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In ancient times people lived in aworld of vast unknowns. They were lead
and controlled by the state and local bureaucracy whichmirrored the divine hierarchy
of the heavens. In the divine hierarchy one almightygod ruled, like
the emperor, in the top most sphere while local deitiesaffected change in the cities and
countryside. Divination lit the path for the generalpopulation to move above the toil of
everyday mortal life. It lessened the feelings of lackof control people experienced (Graf, 195).
Only divine beings knew what the future held. A mortalperson who practiced
divination was capable of knowing some aspect of thefuture and this brought them closer
to divine. Magic, medicine, and religion began in ancienttimes as a united belief system.
As the centuries progressed and empires arose and fell,lines were drawn between
the practices, terminologies transformed and trustedactions changed. Divination, as a part
of magic, was always an acknowledged practice. It was,however, not always
a legitimate social action. In and around the 5th century BCE Persianpriests, magoi, were seen as experts in
divinity. They traveled the country advising people andwere known as "wisemen practiced
in royal sacrifices, funeral rites, divination and dreaminterpretation (Graf, 20)." Then the
Romans conquered Persia and magoi were seen, inthe eyes of the government, as foreign
wanderers. Being foreign immediately cast them as suspect.Diviners were called mantis and
recognized by the polis. The mantis was an officialof professional rites (Graf, 22). This
official status granted diviners a less marginal statuswithin the Empire. Another often-used
term was goes. The goes more closely matched therole and common perception of
the Persian magoi. They were figures versed inritual lament, healing, and divination (Graf, 24).
These men were acknowledged by both the general populaceand heads of
government; their existence, though not trusted, wasaccepted. In the 1st century
BCE there were certain forms of endorsed magic, as exemplifiedin Lucan'sPharsalia.
Sextus, the antagonist, wanted to find the outcome ofthe war: "Fear goaded him to know ahead of time Fate's course:
impatient of delay and sick at heart at all to come,
he consults not Delos' tripods, not Pythian caves
nor does he wish to ask what sound Dodona, nurse of humankind
with earliest fruits, makes from the bronze of Jupiter;nor did he ask
who knows the Fates from entrails, who explains the birds,who
watches
lightning-flashes in the sky and with Assyrian zeal examinesstars,
or anything secret yet permitted (Lucan, ln 423-30)." Sextus didn't search out the accepted divination methodsbut instead went to the
"savage magicians, detested by the gods (Lucan, ln 431)."He chose to ignore the normal
paths and found the quick, dangerous, and distrustedroute andthis served to further damn him. Around 29 BCE Augustus, the Roman Emperor,outlawed divination regarding
the life and fate of the emperor. He also stipulatedthat any divination without
a third party witnessing the act was forbidden. Theselaws against divination were
also enforced by Tiberius, Aurelian, and Constantine.Their aim was to maintain
public harmony and stop any use of magic "against thepeace of the realm and Roman
rule (MacMullen, 129)." Divination completed for personalenlightenment and not directed
toward those in power was typically ignored. It was knownto be a learned operation
that required books and years of study. Then the Empirebegan burning books, or
confiscating written material on divinatory practices,and outlawing private ownership of the
books (MacMullen, 130). Most philosophers were devotedto personal enlightenment
which required studying the "magic arts" (MacMullen,136). An example of one such
philosopher is Apuleius who lived and wrote in the 2ndcentury CE. He was put on trial after
being accused of using magic. One accusation broughtagainst him was that he used a boy
as a medium in a divination rite: "...although I believe Plato when he asserts that there
are certain divine powers holding a position and
and possessing a character midway between gods and men,
and that all divination and the miracles of magicians
are controlled by them...
the human soul, especially when
it is young and unsophisticated, may by the allurement
of music or the soothing influence of sweet smells
be lulled into slumber and banished into
oblivion of its surroundings... (Apuleius, 77 -85). " Apuleius shows his prodigious knowledge of magical artsand justifies his knowledge
through philosophy and accepted religious practices.Whether he was safe in the
court expounding on his knowledge of magic and divinationis questionable. It was an
outlawed practice that was punishable by death, banishmentfrom the empire, and
sometimes conversion to Christianity. It is surprisingthat he lived but his argument was
excellent and, while he knew of the magical rites, henever admitted to having done the
rites. This is not the case when Nero ruled in 55 CE.Servilia, a young upper-class
woman, was tried for attempting to divine her father'sfate in a trial. She sold her dowry to
be told the answers and was put to death by the courts(MacMullen, 137). Not all forms of divination were prosecutedby the government. In Apuleius Golden Ass:
Pamphile, who was a known user of magic and a memberof the upper-class, used
divination to predict the weather for the following day."...Pamphile, peering into a lamp,
asserted 'It will rain heavily tomorrow.' Her husbandasked her how she could foretell the
weather, and she said that the lamp had thus prophesied(Apuleius, 57)." It is apparent that
this kind of divination was common. Her husband madeno comment and she was not
prosecuted later for her prediction. There were legitimate forms of divinationin the ancient world: asking from the accepted
oracles, looking at a reflective surface like a river,prediction through birds' flight and
examination of a sacrificed animal's intestines, wereall seen as proper methods to discover
the future. Experts on divination, such as the mantis,existed but their safety depended largely
on the political atmosphere of the time. Divination wasseen as illicit when a person
threatened the serenity of the Empire or the King . Whenlife was less politically stable
magical rites were more often prosecuted. In a societyso ruled by astral fatalism it was
unlikely that the government could completely stomp outmagical practices. This is why the
government often chose to ignore rites not openly andpublicly performed. Even, often especially,
the most enlightened people in the period had confidencein finding out the future through
divinatory rites. Lite`rate and educated people, likephilosophers, took pride in their knowledge
and understanding of these marginal practices. for more information on the Roman Empire see: theForum Works Cited Apuleius, Apology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909tr. H.E. Butler.
Apuleius, The Golden Ass.
Graf, Fritz, Magic in the Ancient World. Harvard UniversityPress, 1997 tr. Franklin Philip.
Lucan, Pharsalia. Oxford University Press, 1992 tr. SusanH. Braund.
MacMullen, Ramsay, Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason,Unrest and Alienation in the Empire. Harvard University Press, 1966. |