Oscan Curse Tablets

From the British Museum. Curse Tablet © The Trustees of the British Museum

Like modern angry emails and text messages, the ancient Italians also vented their frustrations and hatred through written word. They commonly used curse tablets or defixiones that attempted to bring malice upon their enemies.

Curse tablets most likely originated from Greek influence in southern Italy, an area that the Greeks had colonized and spread their culture in so much that it began to be called Magna Graecia or (Greater Greece). Commonly, they called upon a deity to cast a punishment on their enemies, whose names were typically engraved on the tablet. Usually made of lead, these curse tablets were then cast into places such as a spring or altar.

Sometimes these tablets were written by professional cursers. In fact, some tablets even mention that the tablet was written for someone else’s behalf by the writer. Some tablets include more elaborate language that the common man may not have understood.

Fourteen curse tablets in Oscan are extant from coastal cities in southern Italy, ranging from the 4th to 1st centuries B.C.E. These curse tablets have given us information about the common life in these cities, from the names that were typical among the masses to the relationship and development of curse tablets in Greece and southern Italy. Curse tablets have provided us with valuable insight into how the Oscan language compared to other languages of the time that also used curse tablets from ancient Greek to Latin.

Source: Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily by Katherine McDonald