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NOT SO UNUSUAL AFTER ALL: REMARKS ON THE LATIN CURSE TABLETS OF THE IMPERIAL AGE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2022

John Scheid
John Scheid*
Affiliation:
Collège de France, France
*
john.scheid@college-de-france.fr
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Abstract

This article examines the ritual contexts of two recent discoveries of materia magica in complex and carefully excavated archaeological sites, and situates the prayers found there within the wider range of prayer in traditional Roman religion. Both the texts found in the so-called ‘magician's cellar’ in Chartres and those on the lead tablets found behind the temple of Magna Mater in Mainz date to the first century ce and are thus among the earliest surviving magical texts in the West. Despite the usual assumption that many magical rituals migrated from east to west across the Mediterranean and then up into western Europe, it shows how these two early caches of magical text reflect, in fact, the pattern and style of early Latin votive formulae, as well as traditional Roman prayers, like those of the Arval Brethren, and traditional Roman rituals.

Keywords

Arval BrethrenChartresMainzMagna Mater‘magician's cellar’votive formulaeRoman ritualsRoman religionprayerseast-to-west migration
Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 69 , Special Issue 1: Curses in Context IV: Curse Tablets in the Wider Realms of Execrations, Commerce, Law, and Technology , April 2022 , pp. 72 - 87
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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References

1 J. Blänsdorf, Die Defixionum Tabellae des Mainzer Isis- und Mater Magna-Heiligtums. Defixionum Tabellae Mogontiacenses (Mainz, 2012) (hereafter DTM). A selection of these texts was published in Blänsdorf, J., ‘Cybèle et Attis dans les tablettes de defixio inédite de Mayence’, CRAI 149 (2005), 669–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar (AE 2005, 1122–6).

2 Apul. Met. 11.2.

3 Macrob. 3.9.10, 3.9.7. All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated.

4 CIL XI, 1823 (Arezzo) = A. Audollent, Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt tam in Graecis Orientis quam in totius Occidentis partibus praeter Atticas in Corpore inscriptionum atticarum editas (Paris 1905) (hereafter DT), 184, no. 129.

5 PGM IV 66–72; see also 170 ff., 193 ff., and 208 ff. Translation from Betz, H. D., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago, IL, and London, 1992), 38Google Scholar.

6 D. Joly, F. Dupont, and C. De Frutoz, ‘L'attirail d'un magicien rangé dans une cave de Chartres/Autricum’, Gallia 67 (2010), 125–208 ; D. Joly, ‘La panoplie complète d'un magicien dans la cave d'une domus à Autricum (Chartres, France): C. Verius Sedatus, Carnute, gardien des divinités’, in M. Piranomonte and F. Marco Simón (eds.), Contesti magici (Rome, 2012), 211–23.

7 Vos rogo omnipotentia numina, ut omnia bona conferatis C(aio) / Verio Sedato, quia ille est uester custos. / Echar Aha Bru Stna Bros Dru Chor Drax Cos / Halcemedme Halcobalar Halcemedme.

8 For this, see J. Favret-Saada, Les mots, la mort, les sorts. La sorcellerie dans le Bocage (Paris, 1977).

9 Cf. Tac. Ann. 2.69–72; Cic. Brut. 217; Lib. Or. 1.243–50; C. Bonner, ‘Witchcraft in the Lecture Room of Libanius’, TAPA 63 (1932), 34–44.

10 DTM, 111 ff., no. 8: Auita(m) nouer|c|a(m) / dono tibi / et Gratum / [do]no tibi / […]e mesmant[…].

11 DTM, 128 ff., no. 13: Cassius Fortuna/tus e[t] bona illius et / Lutatia Restituta: / necetis e[os].

12 Ibid., 1 = Blänsdorf 2005 (n. 1), 678 ff.: …Quomodo Galli se secarunt, / sic ea [uelit]… See also DTM 2 : …Quomodo galli, bellonari, magal[i] sibi sanguin[em] feruentem fundunt… (‘…just as galli, the priests of Bellona, and Magali spill their hot blood…’).

13 H. Versnel, ‘Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers’, in C. Faraone and D. Obbink (eds.), Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford, 1991) 60–106; J. G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (New York and Oxford, 1992), 175 ff.; M. Dreher, ‘“Prayers for Justice” and the Categorization of Curse Tablets’, in Piranomonte and Marco Simón (n. 6), 29–32; H. Versnel, ‘Response to a Critique’, in Piranomonte and Marco Simón (n. 6), 33–45.

14 F. Van Haeperen, ‘Les acteurs du culte de Magna Mater à Rome et dans les provinces occidentales de l'Empire’, in S. Benoist, A. Daguet-Gagey, and C. Hoët-van Cauwenberghe (eds.), Figures d'Empire, fragments de mémoire. Pouvoirs et identités dans le monde romain impérial (Lille, 2011), 467–84.

15 Cic. Brut. 217.

16 AE 1964, 160; 1896, 166b; 2006, 291. Cf. M. Elefante, ‘Un caso di defixio nella necropoli pompeiana di Porta Nocera?’, Parola del Passato 225 (1985), 431–3; S. Lepetz and W. Van Andringa, ‘Archéologie du rituel: méthode appliquée à l’étude de la nécropole de Porta Nocera à Pompéi’, in J. Scheid (ed.), Pour une archéologie du rite. Nouvelles perspectives de l'archéologie funéraire (Rome 2008), 105–26 ; S. Lepetz and W. Van Andringa, ‘Pour une archéologie de la mort à l’époque romaine: fouille de la nécropole de Porta Nocera à Pompéi’, CRAI 150 (2006), 1131–61.

17 W. S. Fox, ‘The Johns Hopkins Tabellae Defixionum’, AJP 33 (1912), 1–9 and 11–68 = Gager (n. 13) 240–1, no. 134.13 ff. Lines 17–18: Haec, Proserpina Salvia, tibi dabo, cum compote(m) feceris (i.e. me compote(m) feceris).

18 Gager (n. 13), 241.

19 Cf. CIL II 1044 = CILA II 1.336 (Mirobriga, Baetica): Proserpinae / sanctae sacru/m L. Samnius Su/lla uoto sani/tate condemnat[us]…

20 DTM, 2.

21 CIL II 129 = ILS 4513c (Vila Vicosa, Portugal).

22 AE 1898, 45 (Musti, Africa). CIL VIII 8826 = 20628 = ILS 4452= AE 1946, 92 = AE 2011, 1518 (Sertei, Mauretania Sitifiensis).

23 CIL XIV 2804 = ILS 6218 (Castiglione/Gabii, I). See also CIL X 1717 (p. 971, Puteoli, I): ut religioni satis fiat.

24 CIL X 5708 (Sora, I; ILS 3411).

25 See note 19.

26 Fox (n. 17), 35 = Gager (n. 13), 240 ff., no. 134, lines 1–2.

27 Hunc ego aput uostrum (b) numen demando deuoueo desacrifico, uti uos Aqu(a)e feruentes, siu[e u]os Nimfas [si]ue quo alio nomine uoltis adpe[l]lari… See note 4.

28 CIL XIII 11069–70 = DT, nos. 111–12 (Chagnon, Gallia Aquitania).

29 See note 16.

30 See, for example, DT, nos. 247, 250, and 267 (Carthago).

31 DT, no. 112.

32 Liv. 1.24.7–8 and cf. 21.45.8. The fetiales were Roman priests, who had diplomatic activities: they were to announce to enemies a decision of the Roman magistrates or the Senate, e.g. a declaration of war or the conclusion of a treaty (foedus).

33 Liv. 8.9.4–11.

34 See above, note 4. See also Wissowa, G., Religion und Kultus der Römer (Munich, 1912), 384–5Google Scholar.

35 CIL XI 4639 (Tuder, VI) = Gager (n. 13), no. 135; Graf, F., ‘An Oracle against Pestilence from a Western Anatolian Town’, ZPE 92 (1992), 267–79Google Scholar. A defixio was a curse, generally written on a thin lead tablet, that was often pierced by a nail.

36 Lindsay, W. M. (ed.), Sexti Pompei Festi. De verborum significatu quae supersunt cum Pauli epitome (Leipzig, 1913), 273Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Pilae et effigies’: Pilae et effigies viriles et muliebres ex lana Conpitalibus suspendebantur in conpitis, quod hunc diem festum esse deorum inferorum, quos vocant Lares, putarent, quibus tot pilae, quot capita servorum; tot effigies, quot essent liberi, ponebantur, ut vivis parcerent et essent his pilis et simulacris contenti.

37 Ov. Fast. 2.571–82.

38 August. De civ. D. 4.11.160: turba quasi plebeiorum deorum.