Explanation: Romans are sometimes seen (especially by Romaboos) as a rational and practical people. And certainly, there is some degree of truth in this perception - certainly, the Romans considered themselves as such, with disdain for ‘superstitio’ and tall tales of magic!

… but what is magic? Isn’t discovering the deeper mysteries of the world just a form of KNOWLEDGE!? For this reason, the same Roman authors you can read condemning superstition and magic will just as quickly recommend far-fetched rituals and religious prayer as a means of achieving particular goals. IT’S NOT MAGIC, IT’S SCIENCE

So you definitely see such things as magic words and incantations enthusiastically adopted as some means of triggering the inner harmonies of the world for USEFUL, PRACTICAL purposes - including the famous ABRACADABRA as a means of preventing malaria!

I thought it was a medieval antisemitic mockery of Kabbala, much in the way that “hocus pocus” is a Protestant mockery of “hoc est corpus” from the Latin Mass.