Auguries and Auspices, the observation and interpretation of omens as a means of obtaining knowledge of secret or future things. The general doctrine of the interpretation of divine revelation is called Divination (q.v.), and this more general term includes both artificial divination by prodigies, lightning, astrology, lots, observation of the flight or feeding of birds, and the appearance of the entrails of animals or haruspication, as well as natural divination through dreams and prophetic oracles. There was no natural divination among the Romans—they had not conceived, like the Greeks, that notion of inward inspiration and insight, by which a human soul is enlightened by a fateful intuition and made to participate for an instant in the divine omniscience. The supernatural faculty is confined to the gods themselves, and they speak directly to men through the passive organs of animals. From the very dawn of Roman history divination is a kind of political institution. It does not develop the curiosity of the mystic; it reduces revelation to nothing more than simply information on the actual dispositions of the gods, only touching indirectly the past and the future. It only asks one problem—to know if the gods encourage or not the design about which they are consulted; it awaits the reply from Jupiter himself, and forbids the inquiry to be made otherwise than through certain conventional signs. The augural art does not go further than this. If in certain grave conjunctions it was found insufficient, the Romans preferred to consult the Etruscan haruspices or the Hellenic oracles rather than to add anything to their traditional customs.
The two Latin words augur (avis, 'a bird,' and a root allied to Sanskrit root gar, 'to call') and auspex (for avispe, from avis, 'a bird,' and spicio, 'I see') differed originally as a general idea from a particular one, since the latter observed only the flight of birds. Yet as this latter kind of augury was the most common, the two words are frequently interchanged or employed in connection. Neither vaticination or direct revelation, nor the interpretation of fortuitous presages, was so much esteemed by the Romans as the observation of birds. It was the function of the augurs to make these observations and explain their significance. It was not, however, any one who could be appointed an augur. The gods selected their own interpreters—that is to say, they conferred the divine gift upon them from their very birth; but an educational discipline was also considered necessary, and hence a 'college of augurs' figures in the very dawn of Roman history. Romulus himself is represented in legend as an augur. Previous to the Ogulnian law, passed in the year 307 B.C., there were only four augurs, who were selected from the patricians. By this law, however, the plebeians became eligible for the pontifical or augural offices, and five were immediately created. For more than two hundred years the number continued the same, till Sulla in 81 B.C. increased it to fifteen. Finally, in the first days of the Empire, when all parties, sick of the long civil wars, hurried to throw their privileges at the feet of the monarch who had brought peace into their homes, the right of electing augurs at his pleasure was conferred on Augustus, after which the number became indefinite.
At first, the augurs were elected by the Comitia Curiata; but as the sanction of the former was necessary to give validity to the acts of the latter, they could always veto any elections which were obnoxious to them; so that the power of electing members to fill up vacancies naturally fell into the hands of the college itself, and so continued till 103 B.C., when a tribune of the people named Ahenobarbus carried a law by which it was enacted that for the future, vacancies in the augural and pontifical offices should not be filled up by those religious corporations themselves, but by a majority of certain selected tribes. This new law was occasionally repealed and re-enacted during the civil wars which lasted till the time of Augustus. The scramble for power, however, during these political vicissitudes, as well as the general advance of knowledge, had rendered the prophetic pretensions of the augur's office ridiculous in the eyes of educated people. By Cicero's time it had lost its religious character altogether, but was still regarded as one of the highest political dignities, and coveted for the power it conferred.
The modes of divination employed by the augurs were five in number—augurium ex cœlo, ex avibus, ex tripudiis, ex quadrupedibus, ex diris. The first related to the interpretation of the celestial phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, was apparently of Etruscan origin, and was held to be of supreme significance. The second related to the interpretation of the noise and flight of birds. It was not every bird, however, that could be a sure messenger of the gods. Generally speaking, those 'consulted' were the eagle, vulture, crow, raven, owl, and hen. The first two belonged to the class of alites, or birds whose flight revealed the will of the gods; the last four to the class of oscines, whose voice divulged the same. These two modes of augury were the oldest and most important. Of the other three, the auguries ex tripudiis were taken from the feeding of chickens; the auguries ex quadrupedibus, from four-footed animals—as, for instance, if a dog, or wolf, or hare ran across the path of a Roman, and startled him by any unusual motion, he mentioned it to an augur, who was expected to be able to advise him what to do; the auguries ex diris (a vague kind of augury), from any trifling accidents or occurrences not included in the previous four—such as sneezing, stumbling, spilling salt on the table, and the like.
At Rome, the auspices were taken on the summit of the Capitoline Hill; and the ground on which the augur stood was first solemnly set apart for the purpose. He next took a wand, and marked out a portion of the heavens in which his observations were to be made. This imaginary portion was called a templum (hence contemplari, 'to contemplate'), and was subdivided into right and left. According as the birds appeared in either of these divisions were the auspices favourable or unfavourable. How vast the political influence and authority of the augurs must have been is seen from the fact that almost nothing of any consequence could take place without their sanction and approval. The election of every important ruler, king, consul, dictator, or prætor, every civic officer, every religious functionary, was invalid, if the auspices were unfavourable. No general could lawfully engage in battle—no public land could be allotted—no marriage or adoption, at least among the patricians, was held valid—unless the auspices were first taken, while the Comitia of the Centuries could be dispersed at a moment's notice by the veto of any member of the augural college.
Not the augurs alone, but the chief magistrates of Rome (inheriting the honour from Romulus), held the 'auspices,' while the 'auguries' were exclusively in the possession of the former. The power of taking the auspices in war was confined to the commander-in-chief; and any victory gained by a legate was said to be won under the auspices of his superior, and the latter alone was entitled to a triumph. Hence has originated the very common phrase in our language, 'under the auspices' of some one, which usually denotes nothing more than that the person alluded to merely lends the influence of his name.
It must not be supposed that it was among the Romans alone that augury was practised. It is well known in the folklore of every race, and there are few English peasants to whom the magpie and cuckoo are not still significant. Dr Tylor quotes in his Primitive Culture many instances which show that it has always been and is still part of the doctrine of the savage in whatever quarter of the globe he is found. It is familiar to the Tupis of Brazil and the Dyaks of Borneo. The Maoris think it unlucky if an owl hoots during a consultation, but are encouraged if a hawk flies overhead; a flight of birds to the right of the war-sacrifice is propitious if the villages of the tribe are in that quarter, but if the omen is in the enemies' direction the war will be given up. The Kalmuck is happy when a white owl flies by on the right, but expects calamity when he sees one on the left; and to the negro of Old Calabar the direction in which he hears the cry of the great kingfisher has exactly the same significance. Haruspicion also is practised by the Malays and Polynesians and by various Asiatic tribes. It is mentioned as practised in Peru under the Incas, and Sir Richard Burton's account of it in Central Africa is in all respects similar to its usage among the civilised Romans. See the great work of Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire de la Divination dans l'Antiquité (4 vols. 1880-82).