Criminal repression of activities related to the production of uenena, ueneficia and medicamenta in Roman law

Abstract

The defense of collective health in Rome led to consider the preparation of substances and concoctions as illicit acts in certain cases. Knowledge of the properties of plants and animal substances for the manufacture of formulas with curatives powers moved between religion and technical skills, without forgetting the magical aspects that surrounded some activities. This ambivalence is also present between the potential healing or deadly nature of these elaborations, which can be seen in the use of the terminology itself. In this work it will be possible to see the specific regulation that, from the lex Cornelia de sicariis et ueneficis, was made of these cases and the extension that, through senate consults, imperial constitutions, and the jurisprudential interpretation, was substantiated during the Empire through the exegesis of the most important texts on the subject.