Tre malattie nelle defixiones latine delle provincie

three texts from britain and Gaul belgica show that those who behave badly must be punished in a particular way: the offender is cursed by means of a wish for a disease followed or preceded by a series of actions that endanger his or her health in a definitive way. Although these diseases, such as worms/cancer, podagra or hemorrhage/dysentery, are common and illustrated in medical texts, their presence in curses appear to be unusual. However, they might be understood as the expression of an illness that is probably known in the environment of friends, relatives and acquaintances, and whose results have been seen and remained impressed in the mind of the victim of an offence so as to suggest that such diseases may constitute the appropriate threat in order to obtain revenge and eliminate he or she who has committed the offence, in a painful way.