Katadesmoi in the Western Roman Empire

Abstract

This article analyzes the distribution of Greek curse tablets in the area that would become the Roman West from the VI century BCE to the V century CE. As the series of maps shows, the habit of inscribing curses on lead tablets arises in the Magna Graecia (specifically in Sicily) ca. 500 BCE. Beginning around the IV century BCE, this praxis spreads throughout the Mediterranean regions thanks to existing Hellenic colonization routes. The process reaches its culmination during the I-III centuries CE, with the Roman conquest of the West and the spread of writing. Although the vast majority of Greek curse tablets are dated to the Republican era, an important corpus from the Africa Proconsularis is later and can be dated to the Principate. Even if the employment of curse tablets was on the wane from the III century CE onwards, the reception (and perceived effectiveness) of the Greco-Egyptian magical techniques during Late Antiquity provides a final impetus to the use of katadesmoi.