Witchcraft # People have been accused of practicing witchcraft as early as Egyptian and Roman times. revealing the anxieties of each particular society. Early Christians persecuted many innocent people who rejected their beliefs for sorcery; as wizards, warlocks or witches. The first recorded victim was Hypatia, a Greek mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and philosopher in Egypt, then a part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was the head of the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria, where she taught philosophy and astronomy.