Witchcraft

==== Ancient Roman world ====<!--this is a summary of [[European witchcraft#Antiquity]]-->
{{Main|European witchcraft#Antiquity}}
[[File:Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery LACMA M.82.119.jpg|thumb|''Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery'', [[Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours]], 1792]]
During the [[Ancient Roman religion|pagan]] era of [[ancient Rome]], there were laws against harmful magic.<ref name="Dickie">{{cite book |last1=Dickie |first1=Matthew |title=Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |pages=138–142}}</ref> According to [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], the [[5th century BC]] laws of the [[Twelve Tables]] laid down penalties for uttering harmful incantations and for stealing the fruitfulness of someone else's crops by magic.<ref name="Dickie"/> The only recorded trial involving this law was that of [[Gaius Furius Cresimus]].<ref name="Dickie"/>

The [[Classical Latin]] word {{lang|la|veneficium}} meant both poisoning and causing harm by magic (such as magic potions), although ancient people would not have distinguished between the two.{{r|HuttonFear|p=59-66}} In 331 BC, a deadly epidemic hit Rome and at least 170 women were executed for causing it by ''veneficium''. In 184–180 BC, another epidemic hit Italy, and about 5,000 were executed for ''veneficium''.{{r|HuttonFear|p=59-66}} If the reports are accurate, writes [[Ronald Hutton|Hutton]], "then the [[Roman Republic|Republican Romans]] hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world".{{r|HuttonFear|p=59-66}}

Under the ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'' of 81 BC, killing by ''veneficium'' carried the death penalty. During the early [[Roman Empire|Imperial era]], the ''Lex Cornelia'' began to be used more broadly against other kinds of magic,{{r|HuttonFear|p=59-66}} including sacrifices made for evil purposes. The magicians were to be burnt at the stake.<ref name="Dickie"/>

Witch characters—women who work powerful evil magic—appear in ancient Roman literature from the first century BC onward. They are typically [[hag]]s who chant harmful incantations; make poisonous potions from herbs and the body parts of animals and humans; sacrifice children; raise the dead; can control the natural world; can shapeshift themselves and others into animals; and invoke underworld deities and spirits. They include [[Lucan]]'s [[Erichtho]], [[Horace]]'s [[Epodes (Horace)|Canidia]], [[Ovid]]'s Dipsas, and [[Apuleius]]'s [[The Golden Ass|Meroe]].{{r|HuttonFear|p=59-66}}