How They Did It - Magic, Spells, & Curses in Ancient Rome DOCUMENTARY

In this How They Did It documentary episode we dive into the history of magic in ancient Rome. We begin with a discussion of how people in the past truly believed that they lived in a realm where the supernatural was as real as the ground they walked on. People blamed crop failures, stillbirths, disease, and all kinds of things they could not otherwise explain on magic.

The episode focuses on the most common ways that ancient Romans in turn sought to use this magic in their daily life. Its a fascinating subject that I look forwards to covering more of in the future. Be sure to check out the rest of our How They Did It series which features animated history videos on different aspects of daily life in the past.

Credits:
Research = Chris Das Neves
Writing = Chris Das Neves
Narration = Invicta
Editing = Penta Limited

Sources and Suggested Reading:
Magical Practice in the Latin West, eds. Richard L. Gordon and Francisco Marco Simón
Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World by John Gager
The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy eds. Christer Bruun and Jonathan Edmonson
The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West: From Antiquity to the Present Edited by David Collins

#Rome
#HowTheyDidIt
#History

[spiffyracc]

If a hairy man comes to your small town and tells you you're a wizard and Emperor Hadrian wants to take you to a palace and show you his wand, don't go.

[Pretisy]

Imagine being a Roman just casually speaking to your friend, & accidentally sending him to the ninth dimension.

[kangirigungi]

To the Romans, Greek was a magical language that always sounded profound, just as Latin is to us now.

[dynawesome]

I’m running a dnd campaign in Ancient Rome, this is so helpful!

[lilykep]

Belief is a powerful thing. I once cast a "curse" on a childhood classmate who intentionally ripped up my homework. In actuality all I did was mutter a few words under my breath and tell them that they'd be cursed with bad luck until they apologized. Their mind did the rest, from that point forward every bad thing that happened to them was the result of my "curse". They apologized after a few weeks and since they were no longer anticipating bad things, it seemed to them like the "curse" was lifted. To this day they still 100% believe I'm a witch who actually cursed them with real magic.

[cringlator]

Hmmm… Something tells me throwing a lead curse tablet into someone’s well would be the most effective way to attack them.

[maxherman]

Are we not even gonna talk about how curses in the greco-roman world were powered by the dead? Necromancy was powerful, in the sense that burring your curse tablet with the corpse of someone who was known to have a vengeful spirit could cause that spirit to act out the punishment.

Another common type of spell were threshold spells. These spells were inscribed on the threshold of a home. It's been a while, but I believe that one of the most common threshold spells was to make the previous inhabitants of the house protect it. (basically if you'd bought or moved into a house where someone had died [a common occurrence in the ancient world] you could ensure that their spirit would not take vengeance against you or make mischief in the house by binding it to the threshold, or some other object, at which point, you could placate it, and treat it as a sort of guardian.

The video mentions love potions, but doesn't talk about love curses. There's a reason why. As you might expect, where intimacy and romantic rivalry are involved, love curses get nasty.

[kevinsmith]

"You're a Roman now, Harry"

[exaggeratedswaggerofablackteen]

Roman wisards would be so OP though, Latin is their first langage so they would learn spells much quicker.

[torrent]

I love this ‘Day in the life of’ content. You do a really good job explaining it!

Also it’s so cool that Ancient Romans actually attempted to cast magic. Do you have plans to make a video about Ancient Romans’ relationship with Astrology? That would be epic to see you cover.

[johnfraire]

Nero used fireball
It's super effective!

[dariustiapula]

I imagine the Legion mastering defensive spells either in formation or fortress.

[obiwancoolidge]

*after a charioteer race*
“Julius! Did you put your curse in the Goblet of FIYAH????!!!” Dumbledore asked, calmly.

[MehnixIsThatGuy]

Always kind of interesting how, today, we know that magic doesn't exist and the spells and cursed chanting didn't do anything, but often were accompanied by things that ended up causing the desired effect. Like cursing someone by placing rotten remains in their bedroom, the rot attracting vermin and disease which then the target catches, and so becomes ill, which everyone then attributes to the cursed text stored along with the remains as they don't understand how diseases work.

Either that or simple confirmation bias, where a person is cursed to misfortune and they just so happen, utterly unrelatedly, to suffer misfortune, which is then also attributed to the curse.

Most good lies, or I guess misunderstandings in these cases, have a kernel of truth.

[saltherilshaven]

Wow, this was in depth. I wasn't expecting to have actual spells to see! Very informative!

[ramenbomberdeluxe]

Rome would TOTALLY be an all white deck with maybe a dash of black and blue for good measure. Oh wait, wrong magic-

[emperoraugustus]

Your a wizard! gaius harianus pottus maximus!

[isaacofthales]

Do Monsters in Rome, next. This has me wondering about how monsters (or at least belief in them) affected ancient life

[alexanderah]

This came out in perfect time, I'm currently writing on an Essay "Did the Roman's believe magic was a threat" and this has given some good inspiration. Thanks!

[Perroloco]

Bravo... you could make a whole series of this, incluiding the origins of roman magic which includes graeco-egyptian stuff. Also, you know romans added to their own culture things of their conquered peoples.