Pliny the Elder between magic and medicine

In the Digest the lawyer Marcianus describes several crimes related to the common practice of preparing mala venena and non mala venena, as well as veneficia, for various purposes. Very often, ordinary people resorted to magic poisons and sorceries to treat illness, to alleviate love pains, and to revenge injuries. This very common practice is evidence of the marked ambiguity between medical knowledge and magic, and it was a peculiar trait of the cultural background in the ancient Roman society. The main focus of this paper is on the social habits which can be classified at the edge of magic, empiricism, and medicine. Especially via the analysis of Pliny the Elder’s work, some questions arise on this topic: was there any awareness in ancient society about the distinction between magic and medicine? If so, which were the parameters of this distinction? Which were the reasons and circumstances of such an interchangeable recourse to both practices and disciplines?