Lesson Seven

Ancient Europe

Bell-Beaker Culture: This culture is the first known to practice just a hint of magic. This culture occupied the European Stone and Bronze Ages, which ended around 1900 B.C.E. The people belonging to this culture were simple, but managed to leave their mark on history with curious pottery styles, and, from their Wizarding Community, they brought they idea of symbols becoming text. These symbols drawn are often the shape used for wand movement of particular spells. These people are famous for their work at Stonehenge in England, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This structure is one of the many Bell-Beaker mysteries known to the Muggles. Many have proposed theories, but the closest to the truth is the Legend of Stonehenge's heel stone, known as Friar's Heel. The Friar’s Heel is a single large block of sarsen stone standing at the entrance apart from the earthwork of the Stonehenge. Frank Stevens, muggle curator of the Salisbury Museum, records the the legend of Friars heel in one of his books. Such legends and folklores are created when muggles can find no other explanation of the existence of something. During ancient times some churches and religions accepted magic as a theory, while others shunned the thought. 

Christianity: This religion began spreading across Europe like wildfire during the late C.E, and magical beings grew fearful of the attention it focused upon them, and separated themselves to avoid being noticed. This is the reason the technological advances of the times were made by Muggles, which, apparently, explains the retardation of these advancements. Most magical folk in Christian Europe were Pagans and Occultists, but there was also Shamanism. However, under the influence ofAbrahamic religions and their conflicts with supernatural, most witches and wizards went into hiding. Because of this, it was reflected in the Roman and Egypt laws of the time. The International Statute of Secrecy was formed thanks to a lack of tolerance amongst non magical and magical folk and societies. 

Ancient Greece: Many witches and wizards of the time were able to blend into the Greek communities of the time, as the Ancient greeks placed high importance in their gods and goddess, often blaming or praising the events of their lives on them. Thus, no one suspected magical blood. Unlike the the Europe Middle Ages and its Witch Hunts, the magical beings were safely out of sight and were also helping the Muggles of the time. 

One such example is the Athena Parthenon. In 477 B.C, a wizard named Perikles decided to build the structure, but no one believed it was possible thanks to to massive undertaking. So, in the middle of the night, Perikles built parts of the structure using his magic.

Another would be the Greco-Persian Wars. In the fifth century B.C, the greeks would have surely lost without magical blood. However, thanks to Phillip II of Macedonia, one of their prisoners, Sparta and another small colony near Byzantium was all of Greece that remained free of Macedonian rule in 336 B.C, at the death of Phillip II. 

Ancient Rome: Like their Greek counterparts, the Romans were very deity-centered but less tolerant of magic. However, it still managed to go unnoticed by the muggles until 451 B.C., when magic was stopped by Roman Law. It was banned even further in 81 B.C., where love-spells and poisons were no long allowed to be in existent. After that, the laws against magic just piled up and Roman witches and wizards were banished from the land. 

Two examples of magical, famous Romans would be Romulus, one of the founders of Rome, and senator Tiberius Gracchus. Tiberius was the first senatorial wizard to proclaimed his superiority over Muggles, but was then clubbed to death by his cousin Scipio Nasica for his views and beliefs. 

The trade of ideas during the Roman empire is said to have come from the Consilium Imperii Magi (CIM or the Council of the Empire’s Wizards) of Rome in 132 A.D.