jonathanmoeller (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jonathanmoeller) wrote,@ 2007-12-18 12:41:00 |
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the alarming efficiacy of ancient Roman curses
Here's a fascinating archaeological find. Someone dug up a golden coin and a piece of lead foil used to place a curse upon the Roman Emperor Valens (364 AD - 378 AD).
The ancient Romans were fond of curses. Their favored method was to take a piece of lead, inscribe a suitable malediction upon it, and then cast the piece of lead into an appropriate place, such as a well or lake, or to hang it up someplace for lasting ill fortune. In this case, someone took a coin with Valens's image upon it, hammered the coin into a piece of lead foil, and then wrapped the coin up in the foil.
And the curse seems to have worked!* Valens met his demise at the hands of the Goths in the disastrous Battle of Adrianople, which smashed the Roman army and sent the Empire into its final death spiral. No one's quite certain how, exactly, Valens died, but a historian named Ammianus Marcellinus recorded this story:
Others report that Valens did not die immediately, but that he was borne by a small body of picked soldiers and eunuchs to a cabin in the neighborhood, which was strongly built, with two stories; and that while these unskillful hands were tending his wounds, the cottage was surrounded by the enemy, though they did not know who was in it; still, however, he was saved from the disgrace of being made a prisoner. For when his pursuers, while vainly attempting to force the barred doors, were assailed with arrows from the roof, they, not to lose by so inconvenient a delay the opportunity of collecting plunder, gathered some faggots and stubble, and setting fire to them, burnt down the building, with those who were in it.
Wow. The Curse of King Tut never managed anything like that.
And people actually think numismatics is for nerds.
-JM
*Of course, in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD a Roman Emperor was quite likely to die in any number of horribly violent ways, so cursing an Emperor was a bit like sacrificing a goat so the sun would rise in the morning. It was probably going to happen anyway, and you've gone and wasted a perfectly good goat.
Here's a fascinating archaeological find. Someone dug up a golden coin and a piece of lead foil used to place a curse upon the Roman Emperor Valens (364 AD - 378 AD).
The ancient Romans were fond of curses. Their favored method was to take a piece of lead, inscribe a suitable malediction upon it, and then cast the piece of lead into an appropriate place, such as a well or lake, or to hang it up someplace for lasting ill fortune. In this case, someone took a coin with Valens's image upon it, hammered the coin into a piece of lead foil, and then wrapped the coin up in the foil.
And the curse seems to have worked!* Valens met his demise at the hands of the Goths in the disastrous Battle of Adrianople, which smashed the Roman army and sent the Empire into its final death spiral. No one's quite certain how, exactly, Valens died, but a historian named Ammianus Marcellinus recorded this story:
Others report that Valens did not die immediately, but that he was borne by a small body of picked soldiers and eunuchs to a cabin in the neighborhood, which was strongly built, with two stories; and that while these unskillful hands were tending his wounds, the cottage was surrounded by the enemy, though they did not know who was in it; still, however, he was saved from the disgrace of being made a prisoner. For when his pursuers, while vainly attempting to force the barred doors, were assailed with arrows from the roof, they, not to lose by so inconvenient a delay the opportunity of collecting plunder, gathered some faggots and stubble, and setting fire to them, burnt down the building, with those who were in it.
Wow. The Curse of King Tut never managed anything like that.
And people actually think numismatics is for nerds.
-JM
*Of course, in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD a Roman Emperor was quite likely to die in any number of horribly violent ways, so cursing an Emperor was a bit like sacrificing a goat so the sun would rise in the morning. It was probably going to happen anyway, and you've gone and wasted a perfectly good goat.
