1 Earliest Rome

11.3 The claims ofthe magi
drug which was administered for their health or as a cure, the person who administered it
is, if of superior rank, banished to an island or, if of inferior rank, executed.
1. The extension of the law recorded in 11.2a is here presented as part of the Saw itself. I he
system of having diffcrenr penalties for different classes of offenders became standard in
Roman law from at least the early second century A.IX onwards.
11.2c Ruling of Constantine against magic (A.D. 317—319)
Theodoslan Code IX. 16.3
This ruling by Constantine illustrates the continuing validity of the law.
Although it has sometimes been seen as Christian action against paganism', it
was in fact a development of earlier Roman law.
Constantine Augustus and Caesar to Basstis, prefect of the city: The
knowledge of those who with the aid of magic arts are discovered to have plotted against
people's well-being or to have diverted chaste minds to lustful thoughts must be punished
and a penalty duly exacted under the harshest of laws. However, criminal charges are not
to be brought against remedies devised for the human body, nor against assistance
innocently applied in rural areas to prevent fears of rain falling on the ripe grapes or their
pummelling by a fierce hailstorm; nobody's health or reputation is harmed by them; in
fact such actions ensure that neither the gift of the gods nor the labour of humans is
spoiled.
11.3 The fraudulent claims of the magi
Magic was often represented as a specifically foreign aberration; the following
passage is excerpted from Pliny's lengthy discussion of the origin of magic in
Persia. It shows how magic could be perceived by the early imperial period as
an autonomous practice in opposition to religio. Note how human sacrifices
have become diagnostic of magic (even though various forms of ritual killing
of humans had once been officially practised at Rome; see 6.6); and how in
consequence Druidism is seen as magical. The passage argues that magic was
bogus if obnoxious; many people assumed that it was dangerously effective.
See further: Vol. 1, 233-5; Garosi (1976) 17-31; North (1980)*; Graf
(1994) 61-9-
Pliny, Natural History xxx.1-2, 12-15
(1) In the previous pages of this work we have frequently refuted the pretensions of
magic, whenever the subject and the place demanded; we shall continue to unmask them
here. Magic, however, is one of the rare subjects on which there is more to be said, if only
because as the most fraudulent of arts it has had the greatest influence in the whole world
for many centuries. No one should be surprised at the immense authority it has had since
263