Roman Magical Warfare

Evocatio Deorum: Summoning the Gods

We often think of the Romans as being the very practical, if not at times brutal, administrators, soldiers, and builders of great monuments and the world’s first highway system. We think of aqueducts, heated floors and travertine villas; gladiatorial games and pan-Mediterranean trade routes. But to build their city-state, and command the countryside and resources around it, these very practical Romans used a type of magico-religious war tactic on their enemies. Furthermore, we find that this practice played a central role in Roman warfare from the earliest histories of the city through at least the late republic.[1]