hit Italy, and about 5,000 people were brought to trial and executed for veneficium. If the reports are accurate, writes Hutton, "then the Republican Romans hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world".

Under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis of 81 BC, killing by veneficium carried the death penalty. This law banned the trading and possession of harmful drugs and