This species of enchantment was not unknown to the ancients. Accordingly to Herodotus[56] Amasis was prevented enjoying his wife Ladice by a sorcery of this description, nor was it till after the Queen had vowed a statue to Venus, "si secum coiret Amasis," that the king's wishes and her own were gratified.
Plato warns married persons against such sorceries.[57] Virgil speaks also of impotency effected by ligature.
Terna tibi hæc primum, duplici diversa colore Licia circumdo.[58]
Ovid admits the power of such charms in the following lines:
Carmine læsa, Ceres sterilem vanescit in herbam Deficiunt læsi carmine fontis aquæ: Ilicibus glandes, cantataque vitibus uva Decedit, et nulla forma movente, flexunt. Quid vetat et nervos Et juveni et Cupido, carmine abesse viro.[59]
Of that most detestable of all tyrants, Nero, it is said that, finding he could not enjoy a female whom he passionately desired, he complained of having been bewitched.
The fables of Apuleius are full of the enchantments of Pamphilus.[60]
Numantina, the first wife of Plautius Sylvanus, was accused of having rendered her husband impotent by means of sorcery "injecisse carminibus et veneficiis vecordium marito."[61]
Paulus (Julius) of Tyr states that the law of the Twelve Tables contained an express prohibition against the employment of ligatures; "qui, sacra, impia nocturnave fecerint, ut quem incantarent, obligarent," &c.[62]