Alien Magic

Inscribed objects reveal a world of magical practice that is poorly described by ancient texts or modern theories of magic. They cast vivid light on conflict and fear within the complex social worlds of the Roman Empire from its metropolitan capital to its most remote peripheries. Ancient discourse co-opted magical practice to assert an ideological, moral, and political order against its actual and imagined opponents. Modern anthropologies of magic that compare and contrast it with religion and science fail to understand a society that knew none of those distinctions.