Curses in Late Antiquity

Whether we know it or not, most religions have a dark side to them. More than just the current American mentality of “Islam is bad,” religions of all kinds have usually had some history with practices in some sort of magic, and Christianity is no exception. Regardless of whether these practices have yielded actual results or not, the intentions behind them are enough to warrant skepticism. The age old practice of cursing may have recently been made synonymous (almost exclusively so) with profanity, but there was once a time when the term referred to more than just the spouting of obscenities. By examining the history of Christianity, as well as some of these Christian curses (particularly those dating back to the late antiquity), we will see that even the most widespread of religions can have questionable backgrounds.

Since its emergence from the shadow of Judaism in the time of ancient Rome, Christianity referred to itself as a universal religion, though definitely less universally accepting and more seeking universal acceptance. Eventually, their need for acceptance would push the city of Rome to begin widespread persecution of Christians, ultimately ceasing with the issuing of the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, bringing about the legalization of Christianity. With this victory, Christianity began to spread even further than ever before.

      | Spread of Christianity to 325 AD

      | Spread of Christianity to 600 AD

Unfortunately, there will always be those who refuse to join the cause, which brings us to the curses. From turning men “tongue-tied” to bringing seventy different diseases upon a person, the range of curses the Christians had access to is staggering. For a religion which advertised itself as “universal,” it certainly had a wide variety of ways to bring harm to people (in theory).

In conclusion, while we may perceive Christianity today as a harmless, widely accepted religion, it should be remembered that it has had a somewhat dark past. The horrors that some people would wish upon their fellow man for something as simple as a disagreement of religious beliefs are almost unspeakable. Thankfully, it seems as though our more scientific mentality of the present has allowed us to leave such practices behind.

Bibliography:

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth. The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Ward, Allen M., Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo. A History of the Roman People. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003. Print.

Meyer, Marvin W., and Richard Smith. Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1999. Print.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Spread_of_Christianity_to_AD_600_%281%29.png

http://paulbollinger.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/christian-cursing1.jpg

Battle of Masada

The war of Masada and Titus, also known as the Great Revolt, was not a war about anything in particular for the Romans so much as just another war with no real significance other than to crush a rebellion. For the Jews however, the same did not hold true. This was a war over terrible conditions due to terrible leadership in Israel. For so many years, the Jews had paid their taxes, obeyed the laws of the government and had tried to do their best to be good citizens of the Roman Empire. The revolt was sparked because of a succession of terrible senatorial leaders in Israel and many internal crises as a result of that poor leadership and because the government of Rome did not help them despite the repeated pleas for aid from the Jews. It really did not help that the Jews were subject to unreasonable taxes where, if more money was collected than was the required amount, the tax collectors were able to keep the extra tax money, but nor did it make the tensions between the Roman Empire any less when Emperor Caligula threatened to destroy the Temple because the Jews said no to the Emperor’s proclamation that there be a statue of himself put inside every temple throughout the empire. They adamantly refused on the grounds that by doing so, they would be defiling their place of worship, because they would be placing a pagan statue in their holiest of places. Therefore, they decided to rebel because of all the unfair conditions and the fear of another emperor who would threaten them similarly, but actually follow through on those threats. The revolt was actually due mainly to Jewish radical groups. Two years after the beginning of the revolt, those radicals marched onto Jerusalem and killed all of the members of the government who were not radicals like themselves. The final major fight was on Masada, the sight of the once Roman fort which was then captured a number of years later by the Jews, towering 1700 feet above the Dead Sea. There atop Masada, the last of the Jewish rebels stood, mostly being the radical that originally instigated the revolt along with their families, holding up their defenses against the seemingly endless onslaught of Roman soldiers. Eventually, the Romans built a long ramp that reached all the way to the top of Masada and from there, they were able to capture the last major Jewish stronghold (there were still pockets of rebellion throughout the empire for several years afterward). However, as soon as the Romans reached the top of Masada, the Jews immediately set fire to everything and then almost all of the Jews swore a suicide pact, drew straws, and after one Jew had killed the others, he killed himself, leaving two women and five children to be captured by the Romans. These women, along with the children, would either be put to death or sold into slavery after being captured. Thus the Great Revolt of the Jews, which lasted for four years, ended in failure and instead of resulting in better conditions for the Jews of Israel, brought about the dispersal of the majority of the Jews from Israel for the next two thousand years, until 1948 when Israel was reestablished as the Jewish homeland.

Resources:

A History of the Roman People by Allen Ward, Fritz Heichelheim, and Cedric Yeo

History of Rome by Michael Grant

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/revolt.html

Ancient Philosophy

How Ancient Philosophy has Influenced the Modern World

Philosophy is one of the many major influences on the modern world and the way our

world’s history has progressed. Throughout time since Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers have

created many principles that are still relevant today. Some of these philosophers, whose names

are renowned by many, like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, have influenced the world greater than

the “modern thinkers” of our time.

For starters, philosophy has greatly influenced and changed the ideas people have on

forms of education and the role of the student and the role of the teacher. This was an idea that

was established by ancient philosophers, showing their beliefs on what position the student

should take on the gaining of knowledge. Before, students were regarded as tools, mindless and

ignorant, and were all taught the same ways by their private tutors. But in the modern age,

students are all taught differently in a way that they can gain relevant knowledge pertaining to

bettering themselves.

Not just the educational world was influenced by ancient philosophy. What most don’t

realize is that the political world was also influenced, as well as art and religion. But starting

with politics, the ideas of Ancient Greek philosophers were not taken too as well as they would

have hoped. To start, a main belief of philosophers is that people should be ruled by a

“philosopher king.” While this doesn’t directly pertain to the ancient philosophers, it was a

generally agreed upon topic between philosophers, although it was more common in the

Enlightenment Age. In modern times, philosophers are not as well regarded as they were in the

past. But the effect that these ideas had on modern politics is that philosophers based political

arguments on basic principles such as humanism and freedom of the people.

Another topic that philosophy has influenced in a major way is religion. Many religions,

such as Islam, were affected by the ideas of ancient philosophy. But the religion that was greatly

affected by ancient philosophy is Christianity, which was a religion that sprouted up around the

same time as these ancient philosophers. In Christianity, the New Testament was even based on

Greek Philosophies. Because of the New Testament being based on Greek philosophy, the

influence of these philosophical ideas have been a central idea in the religion of Christianity.

Lastly, while philosophy was regarded in a higher manner during ancient times, its

influence on our modern world has greatly shaped our ideas on education, politics, and most of

all, religion. These ancient influences on modern life show just how important and relevant

ancient philosophy is.

Works Cited Page

http://www.iep.utm.edu/greekphi/

https://www.google.com/imghp?

hl=en&tab=wi&ei=HX5_U6_hC4vMsQSCw4KIBw&ved=0CAQQqi4oAg

Hypatia and the Persecution of the Pagans

Hypatia was born 350 AD, Egypt. She was the daughter of Theon, who was considered

to be a well-known and respected philosopher and scientist throughout Egypt. Some historians

believe that Theon wanted to raise the perfect human. It is apparent that she had developed a

passion for mathematics and sciences. Most historians are certain that Hypatia surpassed Theon’s

knowledge at a young age. Her father also taught her the fundamentals of teaching so that she

became a very enticing orator.

Hypatia studied astrology, astronomy and mathematics. She was later credited by her

students of inventing the astrolabe. However this is very unlikely because the astrolabe was

dated a few centuries earlier. Historians believe she merely promoted the astrolabe’s use. In

addition, she studied conic sections, which were introduced by Apollonius. She wrote a book

called On the Conics of Apollonius. She was credited introducing ideas of ellipses, hyperbolas,

and parabolas.

 Hypatia with Astrolabe (the astrolabe

was used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers, to find the time, place, and

positions of constellations in the sky)

At the end of the antique period, Christianity was starting to dominate the roman religion.

Riots frequently broke out between the different religious sects. Two leaders were opposing

each other, Cyril and Orestes. Hypatia, who happened to be a good friend of Orestes, was

unfortunately involved. Cyril spread nasty rumors about her. In 415 AD, a violent mob attacked

Hypatia on her way home. They apparently stripped her and killed her with shards of pottery,

then dragged her through the streets.


At this time Hypatia was one of many persecuted by the Christians, because she was

pagan. The Christians persecuted the pagans persecuted as much as the pagans persecuted them.

However not all Christians did this. Some were ambivalent and did not care. This example shows

how the Christians behaved when the tables were turned on the pagans.

Hypatia was also known as a philosopher, but not as much as her work on conic sections

Bibliography:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Hypatia.html

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/hypatia.htm

http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/HYPATIA.html

http://www.heretication.info/_pagans.html

Romanization of British Religion

Owen K-W

Latin 3

5/23/14

The Romanization of British Religion

When the Romans started moving into Britain, many aspects of ancient British culture were changed and merged into Roman culture as Britons became citizens or Rome. According to the British Museum, following the Roman religion was necessary to prove loyalty to Rome. However, the not all of the Britons necessarily wanted to convert to another religion. The Romans, to make the foreign religions easier to understand, associated certain British deities with their own, which as a side effect made it more simple for the British people to worship their own gods but still be loyal to Rome. An example of this is the town of Bath, there the goddess Sul was worshiped. According to AQUAE SULIS, Sul was the goddess of rivers and fertility, as well as being a mother goddess. When the Romans arrived at Bath, they associated Sul with Minerva because they were both thought to have healing powers. The British religion was greatly changed by the Romans, but it kept many significant traits, such as the importance of sources of water and the number three. There were several Romano-british trios of gods and goddesses, according Rhythms of Triplism: The Triple Figures of Romano-Celtic Sculpture. While the Romans generally had no problems with British religion, they had very serious conflicts with the druids, who the Romans were afraid would contest their leadership. Several laws were passed prohibiting their religious rituals, and emperor Augustus did not allow people to be both Roman citizens and druids at once.

As the Romans moved in to Britain, their culture became mixed with the culture of the British. Many British gods were similar enough to one of the Roman gods that the two were blended into one. Rome's religion was somewhat flexible, making it simpler for Rome to take over areas with different deities. However, when a religious group proved to be a threat, Rome did not hesitate to take it down.

Bibliography

http://www.britishmuseum.org/PDF/british_museum_roman_britain.pdf

http://faculty.vassar.edu/jolott/old_courses/crosscurrents2001/aquae_sulis/index.html

http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/triplism/

Raphael Human Sacrifice

Raphael Kahn

Latin 3, Period 7

5/26/14

Roman Sacrificing

            Roman sacrifices were held so that Romans could repay the spirits that they had invoked. For instance, in order to repay Mother Earth for harvesting crops, the Romans held the annual spring festival of the Fordicidia. In this festival, they would kill a pregnant cow and make a burnt sacrifice of her aborted calf, in order to transfer the cow’s fertility to the earth. Sacrifices could also be used to symbolize the transfer of ownership. The typical sacrifice was performed through four phases: the praefatio, the immolatio, the slaughtering, and the banquet. In the praefatio, after the purification of the participants and victims, a procession led them to the altar of sacrificing. In the immolatio, wine was poured on the victim’s face and salted flour was sprinkled on the victims back. In the slaughtering, the victim was killed, butchered, and had its corpse opened up for the inspection of its vital organs. If the quality of the organs were deemed unsatisfactory, the sacrifice was held again. In the banquet, the victim was beheaded and the vital organs were set aside and prepared for offering. The method of preparation depended on what type of animal the victim was. After the vital organs were prepared, they were offered to the deity for whom the sacrifice had been conducted for. The manner of offering depended on which deity it was. For example, the offerings were thrown into the water for an aquatic deity. After the offerings were given to the deity, the rest if the victim was prepared for human consumption. While Romans were perfectly content to sacrifice all manner of creatures, fruits, vegetables, and even inanimate objects such as necklaces and bracelets, they abhorred human sacrifice. The Roman government did not tolerate human sacrifice, and by extension, did not tolerate Gaulish Druids. In Pliny the Elder’s writing, he denounces the nature of the Druids as barbaric for their belied in human sacrificing.

            While some people may have deemed the ancient Romans as barbaric for their conquering, slavery, and sacrificing, they did hold high standards for their time. They allowed more freedom of religion then was expected for their time period, they allowed slaves to earn their freedom, and they abhorred and outlawed human sacrificing. There is even a story about a man who, in order to please the gods, sacrificed his son. To do this, he killed his son, mutilated him, made him into a soup, and served it to the gods. Jupiter, finding this disgusting, sent the man to the underworld as punishment and reanimated the son. Yes, the ancient Romans had some questionable customs, but hey-at least they were not Druids.

 

Sources:

• The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization edited by Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth
• A History of the Roman People by Allen M. Ward, Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo
• http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/JRS/2/Human_Sacrifices_at_Rome*.html
• Google images

 

 

Curses

During the start of the 1^st Century A.D., there were Romans who had very unique ideas about how religion worked. They believed that people could pray to their gods, to improve their own lives, and to ruin others. Many people would wonder why others would want to cause others harm.

In recent years, archeologists have discovered several tablets where ancient Roman civilization used to dwell. Some of the tablets are made of lead, and others are made from pewter, with inscriptions carved into them, asking for a god to grant the writer's the suffering of another individual. These tablets, are called “defixiones,” or, “curse tablets.” A few hundred have been excavated in Britain alone, and approximately ninety have been dug up in the historic town of Aquae Sulis.

The procedure of creating a curse tablet could follow a couple of methods. The first step, was to identify the intended recipient of the tablet-maker's wrath, and then inscribe it on the tablet. If the owner did not know the name of the victim, than they'd write an inventory of potential names instead. The next step was to explain the crime committed against the tablet's creator. Finally, they would identify the deity they wanted to do the act, and provide a description of how to go about the punishment, which would usually be very detailed, and very gory. Upon completion, the tablet would be rolled up, and either attached to a tomb, or dropped down a well.

Sometimes the tablet might have been more elaborate than just mere words. Some people had an idea that if written backwards, the words of the curse would have greater effects. Another idea for augmenting the potency of the tablet involved nonsensical words that did not exist. These included, “bazarga; bescue; berebescue; phrix; phrox;” and even, “abracadabra.” Some even included illustrations depicting demons or other mythological figures. In today's society, there would be many people who would disagree with this belief, given that it shows such malice towards others.

It is fascinating that the Romans, “... tended to see their gods as possible allies in the struggles of life.” (Cambridge, Page 42). However, there are some people who would disagree with the way the Romans applied the boon of divine alliance to the expense of another person, there are others who would promote the belief of a higher power looking out for individuals happiness and well-being.

Bibliography:

Cambridge Latin III