¹ The date of the Octavius has been the subject of an extensive debate, as yet unresolved. For a useful summary, see Clarke, G. W. in the introduction to his translation of the Octavius (Ancient Christian Writers XXXIV, 1974)Google Scholar; see most recently Tibiletti, C., ‘II problema della priorità Tertulliano-Minucio Felice’, in J. Granarolo (ed.), Hommage à; R. Braun, II: Autour de Tertullien (1990), 23–34Google Scholar.

² In the 150s, Justin makes passing references to slanders about ‘meals of human flesh’ (Apol. 1.26.1; cf. Apol. 11.12.2 and Tryph. 10.1); he is followed by Tatian, who denies that there is anthropophagia among the Christians (Or. 25.3). In the 170s, Athenagoras refers to ‘Thyestean banquets’ (Leg. 3.I; cf. 31 and 35), as does the writer of the letter on the persecution of Christians in Lugdunum (ap. Eus., HE v.1.14; cf. v.1.26 and 52). In the early 180s, Theophilus of Antioch provides an oblique reference (Ad Aut. 3.4), while in the 190s Tertullian provides an account very similar to that of Minucius Felix (Apol. 4.11, 7.1 and 8.1–9; cf.Ad Nat. 1.7.23–8).

³ Vettius Valens also seems to refer to them, without mentioning the Christians by name: ‘some deny the divine and have a different worship or eat unlawful meals’ (IV. 15.4); his floruit is dated to the first half of the second century C.E. by Neugebauer, O., ‘The chronology of Valens' Anthologiae’, HTR 47 (1945), 65–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Caecilius cites Fronto as the source of the specific story he relates (Oct. 9.6; cf. 31.2); for a general discussion, see Clarke, op. cit. (n. 1), 221–4 n. 123. The characterization of Christian crimes as Thyestean banquets and Oedipodal intercourse, found both in Athenagoras (Leg. 3) and the anonymous writer of Lugdunum (Eus., HE V.1.14), may in fact originate with Fronto: Champlin, E., Fronto and Antonine Rome (1980), 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It seems unlikely, however, that he played such an important part in the formation of the stories as Benko (below (n. 6 ), 60–8) seems to attribute to him, nor is it necessarily the case that he recounted them in a speech contra Christianos (Champlin, op. cit., 64–6); see most recently Baldwin, B., ‘Fronto on the Christians’, ICS 15 (1990), 177–84Google Scholar.

⁵ Cels. 6.40; he otherwise only mentions the charge to say that it was originally due to the malevolence of the Jews (Cels. 6.27). The only later references occur in Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. 16.8) and Salvian (Gub. Dei 4.17), both of whom are clearly referring to the past.

⁶ Important discussions include Waltzing, J.-P., ‘Le Crime rituel reproché aux chrétiens du IIe siècle’, Musée Beige 29 (1925), 209–38Google Scholar; Dölger, F. J., ‘Sacramentum infanticidii: Die Schlachtung eines Kindes und der Genuss seines Fleisches und Blutes als vermeintlicher Einweihungsakt im ältesten Christentum’, AC 4 (1934), 188–228Google Scholar; Speyer, W., ‘Zu den Vorwürfen der Heiden gegen die Christen’, JAC 6 (1963), 129–35Google Scholar; Freudenberger, R., ‘Der Vorwurf ritueller Verbrechen gegen die Christen im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert’, ThZ 23 (1967), 97–107Google Scholar; Henrichs, A., ‘Pagan Ritual and the Alleged Crimes of the Early Christians: A Reconsideration’, in P. Granfield and J. A. Jungmann (eds), Kyriahon: Festschrift J. Quasten (1970), 18–35Google Scholar; Grant, R. M., ‘Charges of "Immorality" against Various Religious Groups in Antiquity’, in R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (eds), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religion Presented to G. Quispel (1981), 161–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Benko, S., Pagan Rome and the Early Christians (1984), 54–78Google Scholar; Edwards, M., ‘Some early Christian immoralities’, Ancient Society 23 (1992), 72–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McGowan, A., ‘Eating people: accusations of cannibalism against the Christians in the second century’, JFECS 2 (1994), 413–42Google Scholar.

⁷ Arens, W., The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy (1979), 10–13.Google Scholar

⁸ Edwards, op. cit. (n. 6), 75; cf. McGowan, op. cit. (n. 6), 433–41.

⁹ It is for this reason that I largely ignore the distinction between human sacrifice and ritualized murder, which in other contexts can be important: see, e.g., Hughes, D., Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece (1991), 1–12Google Scholar. But in most of the stories I shall discuss this distinction does not seem to have been significant. Those who tell them typically employ the regular vocabulary of sacrifice, even in cases that we might classify as ritual murder. For example, Diodorus Siculus (XXII.5.1) explicitly says that Apollodorus of Cassandreia performed an oath ceremony ‘by sacrificing a boy to the gods’.

¹⁰ Brown, S., Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice (1991)Google Scholar, the most recent survey, presents a solid case for regular child sacrifice. On the interpretation of the ‘bog people’ as evidence for human sacrifice among the Germans, see the recent summary of Todd, M., The Northern Barbarians 100 BC-AD 300 (rev. edn, 1987), 182–5Google Scholar. Archaeological corroboration for the similar claims made about the Celts is more ambiguous: see Brunaux, J.-L., Les Gaulois: sanctuaires et rites (1986), 24–6 and 128–35.Google Scholar

¹¹ Schwenn, F., Die Menschenopfer bei den Griechen und Römern (1915)Google Scholar, now badly out of date in its archaeological material. For the Greek side, Hughes, op. cit. (n. 9); a comparable evaluation of the Roman evidence is lacking, but see below, n. 51.

¹² See, for example, Henrichs, op. cit. (n. 6), 24–9 and, more implicitly, Benko, op. cit. ( n. 6), 54–78.

¹³ On the significance of cannibalism, see Hughes, op. cit. (n.9), 188–9 and especially McGowan, op. cit. (n.6); McGowan's paper, which appeared after I had completed my own, is in many ways its complement, since its general approach is similar but it deals with the associations of cannibalism rather than human sacrifice.

¹⁴ The earliest extant ethnographic example is that of the Lemnians, who according to Hecataeus sacrificed maidens to their local goddess: FGrHist I F 138a; cf. Pearson, L., Early Ionian Historians (1939), 56Google Scholar. But the Lemnians, unlike the Taurians, did not become a literary topos.

¹⁵ On Euripides’ role in the development of the story, see A. P. Burnett, Catastrophe Survived (1971), 75; for Pacuvius, see Cic, Amic. 24 and cf. Fin. V.63; for Pompeii, see P. L. de Bellefonds in LIMC V.I (1990), 722–3. Ovid twice paraphrased the story in his poems written in Tomi: Trist. IV.4.61–82, Pont. III. 2.45–96. Brief references to the Taurians (sometimes called Scythians) as practitioners of human sacrifice include Cic., Rep. III. 15; Hyg., Fab. 120; Luc. 1.446; Juv. 15.116–19; Lucian, Sacr. 13 and Tox. 2; Athenag., Leg. 26.1 (perhaps an inserted gloss: see below n. 74); Sext. Emp., Pyr. 3.208; Clem., Protr. 11.42.3; Or., Cels. 5.27; Athan., Gent. 25; Serv. ad Aen. 11.116; Prud., Sytnm. 1.395.

¹⁶ Her. IV. 103.1. Herodotus’ history is usually assumed to have appeared not long after 430 B.C.E.; the I. T. is dated on metrical grounds a little before the Helen of 412 B.C.E.

¹⁷ The earliest literary reference to the Taurians was apparently in the epic Cypria, written in the seventh or sixth century B.C.E.: see the Chrestomathia of Proclus, in the Loeb of H. G. Evelyn White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, p. 494; according to Herodotus (IV.103.2), the Taurians identified the goddess to whom they sacrificed strangers as Iphigeneia. Euripides provides the earliest evidence for the alternative identification with Artemis, one that was no doubt made to explain the peculiar rites of Artemis Tauropolos at Halai in Attica, to which he alludes at the end of his play (I. T. 1449–61); see in general Burnett, op. cit. (n. 15), 73–5 and Hughes, op. cit. (n. 9), 89–90.

¹⁸ See Roebuck, C., Ionian Trade and Colonization (1959), 121–3Google Scholar, and Bernhard, M. L. and Z. Sztetytto in The Princeton Enyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976), 627–8Google Scholar; for the most recent work, see Hind, J. G. F., ‘Archaeology of the Greeks and barbarian peoples around the Black Sea (1982–92)’, Arch. Reports 39 (1993), 82–112Google Scholar, at 102–3.

¹⁹ Greek fears of the Taurians are perhaps indicated by their hesitation to found colonies near their territory: see A. J. Graham in CAH XXX. 3² (1982), 122 and 129. Strabo (VII.3.6) explained the Black Sea's Greek name of Axenos by reference to the Scythian practice of sacrificing strangers.

²⁰ Busiris first appears in fragments of Pherecydes (FGrHist 3 F 17), while Panyassis mentions human sacrifice among the Egyptians (fr. 26 Kinkel = Athenaeus 172d); representations of the myth on vases go back to the mid-sixth century: Laurens, A.-F. in LJMC III.I (1986), 151Google Scholar. On the reality of Egyptian human sacrifice, see the summary of A. B. Lloyd in his commentary on Herodotus Book II, vol. 2 (1976), 213–14. I owe many of my ideas about the significance of human sacrifice in the archaic period to Andrew Gregory's as yet unpublished paper on Busiris.

²¹ In the lost Andromeda, fr. 126 Radt; although Sophocles does not mention the Carthaginians by name, by Kronos he must mean the Phoenician Ba’al, and he is more likely to have in mind the western than the eastern Phoenicians. Certainly in later centuries references to Carthaginian child sacrifice were commonplace, whereas relatively little was said about human sacrifice among the Phoenicians of the Levant; the few exceptions include Wisdom of Solomon 12.3–6 and 14.23, Philo Byblius ap. Eus. Praep. Evang. IV. 16.11 (= FGrHist 790 F 3b), and Curtius Rufus IV.3.23. We should note, however, the many ambiguities in the Greek figure of Kronos, and in particular his associations with human sacrifice: see Versnel, H. S., Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual (1993), 90–135, esp. 100–2Google Scholar.

²² See Tierney, J. J., ‘The Celtic ethnography of Posidonius’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy n. s. 60 (1960), 189–275Google Scholar, and the more cautious discussions of Nash, D., ‘Reconstructing Posidonius’ Celtic ethnography’, Britannia 7 (1976), 111–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar and I. G. Kidd, Posidonius II: The Commentary (1988), 308–10. Gallic human sacrifice is described by Caesar (BG VI.16), Strabo (IV.4.5), and Diodorus Siculus (V.31.3–4), all of whom probably drew on Posidonius. Strabo certainly took from Posidonius his immediately preceeding information about the Gallic practice of displaying the severed heads of their enemies (F 274 Edelstein-Kidd).

²³ For example, the Scythians were also well-known, whose practice of sacrificing prisoners-of-war to Ares was reported by Herodotus (IV.62); at a later date, Strabo recorded that both the Lusitanians (III.3.6) and the Albanians (XI.4.7) also practised human sacrifice.

²⁴ cf. Lévy, E., ‘Hérodote philobarbaros ou la vision du barbare chez Hérodote’, in Lonis, R. (ed.), L’Etranger dans le monde grec 11 (1992), 193–244Google Scholar, at 207–17; on Greeks and barbarians, see in general F. Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus (1988), and E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy (1989).

²⁵ We may perhaps see a parallel development in the meaning of the word barbaros to the neutral sense of ‘non-Greek’: cf. Lévy, E., ‘Naissance du concept de barbare’, Ktema 9 (1984), 5–14Google Scholar.

²⁶ cf. Redfield, J., ‘Herodotus the tourist’, CP 80 (1985), 97–118Google Scholar. The most famous example in Herodotus is at III.38.2–4; see further Lévy, op. cit. (n. 24), 196–226.

²⁷ The Minos has long been considered the work of a follower of Plato: see for example J. Souilhé, Platon, Oeuvres complètes, vol. XIII. 2: Dialogues suspects (1930), 81–5; more recently, G. R. Morrow has argued for its authenticity: Plato s Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws (1960), 23–4 and 35–9.

²⁸ Cicero probably got his information about Carneades from a treatise of his student Clitomachus: Ferrary, J.-L., ‘Le Discourse de Philus (Cicéron, De Re Publica III, 8–31) et la philosophic de Carnéade’, REL 55 (1977), 128–56Google Scholar. It is possible that other later examples of this argument also go back to Carneades: see Or., Cels. 5.27 with Chadwick, H., ‘Origen, Celsus and the Stoa’, JTS 48 (1948), 34–49Google Scholar, and cf. Sext. Etnp., Pyr. 3.198–234.

²⁹ The unnamed speaker in the Minos undercuts the cultural distinction by noting that among the Greeks themselves there is human sacrifice in the Arcadian cult of Zeus Lykaios and against the descendents of Athamas; on these stories, see Hughes, op. cit. (n. 9), 92–107, with full references.

³⁰ The fragments are collected by Jacoby, FGrHist 616 F 1–21; see also Stern, M., Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (1976), 1, 389–416Google Scholar. Unfortunately, the fragment in question occurs in a lacuna common to all the Greek MSS of Josephus’ Contra Apionem (11.52–113), and is only known from a Latin translation made in the references. early sixth century C.E.

³¹ Jos., Ap. 11.92–6 and 121; on this charge, see especially Bickerman, E., ‘Ritualmord und Eselskult. I: Tempelopfer’, Monatsschrift für Geschichte u. Wissenschaft des Judentums 71 (1927), 171–87Google Scholar, reprinted in Studies in Jewish and Christian History II (1980), 225–55Google Scholar.

³² For a concise account of these events, see Schürer, E., The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. anded. Vermes, G.et al., 1 (1973), 389–94Google Scholar; Apion as leader of the Greek embassy: Jos., AJ XVIII.8.1.

³³ This point has been argued in more detail by Bickerman, op. cit. (n. 31), 182–7.

³⁴ FGrHist 730; cf. Stern, op. cit. (n. 30), 1.530–1. Judentums Jacoby follows Schwartz, E. in RE IV (1901), 2070Google Scholar in assigning him a date sometime in the first century B.C.E. or C.E.

³⁵ This point has been developed in some detail by Bickerman, op. cit. (n. 31), 172–6 and Dölger, op. cit. (n. 6), 207–10.

³⁶ Diod. Sic. XXII.5.1; the same story is found in Polyaenus (VI.7.2), who even gives the name of the boy, and is alluded to more briefly by Plutarch (Sera Num. Vind. 5S6d) and Aelian (VH XIV.41). See also the discussion of Marasco, G., ‘Sacrifici umani e cospirazioni politiche’, Sileno 7 (1981), 167–78Google Scholar.

³⁷ See, e.g., Polyb. VII.7.2; Diod. Sic. XXXIII.14.3; Ov., Pont. 11.9.43; Sen., Ir. 11.5.1 and Ben. VII.19.5; Plut., Cum Princ. Phil. 778e Human sacrifice was ascribed to other tyrants, such as Diegylis of Thrace (Diod. Sic. XXXIII.14.5) and Commodus (SHA Comm. 9.6). See also n. 67 below.

³⁸ Diodorus Siculus (XXII.5.2) notes that he confiscated property from the wealthy and shared it among the poor; Fuks, A., ‘Patterns and types of social economic revolution in Greece from the fourth to the second century B.C.’, Anc. Soc 5 (1974), 51–81Google Scholar, at 71, concludes that his tyranny ‘had a clearly social-revolutionary character’. See the general account of Tarn, W. W., Antigonus Gonatas (1913), 159–60 and 162Google Scholar; full references to the ancient sources are given by Fuks, op. cit., n. 23. Marasco, op. cit. (n. 36), 168 n. 8 suggests the story goes back to Hieronymus of Cardia, but Hornblower, J. is more cautious: Hieronymus of Cardia (1981), 49–50 n. 104Google Scholar; Tarn, 162, on the other hand, suggests the story may have come from the Cassandreis of Lycophron.

³⁹ Sera Num. Vind. 556d; Dio (LXXI.4.1) records a very similar story that when the Boukoloi of Egypt rose up against Rome they sacrificed a companion of the local officer, swore an oath over his entrails, and ate him.

⁴⁰ XXXVII.30.3; see also Floras (11.12.4): ‘additum est pignus coniurationis sanguis humanus, quern circumlatum pateris bibere’; the story is briefly noted by Tertullian (Apol. 9.9) and Minucius Felix (Oct. 30.5); see further Dölger, op. cit. (n.6), 207–10 and Marasco, op. cit. (n.36).

⁴¹ On the ‘First Conspiracy’, see R. Syme, Sallust (1964), 86–102 with earlier bibliography, and Gruen, E. S., ‘Notes on the “First Catilinarian Conspiracy”’, CP 64 (1969), 20–4Google Scholar; on the main conspiracy, see Waters, K. H., ‘Cicero, Sallust and Catiline’, Historia 19 (1970), 195–215Google Scholar, and Seager, R., ‘Iusta Catilinae’, Historia 22 (1973), 240–8Google Scholar.

⁴² Cicero referred obliquely to the affair with the Vestal and openly to the incest in his speech In Toga Candida (ap. Asc. 91 Clark); he added the charge of his son's murder in Cat. 1.14, while the proscription of his brother-in-law appears in Comm. Pet. 9; by the time of Plutarch the latter had been transformed into a brother (Sull. 32.2; Cic. 10.3); see further Syme, op. cit. (n.41), 84–5.

⁴³ Catiline's perversions of religion: Cat. 1.16 ('sica… quae quidem quibus abs te initiata sacris ac devota si nescio’); cf. Cat. 1.24 and 2.13. Cicero charged Vatinius with necromancy: Vat. 14.

⁴⁴ This point is admirably made by Edwards, op. cit. (n. 6); see also McGowan, op. cit. (n.6). Suspicions of political conspiracy in particular perhaps lay behind the language of Pliny (Ep. X.96.7: hetaeria) and Tertullian (Apol. 39.1 and 20–1: factio, illicita coitio), while Minucius Felix describes the alleged rite of child sacrifice in terms of a conspiracy: ‘hac foederantur hostia, hac conscientia sceleris ad silentium mutuum pignerantur’ (Oct. 95).

⁴⁵ See, e.g., Yinger, J. M., ‘Contraculture and subculture’, American Sociological Review 25 (1960), 625–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; more briefly, J. F. Short, s.v. ‘subculture’, in A. and J. Keper (eds), The Social Science Encyclopedia (1985), 840–1.

⁴⁶ As pointed out by Grant, op. cit. (n. 6), 169–70. It is possible that Justin had in mind Roman rather than Carthaginian practices, since fourth-century Christian texts describe the annual gladiatorial games in December as sacrifices to Saturn much as other texts describe the games of Jupiter Latiaris: see Versnel, op. cit. (n. 21), 211–16.

⁴⁷ Oct. 30.1: ‘Nemo hoc potest credere nisi qui possit audere’; cf. 29.1: ‘ea enim de castis fingitis et pudicis, quae fieri non crederemus, nisi de vobis probaretis’.

⁴⁸ Apol. 4.1–2; cf. Apol. 9.1: ‘haec quo magis refutaverim, a vobis fieri ostendam partim in aperto, partim in occulto, per quod forsitan et de nobis credidistis’.

⁴⁹ Tert., Apol. 9.6–8; Min. Fel., Oct. 30.2. This point was already a commonplace: cf. Did. 2.2 and 5.2, Barn. 19.5 and 20.2, Ad Diog. 5.6, Athenag., Leg. 35.2, Just., Apol. 1.27; see further F. Dölger, ‘Das Lebensrecht des ungeborenen Kindes und die Fruchtabtreibung in der Bewertung der heidnischen und christlichen Antike’, AC ₄ (1934), 1–61.

⁵⁰ Minucius Felix' list is exactly the same as that in Rep. III. 15, and in almost the same order. Minucius Felix knew his Cicero: see Clarke, op. cit. (n. 1), 26–7 and his notes at Oct. 10.5, 17.3, 18.4, and especially 19.3–13. Tertullian alleged Punic child sacrifice lasted into the Roman period; see my discussion, ‘Tertullian on child sacrifice’, MH 51 (1994), 54–63Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Livy recorded instances of this ceremony for the years 216 B.C.E. (XXII.57.2–6) and 114 B.c.E. (Per. 63; cf. Plut., Quaest. Rom. 83 = 284c), and it may have been performed in 228 B.C.E. as well (Oros. IV. 13.3); see further C. Cichorius, ‘Staatliche Menschenopfer’, in Romische Studien (1922), 7–21; Eckstein, A. M., ‘Human sacrifice and fear of military disaster in Republican Rome’, AJAH 7 (1982), 69–95Google Scholar; and. Porte, D., ‘Les Enterrements expiatoires à Rome’, RPh 58 (1984), 233–43Google Scholar.

⁵² Just., Apol. 11.12.5 (without name); Theoph., Ad Aut. 3.8; Tat., Or. 29.1; Lact., Div. Inst. 1.21.3; Athan., Gent. 25; Porph., A6st. 11.56.9; Eus., Laud. Const. 13.8; Firm. Mat., Err. Prof. Rel. 26.2; Prud., Symm. 1.396; cf. Rose, H. J., ‘De love Latiari’, Mnemosyne ns 55 (1927), 273–9Google Scholar.

⁵³ As K. Hopkins has suggested, many of those present at gladiatorial games may have associated them with religious sacrifice: Death and Renewal (1983), 4–5. For a recent and stimulating discussion of these questions, see Versnel, op. cit. (n. 21), 210–27.

⁵⁴ Div. Inst. 1.21.4–5; at the beginning of the fifth century C.E. Prudentius made much the same argument in his contra Symmachum (1.395–8); ‘incassum arguere iam Taurica sacra solemus: funditur humanus Latiari in munere sanguis, consessusque ille spectantum solvit ad aram Plutonis fera vota sui’.

⁵⁵ See TLL, S.V. ‘paganus’ II A.

⁵⁶ Tat., Or. 31–41; for a similar and contemporary inter pretation of Christianity as ‘barbarian wisdom’, see Melito of Sardis ap. Eus. HE IV.26.7.

⁵⁷ Or. 29.1; I have used the translation of M. Whittaker in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series (1982).

⁵⁸ NH XXX. 13; while he does not refer here explicitly to the Gauls, his discussion of them a few sentences before suggests that he had them in mind.

⁵⁹ Ancient scholars proposed a number of etymologies, conveniently collected by A. S. Pease in his commentary on Cicero's De Divinatione (1920), at 11.148.

⁶⁰ Plut., Superst. 171b-c, in the Loeb translation of F. C. Babbitt.

⁶¹ There are certain hints in this essay that Plutarch, like Mela and Cicero, tended to think of foreign religious practices as essentially superstitious. For example, in an earlier passage he quotes Euripides (Troad. 764), ‘O Greeks, who have learned the wicked ways of barbarians’, and adds himself, ‘through superstition’. He then goes on to say that people should pray with their mouths aright, and should not, ‘by distorting and sullying their tongues with strange names and barbarous phrases, disgrace and transgress the god-given ancestral dignity of our religion’ (Superst. 166a-b).

⁶² As an example of superstition leading to military disaster, for example, he briefly notes the Jews and their refusal to fight on the Sabbath (Superst. 169c), but puts more emphasis on the Athenian commander Nicias’ unwillingness to act in Sicily as the result of an eclipse (169a); similarly, he mentions abject fear of the Dea Syria (170d), but dwells at length on that of Artemis (170a-c).

⁶³ For Heraclitus, see especially his attack on images (Diels-Kranz⁸ 22 B 5). Theophrastus' treatise is known largely from the extracts in Porphyry, De Abstinentia, most recently edited by Fortenbaugh, W. W., Quellen zur Ethik Theophrasts (1984), 54–65Google Scholar (text) and 262–74 (commentary); see also Obbink, D., ‘The Origins of Greek Sacrifice: Theophrastus on Religion and Cultural History’, in W. W. Fortenbaugh and R. W. Sharpies (eds), Theophrastean Studies (1988), 272–95Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ On the date, see Schulz, W., History of Roman Legal Science (1946), 176–9Google Scholar. The standard, but dated, discussion is Massonneau, E., Le Crime de magie dans le droit romain (1933)Google Scholar; see more recently Phillips, C. R. III, ‘Nullum Crimen sine Lege: Socioreligious Sanctions on Magic’, in C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink (eds), Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (1991), 260–76Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ The first quote is taken from Gordon, R., ‘Aelian's peony: the location of magic in the Graeco-Roman tradition’, Comparative Criticism 9 (1987), 59–95Google Scholar, at 60; for the second, see R. MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order (1966), esp. 95–127.

⁶⁶ On the problem of defining magic in the Graeco-Roman world, see in particular Garosi, R., ‘Indagine sulla formazione del concetto di magia nella cultura romana’, in Magia: Studi di storia delle religioni in memoria di Raffaela Garosi (1976), 13–93Google Scholar with the comments of North, J. A. in JRS 70 (1980), 187–8Google Scholar, Segal, A. F., ‘Hellenistic Magic: Some Questions of Definition’, in R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (eds), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religion presented to G. Quispel (1981), 349–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Segal, A. F., The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity (1987), 79–108Google Scholar, and Gordon, op. cit. (n.65).

⁶⁷ For the association of human sacrifice with magic, see especially Dölger, op. cit. (n. 6), 211–17. The charge of human sacrifice, as a magic rite, is attributed to a whole series of ‘bad’ emperors, beginning with Didius Julianus (Dio LXXXIII. 16.5) and Elagabalus (Dio LXXIX.II; SHA El. 8.1–2); Christian writers then pick up the charge and bring it against emperors who opposed Christianity, including Valerian (Eus; HE VII. 10.4), Maxentius (Eus., V. Const. 1.36; HE VIII.14.5), and Julian (Theodoret, HE III 26–7).

⁶⁸ V. Apoll. VII.17, VII.33–4, cf. VIII.7.2–3.

⁶⁹ Superstitio: Plin., Ep. X.96.8 (note his qualification of it as immodica); Tac., Ann. XV.44; Suet., Ner. 16.2. Magic: Celsus ap. Or., Cels. 1.6, 6.39–40 and 8.37; cf. Pass. Perp. 16 (incantationes magicae).

⁷⁰ The translation is apparently inaccurate: the New English Bible renders the passage ‘For the gods of the nations are idols every one’. Cf. however, Lev. 17: 7, Deut. 32: 17, Ps. 106: 37, and Bar. 4: 7.

⁷¹ Erbse, H., ‘Plutarchs Schrift Peri Deisidaimonias’, Hermes 80 (1952), 296–314Google Scholar, has demonstrated that there is no essential difference in Plutarch's attitude as expressed in his various works. On Plutarch's ideas about demons, see further Soury, G., La Démonologie de Plutarque (1942)Google Scholar and Brenk, F. E., In Mist Apparelled: Religious Themes in Plutarch's Moralia and Lives (1977).Google Scholar

⁷² Is. et Os. 361b; see further Heinze, R., Xenocrates (1892), 78–123Google Scholar, and Détienne, M., ‘Xénocrate et la démonologie pythagoricienne’, REA 60 (1958), 271–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷³ The article on ‘Geister’ in RLAC 9 (1974), 546–797Google Scholar provides a comprehensive discussion of demonology in the ancient world, while Ferguson, E., Demonology of the Early Christian World (1984)Google Scholar, is a useful introduction; for a methodological critique, see Smith, J. Z., ‘Towards Interpreting Demonic Powers in Hellenistic and Roman Antiquity’, ANRW 11.16.1 (1978), 425–39Google Scholar. On demons and animal sacrifice, see, e.g., the anonymous Pythagorean ap. Or., Cels. 7.6; Celsus ap. Or., Cels. 8.60; Sent. Sext. 564; Porph., Abst. 1.42.3; cf. Smith, op. cit., 428. The notion was very widespread among Christian writers: e.g. Just., Apol. 1.12.5; Athenag., Leg. 26–7; Tert., Apol. 22.6 and 23.14; Or., Cels. 3.28, 4.2, 7.5, 7.35, and 8.30.

⁷⁴ Leg. 26.1; I have used the translation of J. H. Crehan in the Ancient Christian Writers series (1955). The last clause was deleted as a gloss by E. Schwartz in his important edition (Texte und Untersuchungen IV. 3 1891); M. Marcovich (1990) retains it as a parenthesis, while B. Pouderon (Sources Chrétiennes 379, 1992) follows Schwartz.

⁷⁵ Protr. III. 42. 1–43.2, in the Loeb translation of G. W. Butterworth. Hughes, op. cit. (n. 9), 119–22, provides a useful analysis of these examples.

⁷⁶ Note also Athanasius, Gent. 25, who explicitly argues that this practice does not only exist among naturally barbarous peoples like the Scythians, but is typical of the evil caused everywhere by demons.

⁷⁷ See now the Budé edition in three volumes by J. Bouffartigue and M. Patillon, with extensive introductions and notes (1977–94).

⁷⁸ Praep. Evang. IV. 16.1–9, 10 = Porph., Abst. 11.54–6, 27; Praep. Evang. IV. 16.11 = Philo Byblius FGrHist 790 F 3b; Praep. Evang. IV. 16.12f. = Clem., Protr. III. 42.1–43.1; Praep.Evang. IV. 16.15–17, 18 = Dion. Hal. 1.23.1–24.4, 38.2–3; Praep. Evang. V. 16.19 = Diod. Sic. XX. 14.4–6.

⁷⁹ Laud. Const. 11–18; see H. A. Drake, In Praise of Constantine: A Historical Study and New Translation of Eusebius’ Tricennial Orations (1976), esp. 30–45, and Barnes, T. D., ‘Two speeches by Eusebius’, GRBS 18 (1977), 342–5Google Scholar; on the church itself, see Eus., V. Const. 3.25–40, and C. Coüasnon, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (1974).

⁸⁰ Laud. Const. 16.10; cf. Praep. Evang. IV. 15.6 and IV. 17.4; the source for this assertion is again Porphyry (Abst. II.56.3), whom he quotes at Praep. Evang. IV. 16.7. We may note, however, that Porphyry himself apparently believed that human sacrifice continued to be offered to Jupiter Latiaris (Abst. 11.56.9); cf. J. Bouffartigue, ad loc, pp. 227–8.

⁸¹ Charges of human sacrifice continued to be made against pagans in general, but probably not, as Schwenn, op. cit. (n. 11), 194 asserts, against Mithraists in particular.

⁸² See Cyr. Jer., Catech. 16.8; Epiph., Haer. XLVIII. 14.5; Philast., Div. Haer. 49.5; Isid. Pel., Ep. 1.242; Jer., Ep. XLI.4.1; Aug., Haer. 26–7; Praedestinatus 26; see further my forthcoming paper, ‘The Blood Libel against the Montanists’. For the pre-Constantinian period, we have only the tentative remarks of Justin about Marcionites (Apol. 1.26), and the vague suggestions of Irenaeus about the Carpocratians (Adv. Haer. 1.25.3–4, elaborated with more assurance by Eusebius, HE IV.7.10–II); Clement of Alexandria claims that the latter engaged in incestuous orgies, but says nothing about human sacrifice (Strom, III.2.10.1). It is not until the late eighth century C.E. that we find the Syriac writer Theodor bar Konai asserting that Manichees ‘offer men in demonic mysteries [and] fornicate without shame’: Adam, A. (ed.), Texte zum Manichäismus (2nd edn, 1969)Google Scholar.

⁸³ See most recently Po-chia Hsia, R., The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany (1988)Google Scholar, and Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial (1992).

⁸⁴ For stories about contemporary human sacrifice, see e.g. Tierney, P., The Highest Altar: The Story of Human Sacrifice (1989)Google Scholar, who discusses contemporary human sacrifice in the Andes. The most publicized cases, at least in the Anglophone world, are those connected with Satanic cults, on which see, e.g., Kahaner, L., Cults that Kill: Probing the Underworld of Occult Crime (1988)Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ See especially North, J., ‘Religious toleration in Republican Rome’, PCPS ns 25 (1979), 85–103Google Scholar, and ‘The Development of Religious Pluralism’, in Lieu, J., North, J., and Rajak, T. (eds), The Jews among Pagans and Christians (1992), 174–93Google Scholar.