MAGIC AND MAGICIANS IN THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD

 Matthew W.Dickie

MAGIC AND MAGICIANS IN THE GRECO ROMAN WORLD This absorbing work assembles an extraordinary range of evidence for the existence of sorcerers and sorceresses in the ancient world, and addresses the question of their identities and social origins. From Greece in the fifth century BC, through Rome and Italy, to the Christian Roman Empire as far as the late seventh century AD, Professor Dickie shows the development of the concept of magic and the social and legal constraints placed on those seen as magicians. The book provides a fascinating insight into the inaccessible margins of GrecoRoman life, exploring a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers. Compelling for its clarity and detail, this study is an indispensable resource for the study of ancient magic and society. 

Matthew W.Dickie teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has written on envy and the Evil Eye, on the learned magician, on ancient erotic magic, and on the interpretation of ancient magical texts

ROUTLEDGE 2003 

CONTENTS

Preface v

Abbreviations vi

Introduction 1

1 The formation and nature of the Greek concept of magic 18

2 Sorcerers in the fifth and fourth centuries BC 46

3 Sorceresses in the Athens of the fifth and fourth centuries BC 77

4 Sorcerers in the Greek world of the Hellenistic period (300–1BC) 93

5 Magic as a distinctive category in Roman thought 120

6 Constraints on magicians in the Late Roman Republic and under the Empire 137

7 Sorcerers and sorceresses in Rome in the Middle and Late Republic and under the Early     Empire 156

8 Witches and magicians in the provinces of the Roman Empire until the time 

   of Constantine 195

9 Constraints on magicians under a Christian Empire 242

10 Sorcerers and sorceresses from Constantine to the end of the seventh century AD  263

Notes 310

Bibliography 355

Index 365