{"id":370,"date":"2019-07-31T18:51:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T22:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=370"},"modified":"2020-08-04T23:46:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T03:46:13","slug":"roman-perceptions-of-magic","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/roman-perceptions-of-magic\/","title":{"raw":"Roman perceptions of magic","rendered":"Roman perceptions of magic"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning objectives<\/h3>\r\nThis section will tell you about:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>How (some) Romans thought of magic and presented its history;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>How magic can be seen as beneficial if done by the 'right' person, and if done for 'good' reasons;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>How magic - especially that done by outsiders - can be seen as automatically harmful or destructive;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The <em>very\u00a0<\/em>blurred line that separates magic from other areas such as medicine or religion.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN PERCEPTIONS: MEDICINE AND GOOD MAGIC<\/strong><\/h5>\r\nRomans distinguished between good and bad magic: good magic helped your crops, kept you healthy and had other positive outcomes without harming others.\r\n\r\n[pb_glossary id=\"943\"]Cato the Elder[\/pb_glossary], a[pb_glossary id=\"1002\"] new man [\/pb_glossary] or <em>novus homo, <\/em>who had made himself the epitome of Romanness to many Romans, wrote about agricultural magic in his 2nd century BCE <em>On Agriculture, <\/em>a farming manual for the well to do estate owner needing management advice. Sometimes Cato will discuss medical practices that are basically magic, as in the following remedies for oxen. In the first remedy the repeated number three hardly seems likely to be there for a medical reason, and the same is true of making the person giving the cure fast.\r\n<blockquote>70.1 Remedy for oxen: If you have reason to fear sickness, give the oxen before they get sick the following remedy: 3 grains of salt, 3 laurel leaves, 3 leek leaves, 3 spikes of leek, 3 of garlic, 3 grains of <span class=\"pagenum\">\u00a0p81\u00a0<\/span>incense, 3\u00a0plants of Sabine herb, 3\u00a0leaves of rue, 3\u00a0stalks of bryony, 3\u00a0white beans, 3\u00a0live coals, and 3\u00a0pints of wine. You must gather, macerate, and administer all these while standing, and he who administers the remedy must be fasting. Administer to each ox for three days, and divide it in such a way that when you have administered three doses to each you will have used it all. See that the ox and the one who administers are both standing, and use a wooden vessel.<\/blockquote>\r\nThe following also, with its use of snake skin, seems to verge on the magical:\r\n<blockquote>\u00a073.1 Give the cattle medicine every year when the grapes begin to change colour, to keep them well. When you see a snake skin, pick it up and put it away, so that you will not have to hunt for one when you need it. Macerate this skin, spelt, salt, and thyme with wine, and give it to all the cattle to drink. See that the cattle always have good, clear water to drink in summer-time; it is important for their health.<\/blockquote>\r\nEven if Cato the Elder saw this as magic in some way, he would surely have put it into a different category than other forms. Previously he insisted that the slave manager of an estate should \"not consult a fortune-teller, or prophet, or diviner, or astrologer\" (5.5)[footnote] A later author, [pb_glossary id=\"1737\"]Columella[\/pb_glossary], expanded on this, writing \" Soothsayers and witches, two sets of people who incite ignorant minds to spend through false superstition\u00a0 and then to shameful practices, he must not admit inside. (<em>On Farming<\/em> 8.5)[\/footnote]\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN PERCEPTIONS: XENOPHOBIA AND BAD MAGIC<\/strong><\/h5>\r\nOne of our major sources for Roman perceptions of magic is [pb_glossary id=\"80\"]Pliny the Elder[\/pb_glossary], a Roman aristocrat, general, politician and advisor to the Emperor Vespasian. Although he wrote much, his only surviving work is the <em>Natural Histor<\/em>y, completed in 77 CE, and which was comprised of 37 books that are topically organized. This work collected knowledge about the world amassed from his rich lifetime of experience and research from a huge range of sources. Pliny prefaces the entire work with a dedication to the emperor Titus,[footnote]For the dedication and Pliny's introduction see the preface to the Natural History.[\/footnote] the most elite Roman in imperial Roman society, whom this information would be of great interest to. After the dedication and explanation of sources at the beginning, the topics follow as such: astronomy, geography, human biology, zoology, botany, medicinal remedies from plants, medicinal remedies from animals, metals, minerals, gemstones, and art. Book 30 is within the category of medicinal remedies derived from animals, and is focused on magic - it explains where it came from, who the practitioners were, and lists magical medicinal practices for physical afflictions. Chapter 2 describes the origins of magic, and in it, readers can attain a sense of Pliny\u2019s largely negative feelings toward magic as a practice in addition to its practitioners.\r\n\r\nPliny asserts that magic originated from Persia, known to the Romans as \u201cthe East\u201d, where the contemporary and respectably old society thrived and likely held ancient knowledge, magic included. The Roman opinion of Persians was low due to their rivalry, and Pliny\u2019s commentary shows this disdain, claiming people as practitioners of magic was a Roman way of \u201cothering\u201d and attacking people they disliked. Pliny then describes the spread of magic from Persia to the Greeks, whom the Romans also disliked, yet they associated the Greeks with medicine, a practice everyone needed. Notably, Pliny states magic and medicine developed alongside each other. So, he makes clear the foreign, deep un-Roman origins of magic, but in practice, the Romans themselves practiced magic as well, in the context of religious rituals and medicine. The <em>Natural History<\/em> is full of remedies that are magical in nature, particularly in the sections focused on medicine, but the Romans did not consider it as magic, as to them, magic was what other people did that was \u201cbad\u201d.\r\n\r\nIn tracing this \u201cbad\u201d practice, Pliny highlights the problematic and inefficient transmission method of the information he has collected in his research, which reveals not only his contempt for the sources, but also his skepticism regarding the reliability of the foreign sources over time. He describes the main Persian sources and then goes on to list a multitude of Greek sources in including many writers, philosophers, and other people of great intellect. It is a surprise to Pliny that the traditions of magic have been passed on to so many people over time, and therefore he questions the reliability of the information, including Homer\u2019s seeming lack of reference in his work to magic - however, Pliny suggests that Homer does reference sorcery. There is an apparent sense of difficulty for Pliny in finding information on magic, and the fact that he is concerned with \u201chearsay\u201d attests to the hardships of gathering knowledge on topics that are taboo and un-Roman in Roman society.\r\n\r\nDuring the Roman Empire, as they were throughout most of Rome\u2019s history, Roman people were experimenting with and pushing Roman culture and customs. Elite Romans were curious people, and intellectuals in particular liked to travel and explore other cultures and mysterious, taboo subjects like magic. Pliny makes reference to people like Pythagoras and Plato seeking out knowledge about magic, and this corroborates the popularity of un-Roman activities that Romans were interested in. As this set of encyclopaedic volumes was dedicated to the emperor Titus, who is supposed to represent the ultimate Roman man, perhaps Pliny included these facts to inform him of this un-Roman Roman interest in magic.\r\n<blockquote>There is no doubt that this art [magic] originated in Persia,[footnote]Persia: More specifically, Bactriana, or Bactria, a historical-cultural region situated in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan.[\/footnote] under Zoroaster,[footnote]Zoroaster: Also known as Zarathustra, a Persian prophet whose teachings inspired the religious movement, Zoroastrianism. His historical date remains embroiled in scholarly debate).[\/footnote] this being a point upon which authors are generally agreed; but whether there was only one Zoroaster, or whether in later times there was a second person of that name, is a matter which still remains undecided. Eudoxus,[footnote] An ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer who lived from 390-340 BCE.[\/footnote] who has endeavoured to show that of all branches of philosophy the magic art is the most illustrious and the most beneficial, informs us that this Zoroaster existed six thousand years before the death of[pb_glossary id=\"676\"] Plato[\/pb_glossary] an assertion in which he is supported by[pb_glossary id=\"916\"] Aristotle[\/pb_glossary]. Hermippus[footnote]Hermippus: An Athenian comic writer who wrote during the 5th century BCE [\/footnote] again, an author who has written with the greatest precision on everyting connected with this art, and has commented upon the two millions of verses left by Zoroaster, besides completing indexes to his several works, has left a statement, that Agonaces was the name of the master from whom Zoroaster derived his doctrines, and that he lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War.[footnote]Trojan War: A legendary war between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Trojans of the city of Troy, initiated by the Greeks.[\/footnote] The first thing, however, that must strike us with surprise, is the fact that this art, and the traditions connected with it, should have survived for so many ages, while all written commentaries perished in the meanwhile; and this, too, when there was no continuous succession of experts, no notable teachers, to ensure their transmission.\r\n\r\nThere are only a few, in fact, who know anything, even by report, about the only professors of this art whose names have come down to us, Apusorus[footnote]This name and the following names have likely been all transmitted to us in corrupted forms due to time.[\/footnote] and Zaratus of Media, Marmarus and Arabantiphocus of Babylonia, and Tarmoendas of Assyria, men who have left not the slightest records of their existence. But the most surprising thing of all is, that Homer should be totally silent upon this art in his account of the Trojan War, while in his story of the wanderings of Ulysses,[footnote]Ulysses: The Roman name for Odysseus, a legendary ancient Greek hero[\/footnote] so much of the work should be taken up with it, that we may justly conclude that the poem is based upon nothing else; if, indeed, we are willing to grant that his accounts of Proteus[footnote]A Greek sea god.[\/footnote] and of the songs of the Sirens are to be understood in this sense, and that the stories of Circe[footnote]Circe: A Greek legendary divine figure portrayed as a having the powers of a witch or sorcerer.[\/footnote] and of the summoning up of the shades below, bear reference solely to the practices of sorcerers. And then, too, to come to more recent times, no one has told us how the art of sorcery reached Telmessus, a city devoted to all the services of religion, or at what period it came over and reached the [pb_glossary id=\"470\"]<em>matronae<\/em>[\/pb_glossary] of Thessaly; whose name[footnote]Thessaly: Thessaly was a region of central Greece, and here Pliny the Elder is referring to the name of \u201cThessala\u201d, which was used by the Romans to mean a witch, enchantress, or sorceress.[\/footnote] has long passed, in our part of the world, as the appellation of those who practise an art, originally introduced among themselves even, from foreign lands.[footnote]Pliny is referring to lands of Eastern origin (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2).[\/footnote] For in the days of the Trojan War, Thessaly was still contented with such remedies as she owed to the skill of Chiron,[footnote]Chiron: A wise centaur who fills the role of mentor for several legendary ancient Greek heroes, and is known for his medical knowledge.[\/footnote] and her only lightnings were the lightnings hurled by Mars.[footnote]Mars: The Roman version of the Greek god of war, among other things, Ares.[\/footnote] Indeed, for my own part, I am surprised that the imputation of magical practices should have so strongly attached to the people once under the sway of Achilles,[footnote]Achilles: Not the legendary hero, this is referring to a different person.[\/footnote] that Menander[footnote]Menander: An ancient Greek comic playwright who lived from 342-292 BCE (Jeffrey Carson, \u201cMenander\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 462).[\/footnote] even, a man unrivalled for perception in literary knowledge, has entitled one of his Comedies \"The Thessalian Matron,\" and described there the devices practised by the females of that country in bringing down the moon from the heavens. I should have been inclined to think that Orpheus had been the first to introduce into a country so near his own, certain magical superstitions based upon the practice of medicine, were it not the fact that [pb_glossary id=\"1738\"]Thrace[\/pb_glossary], set along the northern part of the Aegean Sea his native land, was at that time did not know at all the magic art.\r\n\r\nThe first person, so far as I can ascertain, who wrote upon magic, and whose works are still in existence, was Osthanes,[footnote]Like Zoroaster, his date and attachment to one historical person is debated.[\/footnote] who accompanied Xerxes, the Persian king, in his expedition against Greece. It was he who first spread, as it were, the seeds of this monstrous art, and tainted therewith all parts of the world through which the Persians passed. Authors who have made diligent inquiries into this subject, mention a second Zoroaster, a native of Proconnesus, as living a little before the time of Osthanes. That it was this same Osthanes that especially inspired the Greeks, not with just with fondness, but a passion, for the art of magic, is a fact beyond all doubt: though at the same time I would mention, that in the most ancient times, and indeed almost invariably, it was in this branch of science, that was sought the highest point of celebrity and of literary renown.[footnote]Celebrity interest in taboo subject of magic indicates the elite interest in a sphere they are supposed to keep away from, but like most taboo topics in Roman society, magic seems to be a popular thing.[\/footnote] At all events, Pythagoras,[footnote] An ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 6th century BCE.[\/footnote] we find, Empedocles,[footnote]An ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 492-432 BCE. [26] Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher.[\/footnote] Democritus,[footnote]Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher.[\/footnote] and Plato, crossed the seas, in order to attain a knowledge thereof, submitting, to speak the truth, more to the evils of exile[footnote]Exile for elite people allowed for relatively easy access to learning about magic (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2).[\/footnote] than to the mere inconveniences of travel. Returning home, it was upon the praises of this art that they expatiated\u2014it was this that they held as one of their grandest mysteries. It was Democritus, too, who first drew attention to Apollobeches[footnote]Nothing is known about this particular writer[\/footnote] of Coptos, to Dardanus,[footnote]We are not sure who is being referred to here.[\/footnote] and to Phoenix: the works of Dardanus he sought in the tomb of that personage, and his own were composed in accordance with the doctrines there found. That these doctrines should have been received by any portion of mankind, and transmitted to us by the aid of memory, is to me surprising beyond anything I can conceive. All the particulars there found are so utterly incredible, so utterly revolting,[footnote]Pliny makes his opinion of the magic arts known, in line with \u201cothering\u201d magic as he has asserted that it comes from the East, and Easterners are not Roman and do things like magic that are an affront to Roman society.[\/footnote] that those even who admire Democritus in other respects, are strong in their denial that these works were really written by him. Their denial, however, is in vain; for it was he, beyond all doubt, who had the greatest share in fascinating men's minds with these attractive chimeras.[footnote]Chimeras, or are Greek mythological monsters with the body parts of different animals.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThere is also a marvellous coincidence, in the fact that the two arts\u2014medicine, I mean, and magic\u2014were developed simultaneously: medicine by the writings of Hippocrates,[footnote]Hippocrates: An illustrious ancient Greek physician who lived from 460-370 BCE.[\/footnote] and magic by the works of Democritus, about the period of tile Peloponnesian War, which was waged in Greece in the year of the City of Rome 300.[footnote]Romans dated everything from the founding of the city. This war, which took place between Athens and Sparta, and their respective allies, occurred from 431-404 BCE.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThere is another sect, also, of experts in the magic art, who derive their origin from Moses,[footnote]Pliny here refers to the Jewish people who were often associated with magic by the Romans[\/footnote]\u00a0 Jannes,[footnote]Jannes is a magician mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Exodus.[\/footnote] and Lotapea, Jews by birth, but many thousand years before Zoroaster: and as much more recent, again, is the branch of magic cultivated in Cyprus.[footnote]Cyprus: An island located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (Michael Given, \u201cCyprus\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 196).[\/footnote] In the time, too, of [pb_glossary id=\"679\"]Alexander the Great[\/pb_glossary], this profession received no small accession to its credit from the influence of a second Osthanes, who had the honour of accompanying that prince in his expeditions, and who, evidently, beyond all doubt, travelled over every part of the world.\r\n\r\nPliny the Elder, <em>Natural History<\/em> 30.2\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/6d\/Greco-Roman_Set.jpg\/428px-Greco-Roman_Set.jpg\" alt=\"File:Greco-Roman Set.jpg\" width=\"491\" height=\"687\" \/>\r\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\">The deity Set portrayed in the Greek Magical Papyri<\/h5>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIf you are interested in reading more about the depiction of women as witches see <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/witches-and-warlock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here.<\/a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nTo read our only defense speech written against a charge of magic by Apuleius go <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/chapter-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nCitations and Further Reading:\r\n\r\nOxford Bibliographies, s.v. \u201cPliny the Elder,\u201d by Aude Doody, accessed April 10, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordbibliographies.com\/view\/document\/obo-9780195389661\/obo-9780195389661-0194.xml\">http:\/\/www.oxfordbibliographies.com\/view\/document\/obo-9780195389661\/obo-9780195389661-0194.xml<\/a>\r\n\r\nOxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. \u201cPliny (1) the Elder, 23\/24-79 CE,\u201d by Nicholas Purcell, accessed April 10, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/oxfordre.com\/classics\/view\/10.1093\/acrefore\/9780199381135.001.0001\/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5133?rskey=TEiaR1&amp;result=1\">http:\/\/oxfordre.com\/classics\/view\/10.1093\/acrefore\/9780199381135.001.0001\/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5133?rskey=TEiaR1&amp;result=1<\/a>\r\n\r\nBeagon, Mary. <em>Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder<\/em>. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.\r\n\r\nBostock, John., M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. <em>The Natural History. Pliny the Elder.<\/em> London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Accessed via Perseus online.\r\n\r\nHenderson, Jeffrey. \"A Brief History of Athenian Political Comedy (c. 440-c. 300).\" <em>Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014)<\/em> 143, no. 2 (2013): 249-62. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43830262\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43830262<\/a>.\r\n\r\nSegal, Charles. \"Circean Temptations: Homer, Vergil, Ovid.\" <em>Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association<\/em> 99 (1968): 419-42. doi:10.2307\/2935855.\r\n\r\nShahbazi, A. Shapur. \"The 'Traditional Date of Zoroaster' Explained.\" <em>Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London<\/em> 40, no. 1 (1977): 25-35. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/615820\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/615820<\/a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning objectives<\/h3>\n<p>This section will tell you about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How (some) Romans thought of magic and presented its history;<\/li>\n<li>How magic can be seen as beneficial if done by the &#8216;right&#8217; person, and if done for &#8216;good&#8217; reasons;<\/li>\n<li>How magic &#8211; especially that done by outsiders &#8211; can be seen as automatically harmful or destructive;<\/li>\n<li>The <em>very\u00a0<\/em>blurred line that separates magic from other areas such as medicine or religion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN PERCEPTIONS: MEDICINE AND GOOD MAGIC<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Romans distinguished between good and bad magic: good magic helped your crops, kept you healthy and had other positive outcomes without harming others.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_943\">Cato the Elder<\/a>, a<a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_1002\"> new man <\/a> or <em>novus homo, <\/em>who had made himself the epitome of Romanness to many Romans, wrote about agricultural magic in his 2nd century BCE <em>On Agriculture, <\/em>a farming manual for the well to do estate owner needing management advice. Sometimes Cato will discuss medical practices that are basically magic, as in the following remedies for oxen. In the first remedy the repeated number three hardly seems likely to be there for a medical reason, and the same is true of making the person giving the cure fast.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>70.1 Remedy for oxen: If you have reason to fear sickness, give the oxen before they get sick the following remedy: 3 grains of salt, 3 laurel leaves, 3 leek leaves, 3 spikes of leek, 3 of garlic, 3 grains of <span class=\"pagenum\">\u00a0p81\u00a0<\/span>incense, 3\u00a0plants of Sabine herb, 3\u00a0leaves of rue, 3\u00a0stalks of bryony, 3\u00a0white beans, 3\u00a0live coals, and 3\u00a0pints of wine. You must gather, macerate, and administer all these while standing, and he who administers the remedy must be fasting. Administer to each ox for three days, and divide it in such a way that when you have administered three doses to each you will have used it all. See that the ox and the one who administers are both standing, and use a wooden vessel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The following also, with its use of snake skin, seems to verge on the magical:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a073.1 Give the cattle medicine every year when the grapes begin to change colour, to keep them well. When you see a snake skin, pick it up and put it away, so that you will not have to hunt for one when you need it. Macerate this skin, spelt, salt, and thyme with wine, and give it to all the cattle to drink. See that the cattle always have good, clear water to drink in summer-time; it is important for their health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even if Cato the Elder saw this as magic in some way, he would surely have put it into a different category than other forms. Previously he insisted that the slave manager of an estate should &#8220;not consult a fortune-teller, or prophet, or diviner, or astrologer&#8221; (5.5)<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"A later author, [pb_glossary id=&quot;1737&quot;]Columella[\/pb_glossary], expanded on this, writing &quot; Soothsayers and witches, two sets of people who incite ignorant minds to spend through false superstition\u00a0 and then to shameful practices, he must not admit inside. (On Farming 8.5)\" id=\"return-footnote-370-1\" href=\"#footnote-370-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>ROMAN PERCEPTIONS: XENOPHOBIA AND BAD MAGIC<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>One of our major sources for Roman perceptions of magic is <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_80\">Pliny the Elder<\/a>, a Roman aristocrat, general, politician and advisor to the Emperor Vespasian. Although he wrote much, his only surviving work is the <em>Natural Histor<\/em>y, completed in 77 CE, and which was comprised of 37 books that are topically organized. This work collected knowledge about the world amassed from his rich lifetime of experience and research from a huge range of sources. Pliny prefaces the entire work with a dedication to the emperor Titus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"For the dedication and Pliny's introduction see the preface to the Natural History.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-2\" href=\"#footnote-370-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> the most elite Roman in imperial Roman society, whom this information would be of great interest to. After the dedication and explanation of sources at the beginning, the topics follow as such: astronomy, geography, human biology, zoology, botany, medicinal remedies from plants, medicinal remedies from animals, metals, minerals, gemstones, and art. Book 30 is within the category of medicinal remedies derived from animals, and is focused on magic &#8211; it explains where it came from, who the practitioners were, and lists magical medicinal practices for physical afflictions. Chapter 2 describes the origins of magic, and in it, readers can attain a sense of Pliny\u2019s largely negative feelings toward magic as a practice in addition to its practitioners.<\/p>\n<p>Pliny asserts that magic originated from Persia, known to the Romans as \u201cthe East\u201d, where the contemporary and respectably old society thrived and likely held ancient knowledge, magic included. The Roman opinion of Persians was low due to their rivalry, and Pliny\u2019s commentary shows this disdain, claiming people as practitioners of magic was a Roman way of \u201cothering\u201d and attacking people they disliked. Pliny then describes the spread of magic from Persia to the Greeks, whom the Romans also disliked, yet they associated the Greeks with medicine, a practice everyone needed. Notably, Pliny states magic and medicine developed alongside each other. So, he makes clear the foreign, deep un-Roman origins of magic, but in practice, the Romans themselves practiced magic as well, in the context of religious rituals and medicine. The <em>Natural History<\/em> is full of remedies that are magical in nature, particularly in the sections focused on medicine, but the Romans did not consider it as magic, as to them, magic was what other people did that was \u201cbad\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In tracing this \u201cbad\u201d practice, Pliny highlights the problematic and inefficient transmission method of the information he has collected in his research, which reveals not only his contempt for the sources, but also his skepticism regarding the reliability of the foreign sources over time. He describes the main Persian sources and then goes on to list a multitude of Greek sources in including many writers, philosophers, and other people of great intellect. It is a surprise to Pliny that the traditions of magic have been passed on to so many people over time, and therefore he questions the reliability of the information, including Homer\u2019s seeming lack of reference in his work to magic &#8211; however, Pliny suggests that Homer does reference sorcery. There is an apparent sense of difficulty for Pliny in finding information on magic, and the fact that he is concerned with \u201chearsay\u201d attests to the hardships of gathering knowledge on topics that are taboo and un-Roman in Roman society.<\/p>\n<p>During the Roman Empire, as they were throughout most of Rome\u2019s history, Roman people were experimenting with and pushing Roman culture and customs. Elite Romans were curious people, and intellectuals in particular liked to travel and explore other cultures and mysterious, taboo subjects like magic. Pliny makes reference to people like Pythagoras and Plato seeking out knowledge about magic, and this corroborates the popularity of un-Roman activities that Romans were interested in. As this set of encyclopaedic volumes was dedicated to the emperor Titus, who is supposed to represent the ultimate Roman man, perhaps Pliny included these facts to inform him of this un-Roman Roman interest in magic.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is no doubt that this art [magic] originated in Persia,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Persia: More specifically, Bactriana, or Bactria, a historical-cultural region situated in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-3\" href=\"#footnote-370-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a> under Zoroaster,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Zoroaster: Also known as Zarathustra, a Persian prophet whose teachings inspired the religious movement, Zoroastrianism. His historical date remains embroiled in scholarly debate).\" id=\"return-footnote-370-4\" href=\"#footnote-370-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a> this being a point upon which authors are generally agreed; but whether there was only one Zoroaster, or whether in later times there was a second person of that name, is a matter which still remains undecided. Eudoxus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"An ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer who lived from 390-340 BCE.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-5\" href=\"#footnote-370-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a> who has endeavoured to show that of all branches of philosophy the magic art is the most illustrious and the most beneficial, informs us that this Zoroaster existed six thousand years before the death of<a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_676\"> Plato<\/a> an assertion in which he is supported by<a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_916\"> Aristotle<\/a>. Hermippus<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Hermippus: An Athenian comic writer who wrote during the 5th century BCE\" id=\"return-footnote-370-6\" href=\"#footnote-370-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a> again, an author who has written with the greatest precision on everyting connected with this art, and has commented upon the two millions of verses left by Zoroaster, besides completing indexes to his several works, has left a statement, that Agonaces was the name of the master from whom Zoroaster derived his doctrines, and that he lived five thousand years before the time of the Trojan War.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Trojan War: A legendary war between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Trojans of the city of Troy, initiated by the Greeks.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-7\" href=\"#footnote-370-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a> The first thing, however, that must strike us with surprise, is the fact that this art, and the traditions connected with it, should have survived for so many ages, while all written commentaries perished in the meanwhile; and this, too, when there was no continuous succession of experts, no notable teachers, to ensure their transmission.<\/p>\n<p>There are only a few, in fact, who know anything, even by report, about the only professors of this art whose names have come down to us, Apusorus<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This name and the following names have likely been all transmitted to us in corrupted forms due to time.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-8\" href=\"#footnote-370-8\" aria-label=\"Footnote 8\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[8]<\/sup><\/a> and Zaratus of Media, Marmarus and Arabantiphocus of Babylonia, and Tarmoendas of Assyria, men who have left not the slightest records of their existence. But the most surprising thing of all is, that Homer should be totally silent upon this art in his account of the Trojan War, while in his story of the wanderings of Ulysses,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Ulysses: The Roman name for Odysseus, a legendary ancient Greek hero\" id=\"return-footnote-370-9\" href=\"#footnote-370-9\" aria-label=\"Footnote 9\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[9]<\/sup><\/a> so much of the work should be taken up with it, that we may justly conclude that the poem is based upon nothing else; if, indeed, we are willing to grant that his accounts of Proteus<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"A Greek sea god.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-10\" href=\"#footnote-370-10\" aria-label=\"Footnote 10\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[10]<\/sup><\/a> and of the songs of the Sirens are to be understood in this sense, and that the stories of Circe<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Circe: A Greek legendary divine figure portrayed as a having the powers of a witch or sorcerer.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-11\" href=\"#footnote-370-11\" aria-label=\"Footnote 11\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[11]<\/sup><\/a> and of the summoning up of the shades below, bear reference solely to the practices of sorcerers. And then, too, to come to more recent times, no one has told us how the art of sorcery reached Telmessus, a city devoted to all the services of religion, or at what period it came over and reached the <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_470\"><em>matronae<\/em><\/a> of Thessaly; whose name<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Thessaly: Thessaly was a region of central Greece, and here Pliny the Elder is referring to the name of \u201cThessala\u201d, which was used by the Romans to mean a witch, enchantress, or sorceress.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-12\" href=\"#footnote-370-12\" aria-label=\"Footnote 12\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[12]<\/sup><\/a> has long passed, in our part of the world, as the appellation of those who practise an art, originally introduced among themselves even, from foreign lands.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Pliny is referring to lands of Eastern origin (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2).\" id=\"return-footnote-370-13\" href=\"#footnote-370-13\" aria-label=\"Footnote 13\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[13]<\/sup><\/a> For in the days of the Trojan War, Thessaly was still contented with such remedies as she owed to the skill of Chiron,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Chiron: A wise centaur who fills the role of mentor for several legendary ancient Greek heroes, and is known for his medical knowledge.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-14\" href=\"#footnote-370-14\" aria-label=\"Footnote 14\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[14]<\/sup><\/a> and her only lightnings were the lightnings hurled by Mars.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Mars: The Roman version of the Greek god of war, among other things, Ares.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-15\" href=\"#footnote-370-15\" aria-label=\"Footnote 15\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[15]<\/sup><\/a> Indeed, for my own part, I am surprised that the imputation of magical practices should have so strongly attached to the people once under the sway of Achilles,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Achilles: Not the legendary hero, this is referring to a different person.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-16\" href=\"#footnote-370-16\" aria-label=\"Footnote 16\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[16]<\/sup><\/a> that Menander<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Menander: An ancient Greek comic playwright who lived from 342-292 BCE (Jeffrey Carson, \u201cMenander\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 462).\" id=\"return-footnote-370-17\" href=\"#footnote-370-17\" aria-label=\"Footnote 17\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[17]<\/sup><\/a> even, a man unrivalled for perception in literary knowledge, has entitled one of his Comedies &#8220;The Thessalian Matron,&#8221; and described there the devices practised by the females of that country in bringing down the moon from the heavens. I should have been inclined to think that Orpheus had been the first to introduce into a country so near his own, certain magical superstitions based upon the practice of medicine, were it not the fact that <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_1738\">Thrace<\/a>, set along the northern part of the Aegean Sea his native land, was at that time did not know at all the magic art.<\/p>\n<p>The first person, so far as I can ascertain, who wrote upon magic, and whose works are still in existence, was Osthanes,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Like Zoroaster, his date and attachment to one historical person is debated.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-18\" href=\"#footnote-370-18\" aria-label=\"Footnote 18\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[18]<\/sup><\/a> who accompanied Xerxes, the Persian king, in his expedition against Greece. It was he who first spread, as it were, the seeds of this monstrous art, and tainted therewith all parts of the world through which the Persians passed. Authors who have made diligent inquiries into this subject, mention a second Zoroaster, a native of Proconnesus, as living a little before the time of Osthanes. That it was this same Osthanes that especially inspired the Greeks, not with just with fondness, but a passion, for the art of magic, is a fact beyond all doubt: though at the same time I would mention, that in the most ancient times, and indeed almost invariably, it was in this branch of science, that was sought the highest point of celebrity and of literary renown.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Celebrity interest in taboo subject of magic indicates the elite interest in a sphere they are supposed to keep away from, but like most taboo topics in Roman society, magic seems to be a popular thing.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-19\" href=\"#footnote-370-19\" aria-label=\"Footnote 19\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[19]<\/sup><\/a> At all events, Pythagoras,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"An ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 6th century BCE.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-20\" href=\"#footnote-370-20\" aria-label=\"Footnote 20\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[20]<\/sup><\/a> we find, Empedocles,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"An ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 492-432 BCE. [26] Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-21\" href=\"#footnote-370-21\" aria-label=\"Footnote 21\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[21]<\/sup><\/a> Democritus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-22\" href=\"#footnote-370-22\" aria-label=\"Footnote 22\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[22]<\/sup><\/a> and Plato, crossed the seas, in order to attain a knowledge thereof, submitting, to speak the truth, more to the evils of exile<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Exile for elite people allowed for relatively easy access to learning about magic (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2).\" id=\"return-footnote-370-23\" href=\"#footnote-370-23\" aria-label=\"Footnote 23\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[23]<\/sup><\/a> than to the mere inconveniences of travel. Returning home, it was upon the praises of this art that they expatiated\u2014it was this that they held as one of their grandest mysteries. It was Democritus, too, who first drew attention to Apollobeches<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Nothing is known about this particular writer\" id=\"return-footnote-370-24\" href=\"#footnote-370-24\" aria-label=\"Footnote 24\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[24]<\/sup><\/a> of Coptos, to Dardanus,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"We are not sure who is being referred to here.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-25\" href=\"#footnote-370-25\" aria-label=\"Footnote 25\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[25]<\/sup><\/a> and to Phoenix: the works of Dardanus he sought in the tomb of that personage, and his own were composed in accordance with the doctrines there found. That these doctrines should have been received by any portion of mankind, and transmitted to us by the aid of memory, is to me surprising beyond anything I can conceive. All the particulars there found are so utterly incredible, so utterly revolting,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Pliny makes his opinion of the magic arts known, in line with \u201cothering\u201d magic as he has asserted that it comes from the East, and Easterners are not Roman and do things like magic that are an affront to Roman society.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-26\" href=\"#footnote-370-26\" aria-label=\"Footnote 26\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[26]<\/sup><\/a> that those even who admire Democritus in other respects, are strong in their denial that these works were really written by him. Their denial, however, is in vain; for it was he, beyond all doubt, who had the greatest share in fascinating men&#8217;s minds with these attractive chimeras.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Chimeras, or are Greek mythological monsters with the body parts of different animals.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-27\" href=\"#footnote-370-27\" aria-label=\"Footnote 27\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[27]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is also a marvellous coincidence, in the fact that the two arts\u2014medicine, I mean, and magic\u2014were developed simultaneously: medicine by the writings of Hippocrates,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Hippocrates: An illustrious ancient Greek physician who lived from 460-370 BCE.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-28\" href=\"#footnote-370-28\" aria-label=\"Footnote 28\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[28]<\/sup><\/a> and magic by the works of Democritus, about the period of tile Peloponnesian War, which was waged in Greece in the year of the City of Rome 300.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Romans dated everything from the founding of the city. This war, which took place between Athens and Sparta, and their respective allies, occurred from 431-404 BCE.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-29\" href=\"#footnote-370-29\" aria-label=\"Footnote 29\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[29]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is another sect, also, of experts in the magic art, who derive their origin from Moses,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Pliny here refers to the Jewish people who were often associated with magic by the Romans\" id=\"return-footnote-370-30\" href=\"#footnote-370-30\" aria-label=\"Footnote 30\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[30]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Jannes,<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Jannes is a magician mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Exodus.\" id=\"return-footnote-370-31\" href=\"#footnote-370-31\" aria-label=\"Footnote 31\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[31]<\/sup><\/a> and Lotapea, Jews by birth, but many thousand years before Zoroaster: and as much more recent, again, is the branch of magic cultivated in Cyprus.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Cyprus: An island located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (Michael Given, \u201cCyprus\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 196).\" id=\"return-footnote-370-32\" href=\"#footnote-370-32\" aria-label=\"Footnote 32\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[32]<\/sup><\/a> In the time, too, of <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_370_679\">Alexander the Great<\/a>, this profession received no small accession to its credit from the influence of a second Osthanes, who had the honour of accompanying that prince in his expeditions, and who, evidently, beyond all doubt, travelled over every part of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Pliny the Elder, <em>Natural History<\/em> 30.2<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/6\/6d\/Greco-Roman_Set.jpg\/428px-Greco-Roman_Set.jpg\" alt=\"File:Greco-Roman Set.jpg\" width=\"491\" height=\"687\" \/><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center\">The deity Set portrayed in the Greek Magical Papyri<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in reading more about the depiction of women as witches see <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/witches-and-warlock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To read our only defense speech written against a charge of magic by Apuleius go <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/chapter\/chapter-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Citations and Further Reading:<\/p>\n<p>Oxford Bibliographies, s.v. \u201cPliny the Elder,\u201d by Aude Doody, accessed April 10, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordbibliographies.com\/view\/document\/obo-9780195389661\/obo-9780195389661-0194.xml\">http:\/\/www.oxfordbibliographies.com\/view\/document\/obo-9780195389661\/obo-9780195389661-0194.xml<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. \u201cPliny (1) the Elder, 23\/24-79 CE,\u201d by Nicholas Purcell, accessed April 10, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/oxfordre.com\/classics\/view\/10.1093\/acrefore\/9780199381135.001.0001\/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5133?rskey=TEiaR1&amp;result=1\">http:\/\/oxfordre.com\/classics\/view\/10.1093\/acrefore\/9780199381135.001.0001\/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5133?rskey=TEiaR1&amp;result=1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beagon, Mary. <em>Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder<\/em>. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.<\/p>\n<p>Bostock, John., M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. <em>The Natural History. Pliny the Elder.<\/em> London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Accessed via Perseus online.<\/p>\n<p>Henderson, Jeffrey. &#8220;A Brief History of Athenian Political Comedy (c. 440-c. 300).&#8221; <em>Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014)<\/em> 143, no. 2 (2013): 249-62. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43830262\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43830262<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Segal, Charles. &#8220;Circean Temptations: Homer, Vergil, Ovid.&#8221; <em>Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association<\/em> 99 (1968): 419-42. doi:10.2307\/2935855.<\/p>\n<p>Shahbazi, A. Shapur. &#8220;The &#8216;Traditional Date of Zoroaster&#8217; Explained.&#8221; <em>Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London<\/em> 40, no. 1 (1977): 25-35. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/615820\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/615820<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-370-1\"> A later author, [pb_glossary id=\"1737\"]Columella[\/pb_glossary], expanded on this, writing \" Soothsayers and witches, two sets of people who incite ignorant minds to spend through false superstition\u00a0 and then to shameful practices, he must not admit inside. (<em>On Farming<\/em> 8.5) <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-2\">For the dedication and Pliny's introduction see the preface to the Natural History. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-3\">Persia: More specifically, Bactriana, or Bactria, a historical-cultural region situated in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-4\">Zoroaster: Also known as Zarathustra, a Persian prophet whose teachings inspired the religious movement, Zoroastrianism. His historical date remains embroiled in scholarly debate). <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-5\"> An ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer who lived from 390-340 BCE. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-6\">Hermippus: An Athenian comic writer who wrote during the 5th century BCE  <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-7\">Trojan War: A legendary war between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Trojans of the city of Troy, initiated by the Greeks. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-8\">This name and the following names have likely been all transmitted to us in corrupted forms due to time. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-8\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 8\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-9\">Ulysses: The Roman name for Odysseus, a legendary ancient Greek hero <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-9\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 9\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-10\">A Greek sea god. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-10\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 10\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-11\">Circe: A Greek legendary divine figure portrayed as a having the powers of a witch or sorcerer. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-11\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 11\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-12\">Thessaly: Thessaly was a region of central Greece, and here Pliny the Elder is referring to the name of \u201cThessala\u201d, which was used by the Romans to mean a witch, enchantress, or sorceress. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-12\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 12\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-13\">Pliny is referring to lands of Eastern origin (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2). <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-13\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 13\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-14\">Chiron: A wise centaur who fills the role of mentor for several legendary ancient Greek heroes, and is known for his medical knowledge. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-14\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 14\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-15\">Mars: The Roman version of the Greek god of war, among other things, Ares. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-15\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 15\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-16\">Achilles: Not the legendary hero, this is referring to a different person. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-16\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 16\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-17\">Menander: An ancient Greek comic playwright who lived from 342-292 BCE (Jeffrey Carson, \u201cMenander\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 462). <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-17\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 17\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-18\">Like Zoroaster, his date and attachment to one historical person is debated. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-18\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 18\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-19\">Celebrity interest in taboo subject of magic indicates the elite interest in a sphere they are supposed to keep away from, but like most taboo topics in Roman society, magic seems to be a popular thing. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-19\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 19\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-20\"> An ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 6th century BCE. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-20\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 20\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-21\">An ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 492-432 BCE. [26] Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-21\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 21\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-22\">Democritus: Another ancient Greek philosopher. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-22\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 22\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-23\">Exile for elite people allowed for relatively easy access to learning about magic (John Bostock, The Natural History, Book 30, Chapter 2). <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-23\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 23\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-24\">Nothing is known about this particular writer <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-24\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 24\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-25\">We are not sure who is being referred to here. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-25\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 25\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-26\">Pliny makes his opinion of the magic arts known, in line with \u201cothering\u201d magic as he has asserted that it comes from the East, and Easterners are not Roman and do things like magic that are an affront to Roman society. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-26\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 26\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-27\">Chimeras, or are Greek mythological monsters with the body parts of different animals. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-27\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 27\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-28\">Hippocrates: An illustrious ancient Greek physician who lived from 460-370 BCE. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-28\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 28\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-29\">Romans dated everything from the founding of the city. This war, which took place between Athens and Sparta, and their respective allies, occurred from 431-404 BCE. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-29\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 29\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-30\">Pliny here refers to the Jewish people who were often associated with magic by the Romans <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-30\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 30\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-31\">Jannes is a magician mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Exodus. <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-31\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 31\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-370-32\">Cyprus: An island located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea (Michael Given, \u201cCyprus\u201d, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 196). <a href=\"#return-footnote-370-32\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 32\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div><div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_370_943\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_943\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Marcus Porcius Cato was a legendarily stern and moral politician, who positioned himself as a defender of traditional Roman values, despite being a New Man\/N<em>ovus Homo, <\/em>and the first in his family to hold office. He was Consul in 195 BCE and Censor in 184 BCE, when he expelled many from the Senate for immoral conduct. He hated Carthage and consistently called for its complete destruction in the Senate. He also wrote a farming manual which expressed such harshness to slaves that even later Romans thought him extreme. He is often brought up as an example of traditional, proper Romanness by other authors.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_1002\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_1002\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Novus Homo, literally translating from Latin to English as \u201cnew man\u201d was someone who served in the senate but had no relatives or ancestors who had done so. This figure would consequently be a new man in Roman politics. A selection of significant figures in Roman history who were Novus Homo includes Cato the Elder, who was elected as Consul for 195 BCE, Gaius Marius, who first served as Consul in 107 BCE (and 104-100 BCE and 89 BCE subsequently), and Cicero, who served as Consul in 63 BCE.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_80\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_80\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Pliny the Elder was a prominent intellectual Roman author and historian who lived during the Early Roman Empire and came from northern Italy, known to the Romans as Cisalpline Gaul. He was an elite, well-educated Roman man and held the rank of equestrian. He was the uncle of Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Elder also became close to the Emperors Vespasian and Titus, the latter of which he dedicated his most famous work to, the <em>Historia Naturalis<\/em> (<em>Natural History)<\/em> which was an encyclopedia that encompassed all the knowledge about the natural world that Pliny had compiled from research and experience into 37 books. Pliny also wrote several lengthy historical accounts in the course of his literary career, among other works regarding his experience working in a legal capacity during the reign of Nero. He died leading a rescue effort to Stabiae, a coastal town that was affected by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_676\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_676\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Plato was an Athenian philosopher of the 4th century BCE. He was a prominent student of Socrates, and it is upon Plato's writings that later understandings of Socrates's philosophy was based. He was well respected by many Roman authors.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_916\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_916\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Aristotle was a famous Greek philosopher who founded the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of philosophy. He was tutor to Alexander the Great and a firm believer in the doctrine of natural slavery and the inferiority of non-Greeks to Greeks. His works are too numerous to list, but they are many and cover an extensive array of subjects from literature to biology.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_470\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_470\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Plural: <em>matronae<\/em>. A <em>matrona <\/em>was was a dignified married woman in Rome. She could be old or young, but she had achieved the goal Roman women were told to seek out: marriage and children. She was responsible for overseeing the household maintenance, including instructing slaves. Although the word \u2018matron\u2019 comes from the Latin word <em>mater <\/em>meaning \u2018mother\u2019 and does not hold any direct connection to wealth, the term was often associated with financially comfortable households<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_1738\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_1738\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Thrace was a region of Northeastern ancient Greece that was seen as barbarian and wild.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_370_679\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_370_679\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Alexander III of Macedonia, better known as Alexander the Great, was the king of Macedonia. He conquered Greece and then turned\u00a0 his efforts towards conquering Persia, in revenge of the Persian invasion of Greece. He died either of poison, the effects of alcohol, or malaria in Babylon. His infant son and wife were later killed and his kingdom was divided up among his generals.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":683,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["serena-so"],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[64],"license":[55],"class_list":["post-370","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-serena-so","license-cc-by-nc"],"part":162,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/683"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/370\/revisions\/2706"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/162"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/370\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/unromantest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}