Rome via Brooklyn

298 words, 2 minutes read time

Today we went to the Baths of Diocletian and it was a day I’d really been looking forward to. For the last year, I’d been working on my own research about women and magic in Ancient Rome. Specifically, how ancient women used magic as a means to exact vengeance and assert their agency in a society built by and for men. I focused a lot on material culture, such as curse tablets – so it made perfect sense that I would give the solo presentation on curse tablets.

A famous site that came up during my research is the Fountain of Anna Perenna. Anna was an ancient nymph linked to the origins of Rome, who had her own cult and festival along the Via Flaminia. This was a highly promiscuous celebration, during which participants indulged in sexual freedoms and excessive wine drinking.

After its discovery, a plethora of artifacts were discovered by modern archaeologists. Among these discoveries were numerous magical objects, including curse tablets. We can assume that Anna’s followers considered her fountain to be a magical, sacred site and so performed their rituals here for that reason.

I had such a nerdy fangirl moment seeing these curse tablets in person. There’s something so invigorating about seeing things in person that you’ve only ever seen in books, especially something you’ve been studying so intensely for the last few months.

I won’t go too much into the curse tablets (you can read my solo presentation blog post for that 😉). But just know, this was one of the coolest parts of the trip for me.

We visited a church and another museum afterward, which were both really beautiful and interesting. I don’t have any particular feelings about these locations, but I took some great photos that I thought I’d share!