Download or read book Latin Curse Tablets of the Roman Empire written by Daniela Urbanová and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this work is to map and analyse the extant Latin 'defixiones' whose production within the Roman Empire is attested from the 2nd cent. BCE to the end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th cent. CE. There are altogether five hundred Latin curse texts most of which are inscribed on lead tablets. These were intended to affect the actions or health of people/animals against their will and with the help of supernatural powers. As such, they provide the epigraphical evidence of magical practices which were widespread throughout the whole Mediterranean of antiquity. They are often aimed at rivals e.g. in circus or in love, opponents in lawsuits, or enemies, in general. Additionally, there is a special category of so-called 'prayers for justice' which are traditionally classified among 'defixiones' and share several characteristics with them. They are predominantly used against thieves, and are meant to harm or eliminate the culprit. At the same time, their aim is to achieve justice: returning the stolen property, a ?just? punishment, or revenge for the damage suffered (usually a theft, treachery, or fraud).
Download or read book Magical Practice in the Latin West written by Richard Lindsay Gordon and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most studies of Graeco-Roman magic focus on the Greek texts. Stimulated by important recent finds of Latin curse-tablets, this collection of essays for the first time tries to define the nature and extent of the originality of magical practice in the Latin West
Download or read book Learn Latin from the Romans written by Eleanor Dickey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only introductory Latin textbook to use texts written by ancient Romans for Latin learners, presented in one volume.
Download or read book Materia Magica written by Andrew Wilburn and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Materia Magica approaches magic as a material endeavor, in which spoken spells, ritual actions, and physical objects all played vital roles in the performance of a rite. Through case studies drawing on objects excavated or discovered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century at three Mediterranean sites, Andrew T. Wilburn identifies previously unknown forms of magic. He discovers evidence of the practice of magic in objects of ancient daily life, suggesting that individuals frequently turned to magic, particularly in times of crises. Studying the remains of spells enacted by practitioners, Wilburn examines the material remains of magical practice by identifying and placing them within their archaeological contexts. His method of connecting an analysis of the texts and inscriptions found on artifacts of magic with a close consideration of the physical form of these objects illuminates an exciting path toward new discoveries in the field.
Download or read book Material Approaches to Roman Magic written by Adam Parker and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second volume in the new TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology series seeks to push the research agendas of materiality and lived experience further into the study of Roman magic, a field that has, until recently, lacked object-focused analysis. Building on the pioneering studies in Boschung and Bremmer's (2015) Materiality of Magic, the editors of the present volume have collected contributions that showcase the value of richly-detailed, context-specific explorations of the magical practices of the Roman world. By concentrating primarily on the Imperial period and the western provinces, the various contributions demonstrate very clearly the exceptional range of influences and possibilities open to individuals who sought to use magical rituals to affect their lives in these specific contexts – something that would have been largely impossible in earlier periods of antiquity. Contributions are presented from a range of museum professionals, commercial archaeologists, university academics and postgraduate students, making a compelling case for strengthening lines of communication between these related areas of expertise.
Download or read book Magic and Magicians in the Greco Roman World written by Matthew W Dickie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and social origins. The resulting investigation takes us to the underside of Greek and Roman society, into a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, and into the lives of prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers. This fascinating reconstruction of the careers of witches and sorcerors allows us to see into previously inaccessible areas of Greco-Roman life. Compelling for both its detail and clarity, and with an extraordinarily revealing breadth of evidence employed, it will be an essential resource for anyone studying ancient magic.
Download or read book Arae written by Lindsay Watson and published by Francis Cairns Publications. This book was released on 1991 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fundamental study of curses from a literary point of view. First the author differentiates the various types of curses found in ancient poetry; this is followed by a chronological examination of the curses, from archaic and classical Greece to Hellenistic and Roman times. The rich Hellenistic material is treated in particular detail, by placing it in its literary context and in relation to defixiones .
Download or read book Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome written by Lindsay C. Watson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-02 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parting company with the trend in recent scholarship to treat the subject in abstract, highly theoretical terms, Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome proposes that the magic-working of antiquity was in reality a highly pragmatic business, with very clearly formulated aims - often of an exceedingly malignant kind. In seven chapters, each addressed to an important arm of Greco-Roman magic, the volume discusses the history of the rediscovery and publication of the so-called Greek Magical Papyri, a key source for our understanding of ancient magic; the startling violence of ancient erotic spells and the use of these by women as well as men; the alteration in the landscape of defixio (curse tablet) studies by major new finds and the confirmation these provide that the frequently lethal intent of such tablets must not be downplayed; the use of herbs in magic, considered from numerous perspectives but with an especial focus on the bizarre-seeming rituals and protocols attendant upon their collection; the employment of animals in magic, the factors determining the choice of animal, the uses to which they were put, and the procuring and storage of animal parts, conceivably in a sorcerer's workshop; the witch as a literary construct, the clear homologies between the magical procedures of fictional witches and those documented for real spells, the gendering of the witch-figure and the reductive presentation of sorceresses as old, risible and ineffectual; the issue of whether ancient magicians practised human sacrifice and the illuminating parallels between such accusations and late 20th century accounts of child-murder in the context of perverted Satanic rituals. By challenging a number of orthodoxies and opening up some underexamined aspects of the subject, this wide-ranging study stakes out important new territory in the field of magical studies.
Download or read book The Uley Tablets written by Roger S. O. Tomlin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-10-24 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Uley Tablets is the first full publication of the eighty Roman lead writing-tablets found in the excavation of a Romano-British temple in the Cotswolds, the temple of the god Mercury at Uley, Gloucestershire, together with two from the nearby site of Tarlton. Like those found in the hot spring at Bath, they are 'curse tablets', so called because they seek divine intervention against the writer's enemies, who are mostly thieves unknown. They complain of farm animals being stolen or bewitched, even a stolen beehive (the first document of bee-keeping in Britain), the theft of clothing such as gloves, cloaks and gaiters, woman's underwear, the theft of rings and sums of money ranging from two 'mites' to a hundred thousand denarii. In formalised language they ask the god to recover their property and punish the thieves with ill health or the 'greatest death'. These tablets are the richest collection of manuscripts from the countryside of Roman Britain, unique as a written witness to the social and economic history of the province since they were not found in the usual urban or military context. They are a major new source for studying the language, whether written or spoken, of the civil population. The Uley Tablets provide a practical lesson in how to decipher Roman handwriting, and in this volume, they are transcribed and translated with detailed commentary, each inscribed face illustrated with a photograph and line-drawing. These texts are preceded by eleven introductory chapters which outline their context and content, the way in which the god was approached, the language and handwriting employed, and the implications for the study of literacy in Roman Britain. The Uley Tablets offer a vivid contribution to ancient history with a disturbing modern echo.
Download or read book Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World written by John G. Gager and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1999-10-28 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was common practice to curse or bind an enemy or rival by writing an incantation on a tablet and dedicating it to a god or spirit. These curses or binding spells, commonly called defixiones were intended to bring other people under the power and control of those who commissioned them. More than a thousand such texts, written between the 5th Century B.C.E. and the 5th Century C.E., have been discovered from North Africa to England, and from Syria to Spain. Extending into every aspect of ancient life--athletic and theatrical competitions, judicial proceedings, love affairs, business rivalries, and the recovery of stolen property--they shed light on a new dimension of classical study previously inaccessible. Here, for the first time, these texts have been translated into English with a substantial translator's introduction revealing the cultural, social, and historical context for the texts. This book will interest historians, classicists, scholars of religion, and those concerned with ancient magic.
Download or read book Magic Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds written by Daniel Ogden and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary mythic tradition and in ritual practice. In this book, Daniel Ogden presents 300 texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity.
Download or read book Magic in the Ancient World written by Fritz Graf and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction. In this survey of magical beliefs and practices from the sixth century B.C.E. through late antiquity, Fritz Graf sheds new light on ancient religion. Graf explores the important types of magic in Greco-Roman antiquity, describing rites and explaining the theory behind them. And he characterizes the ancient magician: his training and initiation, social status, and presumed connections with the divine world. With trenchant analysis of underlying conceptions and vivid account of illustrative cases, Graf gives a full picture of the practice of magic and its implications. He concludes with an evaluation of the relation of magic to religion.
Download or read book Tales of the Barbarians written by Greg Woolf and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tales of the Barbarians traces the creation of new mythologies in the wake of Roman expansion westward to the Atlantic, and offers the first application of modern ethnographic theory to ancient material. Investigates the connections between empire and knowledge at the turn of the millennia, and the creation of new histories in the Roman West Explores how ancient geography, local histories and the stories of wandering heroes were woven together by Greek scholars and local experts Offers a fresh perspective by examining passages from ancient writers in a new light
Download or read book The Twelve Tables written by Anonymous and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the legislation that formed the basis of Roman law - The Laws of the Twelve Tables. These laws, formally promulgated in 449 BC, consolidated earlier traditions and established enduring rights and duties of Roman citizens. The Tables were created in response to agitation by the plebeian class, who had previously been excluded from the higher benefits of the Republic. Despite previously being unwritten and exclusively interpreted by upper-class priests, the Tables became highly regarded and formed the basis of Roman law for a thousand years. This comprehensive sequence of definitions of private rights and procedures, although highly specific and diverse, provided a foundation for the enduring legal system of the Roman Empire.
Download or read book Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily written by Olga Tribulato and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and up-to-date account of the languages of ancient Sicily by an international team of experts.
Download or read book Religion in the Roman Empire written by Jörg Rüpke and published by Kohlhammer Verlag. This book was released on 2021-10-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Roman Empire was home to a fascinating variety of different cults and religions. Its enormous extent, the absence of a precisely definable state religion and constant exchanges with the religions and cults of conquered peoples and of neighbouring cultures resulted in a multifaceted diversity of religious convictions and practices. This volume provides a compelling view of central aspects of cult and religion in the Roman Empire, among them the distinction between public and private cult, the complex interrelations between different religious traditions, their mutually entangled developments and expansions, and the diversity of regional differences, rituals, religious texts and artefacts.
Download or read book Imperialism Power and Identity written by David J. Mattingly and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite what history has taught us about imperialism's destructive effects on colonial societies, many classicists continue to emphasize disproportionately the civilizing and assimilative nature of the Roman Empire and to hold a generally favorable view of Rome's impact on its subject peoples. Imperialism, Power, and Identity boldly challenges this view using insights from postcolonial studies of modern empires to offer a more nuanced understanding of Roman imperialism. Rejecting outdated notions about Romanization, David Mattingly focuses instead on the concept of identity to reveal a Roman society made up of far-flung populations whose experience of empire varied enormously. He examines the nature of power in Rome and the means by which the Roman state exploited the natural, mercantile, and human resources within its frontiers. Mattingly draws on his own archaeological work in Britain, Jordan, and North Africa and covers a broad range of topics, including sexual relations and violence; census-taking and taxation; mining and pollution; land and labor; and art and iconography. He shows how the lives of those under Rome's dominion were challenged, enhanced, or destroyed by the empire's power, and in doing so he redefines the meaning and significance of Rome in today's debates about globalization, power, and empire. Imperialism, Power, and Identity advances a new agenda for classical studies, one that views Roman rule from the perspective of the ruled and not just the rulers. In a new preface, Mattingly reflects on some of the reactions prompted by the initial publication of the book.
