Book contents
- Beyond Magic in the Roman World
- Beyond Magic in the Roman World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1The Origins of Ancient Magic
- 2What the Barbarians Knew: Cicero’s Magi
- 3Women, Wine, and Song
- 4Theorizing Magia
- 5The Physics of Witchcraft
- 6Rome’s Legal Legacy in Magic
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
The Road Not Taken
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2026
Book contents
- Beyond Magic in the Roman World
- Beyond Magic in the Roman World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1The Origins of Ancient Magic
- 2What the Barbarians Knew: Cicero’s Magi
- 3Women, Wine, and Song
- 4Theorizing Magia
- 5The Physics of Witchcraft
- 6Rome’s Legal Legacy in Magic
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Introduction positions the book as a response to Jonathan Z. Smith’s call to abandon the category of “magic,” arguing that the term has long operated as a conceptual placeholder that obscures more than it explains. Drawing on Smith’s method of redescription, the chapter proposes a mode of analytic abstention: reading Roman materials without magic as an interpretive frame in order to reveal what becomes newly legible once the category is set aside.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beyond Magic in the Roman WorldReconstructing Cultural Alterity and Ritual Deviance, pp. 1 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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