AUGURIES AND AUSPICES
So far we have been considering the regular relations of man and god,
seen in recurring or special offerings, in vows and in acts of
purification and lustration--all based on the contract-notion, all
endeavours on man's part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may
be constrained in turn to theirs. But so strong was the feeling of
divine presence and influence in the Roman's mind, that he was not
content with doing his best by these regular means to secure the favour
of the gods, but wished before undertaking any business of importance
to be able to assure himself of their approval. His practical
common-sense evolved, as it were, a complete 'code'--in the flight and
song of birds, in the direction of the lightning-flash, in the conduct
of men and animals--by which he believed that the gods communicated to
him their intentions: sometimes these indications (_auspicia_) might be
vouchsafed by the gods unasked (_oblativa_), sometimes they would be
given in answer to request (_impetrativa_): but as to their meaning,
there could be no doubt, provided they were interpreted by one skilled
in the lore and tradition of augury. We may observe here, though our
evidence is much slighter, the same three stages which we have noticed
in the sacrificial worship, the homely domestic auspices, the auguries
of the agricultural life, and the organised system in the state.
In the household the use of auspices was in origin at any rate very
general indeed: 'Nothing,' Cicero tells us, 'of importance used to be
undertaken unless with the sanction of the auspices' (_auspicato_). The
right of interrogating the will of the gods, rested, as one might
expect, with the master of the house, assisted no doubt by the private
augur as the repository of lore and the interpreter of what the master
saw. But of the details of domestic augury we know but little. Cato in
one passage insists on the extreme importance of silence for the
purpose, and Festus suggests that this was secured by the master of the
house rising in the depths of the night to inspect the heavens. We have
seen already that the taking of the auspices played an important part
in the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage, and that the indications
of the divine will might be very varied we may gather from a story in
Cicero. An aunt wishing to take the auspices for her niece's betrothal,
conducted her into an open consecrated space (_sacellum_) and sat down
on the stool of augury (_sella_) with her niece standing at her side.
After a while the girl tired and asked her aunt to give her a little of
the stool: the aunt replied, 'My child, I give up my seat to you':
nothing further happened and this answer turned out in fact to be the
auspicious sign: the aunt died, the niece married the widower and so
became mistress of the house.
Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in the annual
observance of the 'spring augury' (_augurium verniserum_) and the
midsummer ceremony of the _augurium canarium_, which seems to have been
a combination of the offering of a red dog (possibly to avert mildew)
and an augury for the success of the crops. To the rustic stratum
possibly belongs also the _augurium salutis populi_, though later it
was a yearly act celebrated whenever the Roman army was not at war and
so became connected with the shutting of the temple of Ianus.
The state greatly developed and organised the whole system of auguries
and auspices. The college of augurs ranked second only in importance to
the pontifical college, and their duties with regard to both augury and
auspice are sufficiently clear. Like the _pontifices_ in relation to
cult, they are the storehouse of all tradition, and to them appeal may
be made in all cases of doubt both public and private: they were
jealous of their secrets and in later times their mutual consciousness
of deception became proverbial. The right of augury--in origin simply
the inspection of the heavens--was theirs alone, and it was exercised
particularly on the annual occasions mentioned and at the installation
of priests, of which we get a typical instance in Livy's account of the
consecration of Numa.
The auspices on the other hand--in origin 'signs from birds' (_avis_,
_spicere_)--were the province of the magistrate about to undertake some
definite action on behalf of the state whether at home or on the field
of battle. Here the augur's functions were merely preparatory and
advisory. It was his duty to prepare the _templum_, the spot from which
the auspices are to be taken--always a square space, with boundaries
unbroken except at the entrance, not surrounded by wall or necessarily
by line, but clearly indicated (_effatus_) by the augur, and marked off
(_liberatus_) from the surroundings: in the comitia and other places in
Rome there were permanent _templa_, but elsewhere they must be
specially made. The magistrate then enters the _templum_ and observes
the signs (_spectio_): if there is any doubt as to interpretation--and
seeing the immense complication of the traditions (_disciplina_), this
must often have been the case--the augur is referred to as interpreter.
The signs demanded (_impetrativa_) were originally always connected
with the appearance, song or flight of birds--higher or lower, from
left to right or right to left, etc. Later others were included, and
with the army in the field it became the regular practice to take the
auspices from the feeding of the sacred chickens (_pulli_): the best
sign being obtained if, in their eagerness to feed, they let fall some
of the grain from their beaks (_tripudium solistimum_)--a result not
difficult to secure by previous treatment and a careful selection of
the kind of grain supplied to them. But besides this deliberate 'asking
for signs,' public business might at any moment be interrupted if the
gods voluntarily sent an indication of disapproval (_oblativa_): the
augurs then had always to be at hand to advise the magistrates whether
notice should be taken of such signs, and, if so, what was their
signification, and they even seem to have had certain rights of
reporting themselves (_nuntiatio_) the occurrence of adverse ones. The
sign of most usual occurrence would be lightning--sometimes such an
unexpected event as the seizure of a member of the assembly with
epilepsy (_morbus comitialis_)--and we know to what lengths political
obstructionists went in later times in the observation of fictitious
signs, or even the prevention of business by the mere announcement of
their intention to see an unfavourable omen (_servare de caelo_). The
complications and ramifications of the augur's art are infinite, but
the main idea should by now be plain, and it must be remembered that
the kindred art of the soothsayer (_haruspex_), oracles, and the
interpretation of fate by the drawing of lots (_sortes_) are all later
foreign introductions: auspice and augury are the only genuine Roman
methods for interpreting the will of the gods.
Here then in household, fields, and state, we have a second type of
relation to the gods, running parallel to the ordinary practice of
sacrifice and prayer, distinct yet not fundamentally different. As it
is man's function to propitiate the higher spirits and prevent, if
possible, the wrecking of his plans by their opposition, so it is his
business, if he can, to find out their intentions before he engages on
any serious undertaking. As in the _ius sacrum_ his legal mind leads
him to assume that the deities accept the responsibility of the
contract, when his own part is fulfilled, so here, like a practical man
of business, he assumes their construction of a code of communication,
which he has learned to interpret. In its origin it is a notion common
to many primitive religions, but in its elaboration it is peculiarly
and distinctively Italian, and, as we know it, Roman.