How They Did It - Magic, Spells, & Curses in Ancient Rome DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ย. 2021
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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
I'm designing a few Roman magic inspired shirts for our store. All proceeds go to the art team so please do have a look: printerpanther.com/collections/invicta
Thank you for introducing more than just ancient battles. Daily life, economy, evolution of units and religion/beliefs of ancient people's is a huge plus on this channel.
How do we find youre d&d content?
@@dariusghodsi2570 I haven't shared it publicly but will likely do so in the future
Invicta, how much does the lack of the sybbiline books of magic hurt our understanding of roman magic?
the devils diplomatic dictionary
Imagine being a Roman just casually speaking to your friend, & accidentally sending him to the ninth dimension.
My imagination isn’t that good.
@@kevin6293 what version of the USA flag is that ?
He was sent to the Shadow Realm
@@exaggeratedswaggerofablackteen April 1861, Fort Sumter
@@exaggeratedswaggerofablackteen thats when america was azticossis
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.
Well he is THE EMPEROR, don’t think you got a choice.
@@zawwin1846 He told me I was a god, though, so maybe I am more powerful?
Good advice, the same goes for, if Harvey Weinstein invites you to a party at the Four Seasons, don't go.
Oh, he's gonna show you his wand, alright.
I mean shit, Hadrian's no Nero I should be okay.
To the Romans, Greek was a magical language that always sounded profound, just as Latin is to us now.
Latin means a boss battle is about to occur. So pretty much.
'Cept koine greek was a trade language.
You could be right, but, I'd need more evidence.
and the greeks used egyptian and jewish words
Is that why the Byzantines eventually abandoned Latin in favor of Greek?
@@barbiquearea i think is more because the region had a larger population of greek speakers, cuz laws and stuff like that still written in latin
"You're a Roman now, Harry"
“I’m a WHaT?!”
“Petronius!”
Ave, magus, voldemort delenda est
Harry is a lot of things
aren't we all Roman
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.
I made fun of my brother when he got a zit. He got mad and said, "zitious maximus" and poked my chin.
I got a zit two days later on my chin.
Always great to debuff them with paranoia effect.
Ok?
I’m running a dnd campaign in Ancient Rome, this is so helpful!
This review has some useful RPG books for Rome. Call of Cthulhu and D20. th-cam.com/video/2BWiWE3Lv5Q/w-d-xo.html
Have a look at the Lex Arcana RPG, it's very different to D&D and has an interesting take on magic and Rome
my campaign has a Roman culture too
@@NodDisciple1 thanks, you just gave me practical help
I'm the DM of a Roman inspired campaign to!
Magus es, Harrius.
Hmmm… Something tells me throwing a lead curse tablet into someone’s well would be the most effective way to attack them.
He would sell it saying its magic water which burns if thief would be nearby
It wouldn't make much of a difference . Romans put small pieces of lead into wine to sweeten it and used lead pipes
@@pp-wo1sd Romans would survive in chernobyl.
@@chocoman45 indeed , they would be completely radiation proof . Shame about the lead poisoning though
Nero used fireball
It's super effective!
Roman wisards would be so OP though, Latin is their first langage so they would learn spells much quicker.
Bold of you to assume the horned one speaks latin
Just as we in our modern time use Latin in magick(the correct spelling of the term in contrast to fictional magic), the Romans used Ancient Greek in their spells and incantations. We humans have always(almost) used an older and more ancient language in magick. The mystery is, what language did the Egyptians use? Maybe just their own tongue, or maybe an older one which they knew about back then.
Wingardium Leviosum
@@evenaskeladden magick is an obsolete spelling…..
@@FAVanguard effective enough for most christian religions
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.
We had a limited amount of space with this one! If only there was a month dedicated to a love holiday...
Dude, most people still die at home. It has *always* been a very common thing. So if you buy a house that's a few decades old you can be sure at some point someone died in there.
@@profezzordarke4362 Buying an old house was the then more common than now part.
@@profezzordarke4362 Yeah but it's not as comon, now a days people usually die at the hospital sorrounded by profesionals trying ti save your life or on the outside on accidents or stuff like that, people still dies on their homes but it's a much rare occurrence than in antiquity
Hmm.
Y'know, I laid a proper curse on an ex that I bought a house for who cheated on me. I had pretty much lost my marbles at the time. The thing is, though absurd, at times I wonder if it worked...
I took a ball of her hair she left in the sink and spat on it then hid it on the property with the intention that it should act to bind her irrevocably to my memory and the place so she'd not be able to divide herself from the ruin she'd left me carrying there, so trapping her in a loop to the dream her betrayal corrupted.
...She came back a year after I moved away and tried to claim the house, I couldn't understand why because it was a mess and it should have been the last place she wanted to live, it was mine afterall... She was always absent while I was there and had been living with the guy she went off with...
....And then I remembered what I'd done in those days when I'd lost my mind there as it all came out.
Mmm. I'm just about to sell her the place, at a small profit, 3 years later. She hung around there like a fly around shit.
Mmm. When I go back to pick up the last of my belongings there soon I'm going to find and burn what's left of that spell.
...Let's just keep that between us eh... Because... Mmm. I'm normally quite a sane man. ...I just really hate cheaters.
...There is no magic so dark as that of the betrayed.
Huh. ... Muha... ..MWAHAHAHAHAAA!
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.
I’m not sure if Ancient Romans really had any significant Astrology beliefs, but it would be cool to see a video on it if they did
@@torrent6181 in the second century ac chaldean astrology took the roman world by storm, to the point where everyone wanted his or her fortune read before any significant event, it became the most popular form of divination.
It also greatly influenced religions, for the first time in the roman world the souls of the deceases were not bound to the underworld (that became the place for evildoers), the worthy were instead carried to the skies.
You can tell how that inspired christianity who was taking hold in the same time period and it would definitly be a great topic for a video
@@leonardoferrari4852 Very interesting!
Noob. Magic is so easy 2 cast
I imagine the Legion mastering defensive spells either in formation or fortress.
Protegus Maximus
@@TwistedAlphonso1 Might throw Bigus Dickus at that while at it)))))
Defensive wards on the fortifications!
Your a wizard! gaius harianus pottus maximus!
I suppose a plebian like yourself is going to stop him, are you?
His a wizard?
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.
I feel magic rituals can be a good way to control your mind, mood and thus reality.
I mean I sometimes consider everything a ritual.
You go to the gym everyday, you get stronger. Study and you'll get more knowledgable.
It's just important to have deep understanding of what matters in your ritual so you don't end up like cargo cults - summoning airplanes by building a landing strip complete with wooden antennas and stuff like that.
I myself am an atheist and a skeptic, but I find the channel foolish fish, which deals with magic, really intriguing.
The ideas of conjuring up different headspaces seem useful.
In my experience it's 100% confirmation bias. In school a classmate tore up my homework and when I started muttering under my breath he said "what are you gonna cast a curse on me?" (i was a goth kid) So I was like "Yes I am, nothing you do will ever go right and you'll have only bad luck until you apologize" The next few weeks every single unfortunate thing that happened to him, he blamed on the "curse". Then after he apologized he was no longer looking for misfortune so to him it seemed like the "curse" was lifted. He still to this day thinks I'm a witch with actual powers.
@@lilykep thats a good lesser curse, I've seen similar things happen before.
Speak for yourself. My mother was 100% convinced that magic exists, and that dnd and Harry Potter would lead you down the path to Satanism. She ain't the brightest spell in the spellbook if you know what I'm saying.
It changes the mind and the feelings of the person believing in them and that is real. Tell an alcoholic who quit alcohol by dedicating his mind to god that god is not real and he’ll reply that he indeed was able to quit alcohol thanks to god. Is he wrong? Belief and mind are very much real…
Wow, this was in depth. I wasn't expecting to have actual spells to see! Very informative!
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Do Monsters in Rome, next. This has me wondering about how monsters (or at least belief in them) affected ancient life
Rome would TOTALLY be an all white deck with maybe a dash of black and blue for good measure. Oh wait, wrong magic-
That's the Egyptians, imagine Cleopatra teaching Yu Gi Oh to Ceasar/Anthony, lmao.
@@exaggeratedswaggerofablackteen
No no no, the Egyptians would be Yu-Gi-Oh, and they would have a strong balance of White and Black I feel if they had a Magic deck.
Ran a white/red legions/tokens generator Armies deck that was a lot of fun. Just rank upon rank of legionaires and angels and... lotsa fun 💥 💥 💥
Id say white maybe blue or red but not black and def not green
*after a charioteer race*
“Julius! Did you put your curse in the Goblet of FIYAH????!!!” Dumbledore asked, calmly.
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.
Thank you for sharing, may I ask where I can further research them adding on spells and rituals stolen from other nations? Very interesting!
As the astute may have noticed. Magic in the ancient world almost always involved writing the hex or curse down. Which is actually fitting if you think about it because "writing" IS magic. I mean think about it as I'm writing this comment I'm sharing my thoughts with anyone who can read English. 2000 years from now someone might read this and even though I would have been dead for thousands of years my thoughts can reach out from beyond the grave and live again in the readers mind.
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!
How did it go
Hey!! I would love to hear what your conclusion was 😍
I love that you don't try to explain away the magic.
man i pressed harder than varus defeat at teutoburg
I love how you've made clear that magic was for most of human history not something exclusive to a select few but rather was an everyday, mundane thing for people of all walks of life, whereas magic in alot of popular fantasy fictional settings is a sadly elitist thing, were there's this bizarre hardline between the magical and the mundane when it was never the case for much of history, it isn't till modern times that magic is thought of as mostly the realm of an exclusive cast of well..."spellcasters", often ridiculously overpowered too with no real recourse for those deprived of magic from this modern, arbitrary division.
Religion for Breakfast has some absolutely lovely videos on magic. He even makes a replica of a curse tablet.
"I have an amulet to protect against the evil eye!" - Eastern diplomat from Rome 2 : Total War
currently living in Bath. wonderful video but Bath is considered a city here in fact. Bath is the largest city in the county of Somerset.
The timing you made this video is impeccable thank you
Considering how the spells in Harry Potter sound like Latin it’s no surprise that Romans did magic too.
They are latin
🤦♂️
@@jy-li1jq Roman Wizards seldom talk in fear of randomly casting spells.
I took Latin in school for a few years and almost every week there was a vocab word that was also a Harry
Potter spell 😂
Leviooosa!
Thank you so much for this! I waited so long for something like to finally be explained.
That was fascinating, thanks for this great video!
Awesome video. I've been thinking a long time about how I should handle magic in my fictional setting, and I wanted to base it close to how magic was viewed historically. This video was an excellent source of knowledge and inspiration.
You should also look into the Etruscan religion, which was influenced by ancient Greece, was older than Rome's and before Etruria was conquered, was more sophisticated. The Etruscan Discipline and Liver of Piacenza (still exists) provide instructions to help their priests interpret the will of the gods via lightning, thunder and the liver of animals. The Etruscan priests could also call on the gods to throw lighting to destroy their enemies and they were much better at divination than Rome's, who could really only receive yes/no answers from their gods via birds. It's very interesting and Rome adopted much into their own religion as they expanded the empire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_religion?wprov=sfla1
Wow this was so cool to learn. Thank you! The origins of "Abracadabra" are fascinating too. It was a spell meaning "I create as I speak". Apparently JK Rowling's "Avada Kedavra" was also based on that Aramaic word, which originally meant "let the thing be destroyed", as in the illness or ailment plaguing someone.
Youre ancient cultures daily lıife videos are awesome. You always find amazing articles to study.
Invicta casually incantating ancient curses on TH-cam is not something I was expecting. Poor cursed things suddenly getting a jolt of curses in 2021 after millenia of respite.
How interesting. Normally I would picture magic in either a medieval or modern day setting, not in ancient Rome.
What's next: magic among the stars in a science fiction setting? I"m looking forward to such a thing.
I mean currently we do have stuff that the ancients would consider magic, just look infront of your face
@@carso1500 In front of my face is your comment, and it looks indeed magical much. :)
"In the name of the Galactic Spirit and of his prophet, Hari Seldon, and of his interpreters, the holy men of the Foundation, I curse this ship. Let the televisors of this ship, which are its eyes, become blind. Let its grapples, which are its arms, be paralyzed. Let the nuclear blasts, which are its fists, lose their function. Let the motors, which are its heart, cease to beat. Let the communications, which are its voice, become dumb. Let its ventilations, which are its breath, fade. Let its lights, which are its soul, shrivel into nothing. In the name of the Galactic Spirit, I so curse this ship."
Magic is still an important part of life today, with many millions believing they communicate directly with God, saints and angels and that the immaculate conception, resurrection of the dead, night travel on a heavenly horse from Mecca to Jerusalem and to heaven, parting of the Red Sea with a staff & living in a wooden boat with 2 of every animal for 40-150 days during a flood...etc are true historical events. For many, no amount of facts, evidence or scientific/medical advancement will shake their their belief in the fantastical so while we may have come a long way since Ancient Rome, magic didn't die out with togas, gladiators and polytheism.
Sometimes I like to think that we are like Warhammer's orks and whatever we do and the results we achieve also depends on the amount of people that believe in it.
In some Buddhist faiths, they believe that more the people believe in something, more likely it is to happen because of power of belief. Whether it is creation of ghosts, fortune or misfortune.
It's literally how RL Chaos Magick works, yes.
Thank you for the quality content you create and share
I love this topic so much! It's fascinating how integral magic was to many cultures!
your art team gets a gold star. I really like your channel, invicta! Have a good day yall
This is Interesting, Keep at it
I'd love to see more on this topic
Nice job on reading that curse tablet. Very cool
Magic is still around today. Most don't know how it works, but it works. It's allowing me to type this and post my my thoughts on this comments section!
“This was peak civilization”. Yes, because it was a society where a manual laborer can afford to go for a massage and spa session. Services that, in our “advanced” society, are completely out of reach of those that need them most.
I was looking for somting like dis for days thank you
Low key thought this would be sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends.
Amazing video, thanks!
How incredibly fascinating
Fascinating stuff!
Wow this channel is awesome! Very enjoyable video. :)
I love the illustrations!
This makes me want more stormlight videos.
Do more of these!
great work!!!
Holy cow I'm early!
Congratulations
Id love to see a setting with a magick system like this.
It also makes sense why all these scrolls work are always in games featuring magick
Great video
This will absolutely find its way into my Lex Arcana RPG groop
It's so cool hearing about the city of Bath, where I went to university.
Yep. You gotta do more of these…
This would be fantastic to write in a novel!
Our local Walmart is an enchanted place.
Whenever I need help, All the floor employees disappear. Like maaaaaaagic.
This is going to be very useful for my witcher studies.
13:44 Elizabeth Holmes accidentally named her company as a curse, no wonder it didn't turn out well.
Please do a similar video about vikings and their rituals!
When the tablet said “babpoopbabpoopbabpoopbabpoopbab” i started crying 😭
I hope you don't get copyright striked for using the Harry Potter jingle.
Thank you.
"Grenade of Evil". Describes my ex, lol
Please do a video on the subject of Devotio. It sounds so fascinating and interesting.
Talk about your lucky day - we did! :) th-cam.com/video/GXNvZkoojQ8/w-d-xo.html
@@Callmecel Very good, thank you so much.
"Did you throw the chicken into the sea?" asked the priest to the general calmly.
O Algorithmus, God of TH-cam, bless this channel and grant it likes beyond measure.
The sator square is actually an identification badge/puzzle, the palindrome characters can be formed into a "cross" with the words patornostra, or, our father. Along with two sets of As, and Os, obviously symbolic of the Alpha and Omega.
2:06: if your crops died despite good weather it must be your jealous neighbor cursing your crops.
Random farmer in ancient times: damn it John stop cursing my cabbages.
John:...what?
2:15 Bruh this type of tought is still pretty common here in Brazil, specially due to african influences in brazilian culture. All brazilians know about "macumba", and many people fear the possibility of being cursed by others
Here in mexico too, a lot of low class people is OBSESSED with this shit. I just can't believe i have to breathe the same air as those fuckers 😞
@@adanzavala4801 im sure they feel the same way about you
@@pandasniper1 I don't believe in witchcraft or any of those things, if that's what you're suggesting, that's waaaay more than what those fuckers can even say hahaha
@@adanzavala4801 Witchcraft and magic are only effective with the help of demonic intervention. It is real and dangerous and shouldn't be taken lightly
@@adanzavala4801 No, I am saying you are a terrible person. And those you feel are below you feel the same way about you.
14:00 Firstly I heard Obelix, Asterix
The Bath ruins are amazing
Now I got a new understanding to Acts 19:19 they were literally putting all their safety in him. Thank you. :)
Haha I wondered if our good narrator was a DnD fan. The way he spoke and pronounced different words gave him away. Lol 👍
17:26 were they purposely indecipherable so that the people around them won't know what the spell exactly meant or are they indecipherable to us today bc of time taking a toll on them or bc we've lost the knowledge of what they mean?
They were indecipherable to the people at the time as well - a bunch of them were given an "eastern sounding/Persian" sound to make them more mystical
@@Callmecel that's interesting thanks!
13:43 this is quite a curse over a wrestling match
I hope that guy got his clothes back: it was an awful risk to take in scaring his neighbors so publicly. (It was also a clear demonstration of why gyms have lockers now.)
8:12, this was done by Servillia in the awesome series Rome!
Please do more videos about ancient magic, religion, and superstitions, it's been a lot of fun! :D
YESSS
Can you dive into the religion or the mythology more? Like the stories
Unexpectedly scary vid. This would’ve been a great Halloween release.
It started raining heavily when this started 11:24
Thanks . G/W
what an amazing and rare video thank you for doing it ! Curses are written ln lead tables because lead belongs to Saturn, the planet of death, and were cast on Saturdays, the day of saturn, especially during the dark moon.
The boosting spell for animals is cast on silver, related to Mercury, the god of travel and speed, and cast preferbably on wednesday, the day of Mercury
actually some of those spells remixed would do fun dancing tracks
You really seek out to make a Rave a Demon Summoning Ritual, don't you?
@@profezzordarke4362 damned, i'm discovered !
Interesting that even back in the Roman era people thought that good magic required the use of gibberish/a language they didn't know "Magic words"
Abracadabra has been in use since the third century
Yes magic
wow, that thing about germanicus was in the robert graves' book and movie, "i, claidius" but i didn't know it was based on actual records
I kind of wish you saved this for April 1st.
Or have the same video, i mean it's a fine video, and just not have this video _title._
A third great alternative is if it started with party tricks the Romans did with optimal illusions and slight of hand (if they did it at all, if not then it's a moot point) and then move on to their other magic.
Imagine if they had used their time and strong belief in magic to bring blessings for one another. ✨🦋✨
They also did that of course. Magic wasnt only for mean things. If your parents were sick you casted a spell. If your friend just had a child, you cast as spell for them to have a good recovery etc...
A lot of this honestly doesn't sound much different then the kind of magick practiced in modern occultism. Modern occultists usually don't use tablets but everything else sounds about the same.
I really appreciate *Alabi the great spell caster* for what he has done for me, he is still the best spell caster ever