed son of [[Pompey the Great]], as convinced "the gods of heaven knew too little" and awaiting the [[Battle of Pharsalus]] by consulting with the [[Thessaly|Thessalian]] witch [[Erichtho]], who practices [[necromancy]] and inhabits deserted graves, feeding on rotting corpses. Erichtho, it is said, can arrest "the rotation of the heavens and the flow of rivers" and make "austere old men blaze with illicit passions". She and her clients are portrayed as undermining the natural order of gods, mankind and destiny. A female foreigner from Thessaly, notorious for witchcraft, Erichtho is the stereotypical witch of Latin literature,<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 219–20, citing Lucan, Pharsalia, VI.413–830.</ref> along with Horace's Canidia.

[[File:Magical book Kircherian Terme.jpg|thumb|left|Bound tablets with magic inscriptions from late antiquity]]
The Twelve Tables forbade any harmful incantation (''[[malum carmen]]'', or 'noisome metrical charm'); this included the "charming of crops from one field to another" (''excantatio frugum'') and any rite that sought harm or death to others. [[Chthonic]] deities functioned at the margins of Rome's divine and human communities; although sometimes the recipients of public rites, these were conducted outside the sacred boundary of the ''pomerium''. Individuals seeking their aid did so away from the public gaze, during the hours of darkness. Burial grounds and isolated crossroads were among the likely portals.<ref>Scheid, in Rüpke (ed.), 263.</ref> The barrier between private religious practices and "magic" is permeable, and Ovid gives a vivid account of rites at the fringes of the public [[Feralia]] festival that are indistinguishable from magic: an old woman [[Squatting position|squats]] among a circle of younger women, sews up a fish-head, smears it with pitch, then pierces and roasts it to "bind hostile tongues to silence". By this she invokes Tacita, the "Silent One" of the underworld.

Archaeology confirms the widespread use of binding spells (''[[defixiones]]''), [[Greek Magical Papyri|magical papyri]] and so-called "voodoo dolls" from a very early era. Around 250 ''defixiones'' have been recovered just from [[Roman Britain]], in both urban and rural settings. Some seek straightforward, usually gruesome revenge, often for a lover's offense or rejection. Others appeal for divine redress of wrongs, in terms familiar to any Roman magistrate, and promise a portion of the value (usually small) of lost or stolen property in return for its restoration. None of these ''defixiones'' seem produced by, or on behalf of the elite, who had more immediate recourse to human law and justice. Similar traditions existed throughout the empire, persisting until around the 7th century AD, well into the Christian era.<ref>Haensch, in Rüpke (ed.), 186: about 200 of these British defixiones are from Sulla-Minerva's spring in urban Bath and the remainder from a shrine to a Celtic deity ([[Nodens]]), at rural Uley. For ''defixiones'' as direct appeals to divine justice, see Belayche, in Rüpke (ed.), 286. For the widespread persistence of curse-tablet rituals, see Ogden, in Flint et al., 3–5.</ref>