Curses

I came across some interesting material on ancient cursing in a book on swearing that I read last year.

...quite a degree of energy was involved in cursing. The ancient Greeks and Romans employed the cursing tablet. At one time the baths at Bath were full of these tablets and versions of the practice are still known in parts of modern-day Tuscany and Ireland. The stone tablet* was inscribed with the tailor-made curse of one’s choice and then buried or, more commonly, thrown into deep water.

The Romans favoured throwing the curse-inscribed tablet into a sacred place... but the backyard well or the nearest river or ocean were also favoured spots. Generally, where you flung your tablet probably depended on how far you had to lug it.

Many of these tablets have been recovered and restored, and one of the best-known now resides in the Archaeological Museum at Johns Hopkins University. This particular specimen, from around 50BC, contains a most grisly curse made against an allegedly villainous man with the rather ominous name of Plotius...

‘Good and beautiful Proserpina (or Salvia, shouldest thou prefer), mayest thou wrest away the health, body complexion, strength and faculties of Plotius and consign him to thy husband, Pluto. Grant that by his own devices he may not escape this penalty. Mayest thou consign him to the quartian, tertian and daily fevers of war and wrestle with him until they snatch away at his very soul.’

From this point, the curse itemises poor Plotius’ entire anatomy:

‘I give thee the head of Plotius... his brow and eyebrows, eyelids and pupils... his ears, nose, nostrils, tongue, lips and teeth, so he may not speak his pain; his neck, shoulders, arms, and fingers, so that he may not sleep the sleep of health; his thighs, legs, knees, shanks, feet, ankles, heels, toes and toe-nails, so that he may not stand of his own strength. May he most miserably perish and depart this life.’

A touch laboured perhaps, but very thorough. It’s also pre-emptive. In the full text the curser reveals that she fears that Plotius has organised his own cursing tablet, so she wants her curse to be visited on Plotius by the end of February. Payment is promised on delivery: ‘as soon as thou has made good my vow’. Wisely Cautious.

An iron spike was driven through this tablet before it was cast into the river, a symbol of the longed-for piercing of the enemy’s soul. Clearly a physical demise was insufficient: the soul too had to be targeted.

(Language Most Foul, Ruth Wajnryb)

[*I was under the impression that the tablets were more often metal – lead or pewter]

You can find a copy of the Plotius curse here.

Nicholson Museum

My year 9 class visited the Nicholson Museum at Sydney Uni yesterday. Their collection focuses more on Egypt and Greece than on Rome, but they have a lot of interesting things there (including a great collection of mummies). Their hands-on program for students is particularly good. They take you down in to the depths of the museum and give you a tray of objects such as coins, bits of pottery, canopic jars, oil lamps, votive statues and tools, and you get to play at being a real archaeologist. They get you to do a quick sketch of an object, then to think about what it’s made of, what it might have been used for, who might have used, and what can it tell us about life in the ancient world.

The museum also has a few interesting Latin inscriptions. Here’s one of them:

DEPOSSIO HILARES QVE
VIXIT ANNUS VII M VNO D
XIII DEPOSITA DIAE VII IDUS
SEPT RICOMEDE ET CLYARCO CONS

This means something like:

The burial of Hilary, who lived 7 years, one month, 13 days, buried on the 7th day before the Ides of September, during the Consulship of Ricomedes and Clearchus.
It’s an interesting inscription for a few reasons. Firstly it doesn’t start as most grave inscriptions do with a dedication to the spirits of the underworld (DM for DIS MANIBUS). This seems to be because the family were Christians. We know this not only from the lack of dedication, but also because the gravestone includes a chi-rho, and a picture of a dove (a common Christian symbol). The words depossio and deposita (from which we get the English word ‘deposit’) also imply the Christian belief that the body has been laid aside for safe keeping until the resurrection. Secondly it gives a precise date (7th September AD 384- when Ricomedes and Clearchus were consuls), which is not all that common, and thirdly, it’s got a couple of spelling mistakes in it (QVE for QVAE and DIAE for DIE), showing that it's not only school students who sometimes get their endings wrong.

Roman Inscriptions

For my Year 10 class

After you have read through the information on inscriptions in your text book (you can find similar information here), and have deciphered the inscriptions given there, have a go at doing these slightly trickier ones.

Four soldiers


Eumachia Inscription (a list of common abbreviations might help you here)

The Arch at Beneventum

Funerary inscriptions (scroll down the page and click on the individual tombs)

Other kinds of inscriptions