and dream interpreters would have cashed in twice. In the aftermath of the alleged
conspiracy of Libo Drusus, the senate expelled astrologers and magicians (math-
ematicis magisque) from Rome and Italy and at least two of them were executed
(Tac. Ann.2.32; Dio 56.25, 57.15). According to the chronicle of the late antique
Codex Calendar of 354, 45 sorcerers and 85 sorceresses were even executed under
Tiberius. Another political affair took place during the reign of Nero and is reported
to some extent by Tacitus (Ann.16.21, 23, 30 –3). The senator and former consul
Barea Soranus was facing trial inad 66. His daughter Servilia wanted to help him
and hence gave money to some magicians (magi) to know the future. His daughter’s
dealings became part of the accusation, as the accusers imagined that the magicians
received money not for a simple consultation but to put a spell on Nero or to help
Soranus out by magic. During the cross-examination before the senate, Servilia had
to confess that she had spent a lot of money on these magicians and even had to
sell her jewels and precious clothes in order to pay them.
Professional astrologers, soothsayers, prophets, dream interpreters, and magicians
could be very expensive. Obviously, in Rome and Italy as well as in the provinces
such professionals in divination and magic of different sorts existed – impostors as
well as sages and trained experts. There were old women making magic spells for a
little money, food, or wine, and there were high-class magicians and dream inter-
preters whose services were quite expensive. Not only did illiterate women or peas-
ants believe in their ability to know the future, to make life easier and a destiny better,
but also members of the highest classes called on their service – and paid for it.
FURTHER READINGPurcell (1983) wrote a thorough survey of different aspects of the public attendants to
magistrates of the city of Rome and of other cities in the Roman empire. He collected all
sources known until c. 1981 and discusses the apparatiores’ social antecedents, their duties,
their organization, and their advancement in society.
Dickie (2001) gives an excellent and well-written introduction to the different aspects of
magic and “superstition” in Greek and Roman societies from classical to late antique times.
He cites his sources in English translations.
A collection of inscriptions concerning the professionals and their attendants does not exist.
Many of the haruspices’ inscriptions are quoted at full length (but without translations) in
Wiegels (1988: 17–28). Purcell (1983: 171–3) has an appendix with inscriptions on appar-
itores(Latin, no translations). Cicero’s De divinationeis available in the Loeb Classical Library
collection (trans. W. A. Falconer). Linderski (1982) gives an introduction to Cicero’s views
on Roman divination and explains Cicero’s sometimes diverging positions on religioand super-
stitioin different publications, mainly De re publicaand De divinatione.
Living on Religion 341