1 Earliest Rome
1 Earliest Rome 1 Earliest Rome
7.6 Prophecy in the Roman empire 7.6c(ii) Damianos the prophet (late third century A.D.) Advice on matters of rirual and changes in religious procedure were a standard part of the business of oracles. See further: Lane Fox (1986) 216-17; Fontenrose (1988) 147-9. Didyma: Inschriften 504.15-16 = Fontenrose (1988) no. 30 Good Fortune Your prophet Damianos asks: 'Since in your sanctuary and altar-circle of all the gods he has never seen an altar of your most holy sister, his own ancestral goddess, Soteira Kore, 1 and since it grieves him as a lover of the gods that this should be so, he asks you to declare, Lord of Didyma Helios Apollo, whether you would permit him to establish beside the altar of Demeter Karpophoros
J. D I V I N A T I O N A N D D I V I N E R S 188 7.7 Magical divination Divination and prophecy played a part in illicit (as well as regular, official) reli gious life. The techniques of magic (see 11.2-6) offered alternative ways of divining the future. The bronze table (sides 0.26 m.) from Pergamum, the base of which is shown here, was found as part of a cache of equipment which must have been for use by a magician: also in the cache were a mirror, a nail, two rings, two small plaques and three polished black stones. The use of material such as this is illustrated by a description of magical divination in the fourth- century historian Ammianus Marcellintis (XXIX.1.28-32): the participants gather round a small table, with the twenty-four letters of the alphabet inscribed at its edge; after various incantations a ring is swung on a thread over the table, and marked with its swinging a succession of letters, to give the answer to a question (in that case - who will succeed the emperor?). See further: Wunsch (1905); Barb (1963) 111-17*; Donnay (1984); Matthews (1989) 217-25.
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J. D I V I N A T I O N A N D D I V I N E R S<br />
188<br />
7.7 Magical divination<br />
Divination and prophecy played a part in illicit (as well as regular, official) reli<br />
gious life. The techniques of magic (see 11.2-6) offered alternative ways of<br />
divining the future. The bronze table (sides 0.26 m.) from Pergamum, the base<br />
of which is shown here, was found as part of a cache of equipment which must<br />
have been for use by a magician: also in the cache were a mirror, a nail, two<br />
rings, two small plaques and three polished black stones. The use of material<br />
such as this is illustrated by a description of magical divination in the fourth-<br />
century historian Ammianus Marcellintis (XXIX.1.28-32): the participants<br />
gather round a small table, with the twenty-four letters of the alphabet<br />
inscribed at its edge; after various incantations a ring is swung on a thread over<br />
the table, and marked with its swinging a succession of letters, to give the<br />
answer to a question (in that case - who will succeed the emperor?).<br />
See further: Wunsch (1905); Barb (1963) 111-17*; Donnay (1984);<br />
Matthews (1989) 217-25.
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