📰 Source: upgoat.net | Upgoat

✍️ Original author: Joe_McCarthy

⬆️ score: -2

v/OccidentalEnclave · by u/Joe_McCarthy

📝 Original content:

AI Overview

Romans believed spells in Germania and surrounding areas were highly effective, treating magic as a tangible, dangerous reality. They feared Germanic magic, often using and finding curse tablets (defixiones)—lead sheets with inscribed curses—designed to bind enemies or affect results. These often included curses targeting theft and invoking dark spirits.

Roman Fear of Magic: Romans viewed spells (carmina) and curses (devotiones) as active threats, not just superstition. Such magic was blamed for misfortunes like illnesses or political rivals’ deaths.

Curse Tablets in Germany: Numerous Roman-era curse tablets have been found in and around German territories, including one near Frankfurt targeting a thief. These artifacts show the widespread practice of “binding” spells that invoked gods or spirits of the dead.

Merseburg Charms: The only known examples of pagan Germanic magic, the Merseburg charms, were found in Germany. These Old High German spells, likely used to free prisoners or cure ailments, demonstrate the type of “spells” often practiced, which likely influenced local beliefs.

Magic as Warfare: Romans themselves used devotio (a ritualistic curse) to compel enemy forces to the underworld, demonstrating they used similar techniques to those they feared from Germanic practitioners.

Archaeological finds indicate these magical practices, particularly curses and binding rituals, were a common cultural intersection between Roman inhabitants and the Germanic, Celtic, or Gallo-Roman peoples in the region

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