sky,
returned thither. Hecate, whom he had evoked from the bottom of hell,
fled away, and all the rest of the scene disappeared. Lucian, with
great reason, ridicules all this, and observes that these magicians,
who boast of having so much power, ordinarily exercise it only upon
contemptible people, and are such themselves.

The oldest instances of this dooming are those which are set down in
Scripture, in the Old Testament. God commands Moses to devote to
anathema the Canaanites of the kingdom of Arad.[544] He devotes also
to anathema all the nations of the land of Canaan.[545] Balac, King of
Moab,[546] sends to the diviner Balaam to engage him to curse and
devote the people of Israel. "Come," says he to him, by his messenger,
"and curse me Israel; for I know that those whom you have cursed and
doomed to destruction shall be cursed, and he whom you have blessed
shall be crowned with blessings."

We have in history instances of these devotings and maledictions, and
evocations of the tutelary gods of cities by magic art. The ancients
kept very secret the proper names of towns,[547] for fear that if they
came to the knowledge of the enemy, they might make use of them in
their invocations, which to their mind had no might unless the proper
name of the town was expressed. The usual names of Rome, Tyre, and
Carthage, were not their true and secret names. Rome, for instance,
was called Valentia, a name known to very few persons, and Valerius
Soranus was severely punished for having revealed it.

Macrobius[548] has preserved for us the formula of a solemn devoting
or dooming of a city, and of imprecations against her, by devoting her
to some hurtful and dangerous demon. We find in the heathen poets a
great number of these invocations and magical doomings, to inspire a
dangerous passion, or to occasion maladies. It is surprising that
these superstitious and abominable practices should have gained
entrance among Christians, and have been dreaded by persons who ought
to have known their vanity and impotency.

Tacitus relates[549] that at the death of Germanicus, who was said to
have been poisoned by Piso and Plautina, there were found in the
ground and in the walls bones of human bodies, doomings, and charms,
or magic verses, with the name of Germanicus engraved upon thin plates
of lead steeped in corrupted blood, half-burnt ashes, and other
charms, by virtue of which it was believed that spirits could be
evoked.

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