“The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world, admitted with equal credulity, and similar abhorrence, the reality of that infernal art [witchcraft], which was able to control the eternal order of the planets, and the voluntary operations of the human mind. . . . They believed, with the wildest inconsistency, that this preternatural dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell, was exercised, from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled hags and itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives in penury and contempt.”
Quote by Edward Gibbon
Work
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
This seminal work provides an in-depth exploration of the political, social, and economic factors that contributed to the fall of one of the greatest empires in history. more
Author
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