A History Of Witchcraft In Ancient Rome

[speculumphilosophi]

This should be of major interest. This lady follows the same 2nd century cult figure as I do, Apuleius. She covers quite a lot here with an historical focus. The African part of the Roman world was particularly steeped in magic and much of what we learn today is a legacy from that era.

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Just to comment on her thoughts that male witches tended to be more typical than female. I found quite a few references to female witches, one in particular was Caligula's wife. Personally, I prefer the term "Magus" or "Magi" for men, or "striga", maybe "Maga" for female.

Post automatically merged: Aug 24, 2026

It's important to consider that, before Christianity and European society, people in the pagan world had a far closer association to nature than we do today. There was some mystical connection between natural phenomena and its spiritual impact. So, dreams, signs, omens, were taken very seriously. I used to think these reported omens were just cultural customs among ancient writers but now I do believe in signs, symbolic dreams - that you can be guided (to safety) by natural forces. Socrates in fact acted according to his premonitions.
Slightly off topic but I concluded the reason for the vast spread of Christianity was connected to the fall of Greek/Roman civilization. When civilizations erode, the education system suffers. Everything in Christianity had already existed in pagan religion, even belief in an afterlife. However, some pagan belief systems are very complex and involve a gradual spiritual development. St Paul's Christianity simplified the original Gnostic Christian faith - concerts simply had to believe in the gospel and be saved. At a time of huge instability, it offered hope to millions of people. And eventually, crusades to stamp out paganism came to be.
Witchcraft in the Roman Empire was as common as being a Mormon or Evangelical Christian today. Oddly enough, I concluded the Roman emperor most associated with magic was Marcus Aurelius, the highly enlightened philosopher emperor.

 

[Caridoc Tacitus]

Thank you for sharing this! It helps me understand the timeline of the misinterpretation of the term "demon" and how Western culture used this misunderstanding to mold it with Greek mythology to form the Roman version of the devil. This also helps with understanding how "black" magic got it's name, as this shows the North African and Persian influence of the term long before the 1500s. Funny though that she doesn't go into zoroastrolocial side more as that would be the piece that would preserve the definitions better than the surface level appropriations of Roman political figures, though it is funny that such an analogous culture also used the term "maga" towards people who stood on the backs of and stole culture from southern minority laborers of their empire as well. History always repeats itself.

 

[speculumphilosophi]

Thank you for sharing this! It helps me understand the timeline of the misinterpretation of the term "demon" and how Western culture used this misunderstanding to mold it with Greek mythology to form the Roman version of the devil. This also helps with understanding how "black" magic got it's name, as this shows the North African and Persian influence of the term long before the 1500s. Funny though that she doesn't go into zoroastrolocial side more as that would be the piece that would preserve the definitions better than the surface level appropriations of Roman political figures, though it is funny that such an analogous culture also used the term "maga" towards people who stood on the backs of and stole culture from southern minority laborers of their empire as well. History always repeats itself.

She seems to have done her research. Not sure if she knows Latin. She shares my interest in Apuleius and I guess we can both claim an obsession with a 2nd century witch. What I find weird is Apuleius is my teacher as such since I study his writing, where he teaches on daemonology, astral projection and healing. His native language was Punic but he was fluent in Greek and Latin. Apuleius was also a priest of the Isis cult and seemingly very religious. I would add too he seemed to have very good legal defence skills and a sense of humour.
The teachings on daemones seem to come from Socrates where they are thought to exist as non corporeal, immortal entities. They were messangers between the gods (celestial beings) and mortals, able to grant psychic gifts to people. I suppose in catholicism, they distinguished angels as non demons and just taught demons were evil.

 

[Caridoc Tacitus]

She seems to have done her research. Not sure if she knows Latin. She shares my interest in Apuleius and I guess we can both claim an obsession with a 2nd century witch. What I find weird is Apuleius is my teacher as such since I study his writing, where he teaches on daemonology, astral projection and healing. His native language was Punic but he was fluent in Greek and Latin. Apuleius was also a priest of the Isis cult and seemingly very religious. I would add too he seemed to have very good legal defence skills and a sense of humour.
The teachings on daemones seem to come from Socrates where they are thought to exist as non corporeal, immortal entities. They were messangers between the gods (celestial beings) and mortals, able to grant psychic gifts to people. I suppose in catholicism, they distinguished angels as non demons and just taught demons were evil.

That's a fun history tale. My understanding of demons comes from Mesopotamian writings and the oldest continuous uninterrupted usage of the word in Mandean culture. But I suppose the contrasting two empires are still at war all these years later, even in semantics.

 

[Digiquo]

If you have not read it already, James Frazer's 'The Golden Bough' elucidates a lot of the religious and spiritual interplay that went on within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, including how the Roman Pantheon fell out of favor with much of its citizenship in the wake of the wasteful decadence and complacence of its aristocracy, paving the way for Christianity, but also for the wild and brutal worship of Attis the Great, an evolution of a religion out of Persia/West Asia, both of which competed heavily with one another.

 

[speculumphilosophi]

This is Apuleius on demons beliw. Don't ask me why but somehow I got engaged in the ancient study of lightning to tell the future. I guess it was just something different to work through. The term was "fulgurator" an interpreter of lightning and is referred to below:

"Moreover, there are certain divine middle powers, situated in this interval of the air, between the highest ether and earth, which is in the lowest place, through whom our desires and our deserts pass to the gods. These are called by a Greek name daemons, who, being placed between the terrestrial and celestial inhabitants, transmit prayers from the one, and gifts from the other. They likewise carry supplications from the one, and auxiliaries from the other, as certain interpreters and saluters of both. Through these same daemons, as Plato says in the Banquet, all denunciations, the various miracles of enchanters, and all the species of presages, are directed. Prefects, from among the number of these, providentially attend to every thing, according to the province assigned to each; either by the formation of dreams, or causing the fissures in entrails, or governing the flights of some birds, and instructing the songs of others, or by inspiring prophets, or hurling thunder, or producing the coruscations of lightning" (Apuleius)

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:58 PM

If you have not read it already, James Frazer's 'The Golden Bough' elucidates a lot of the religious and spiritual interplay that went on within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, including how the Roman Pantheon fell out of favor with much of its citizenship in the wake of the wasteful decadence and complacence of its aristocracy, paving the way for Christianity, but also for the wild and brutal worship of Attis the Great, an evolution of a religion out of Persia/West Asia, both of which competed heavily with one another.

I tend to be rooted in the later Roman period of the 2nd and 3rd century. I'm not sure why. Apuleius seems to have been active at the time of Antoninus Pius so his successful defence in court against charges of witchcraft was helped by more enlightened authorities.
The same lady here and the title of her book "Creepy Classics".

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Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 11:00 PM

That's a fun history tale. My understanding of demons comes from Mesopotamian writings and the oldest continuous uninterrupted usage of the word in Mandean culture. But I suppose the contrasting two empires are still at war all these years later, even in semantics.

There's been quite a trend to learn Sumerian though the language is only.partly deciphered.