An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of

augury Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed behavior of birds. When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, it is referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" (Latin ''aus ...

, the interpretation of the will of the

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

by studying the flight of birds. Determinations were based upon whether they were flying in groups or alone, what noises they made as they flew, the direction of flight, what kind of birds they were, etc. This practice was known as "''taking the auspices''". The augural ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society – public or private – including matters of war, commerce, and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. Augurs sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Rome's ''pax'', ''fortuna'', and ''salus'' (peace, good fortune, and well-being).

Etymology

Although ancient authors believed that the term "augur" contained the words ''avis'' and ''gerō'' –

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "directing the birds" – historical-linguistic evidence points instead to the root ''augeō'': "to increase, to prosper".

History and public role

Political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury and by

haruspices In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails ('' exta''—hence also extispicy ...

. Historically, augury was performed by priests of the college of augurs on behalf of senior magistrates. The practice itself likely comes from the neighboring region of Etruria, where augers were highly respected as officials. Magistrates were empowered to conduct augury as required for the performance of their official duties. Magistracies included senior military and civil ranks, which were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the ''pax'', ''fortuna'', and ''salus'' of Rome and everything that was Roman. The presiding magistrate at an augural rite held the "right of augury" (''ius augurii''). The right of ''nuntiatio'' – announcing the appearance of ''auspicia oblativa'' (unexpected sign) – was reserved for the officiating augur, which would require the interruption of the proceedings then underway.

Kingdom of Rome

The Roman historian

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

stressed the importance of the augurs: "Who does not know that this city was founded only after taking the auspices, that everything in war and in peace, at home and abroad, was done only after taking the auspices?" In the Regal period, which ended 509 BC, tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time; they numbered nine by the third century BC;

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had ...

increased their number to fifteen. By the

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...

, their numbers swelled even further to an estimated 25 members.

Roman Republic

During the Republic, priesthoods were prized as greatly as the

consulship A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

, the

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, and the

triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

. Membership gave the lifelong right to participate prominently in processions at ''

ludi ''Ludi'' (Latin plural) were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people (''populus Romanus''). ''Ludi'' were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also ...

'' and in public banquets; augurs proudly displayed the symbol of the office, the ''

lituus The word ''lituus'' originally meant a curved augural staff, or a curved war-trumpet in the ancient Latin language. This Latin word continued in use through the 18th century as an alternative to the vernacular names of various musical instruments ...

''. Roman augurs were part of a college (Latin ''

collegium A (plural ), or college, was any association in ancient Rome that acted as a legal entity. Following the passage of the ''Lex Julia'' during the reign of Julius Caesar as Consul and Dictator of the Roman Republic (49–44 BC), and their rea ...

'') of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position. At the foundation of the

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

in 510 BC, the

patricians The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...

held sole claim to this office; by 300 BC, the office was open to

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of ...

occupation as well. Senior members of the ''collegium'' put forth nominations for any vacancies, and members voted on whom to

co-opt Co-option (also co-optation, sometimes spelt coöption or coöptation) has two common meanings. It may refer to the process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manage opposition and so maintai ...

. According to Cicero, the ''auctoritas'' of ''ius augurum'' included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law: Consular election could be – and was – rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Republic. Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career. In the later Republic, augury was supervised by the college of ''

pontifices A pontiff (from Latin ''pontifex'') was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term "pontiff" was late ...

'', a priestly-magistral office whose powers were increasingly woven into the ''

cursus honorum The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...

''. The office of '' pontifex maximus'' eventually became a ''de facto'' consular prerogative.

Roman Empire

The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively; the divinely ordained condition of peace (''pax deorum'') was an outcome of successful augury. Those whose actions had led to divine wrath (''ira deorum'') could not have possessed a true right of augury (''ius augurum''). Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only

Octavian Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

could have possessed it, because he alone had restored the ''pax deorum'' to the Roman people. Lucan, writing during the

, described the recent Civil War as "unnatural" – a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the traditional principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult. In the Stoic cosmology the ''pax deorum'' is the expression of natural order in human affairs. When his colleague Lepidus died, Augustus assumed his office as ''pontifex maximus'', took priestly control over the State oracles (including the

Sibylline books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at mo ...

), and used his powers as censor to suppress the circulation of "unapproved" oracles. Despite their lack of political influence under the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, the augurate, as with its fellow ''quattuor amplissima collegia'', continued to confer prestige on its members.

Augurs, ''auguria'', and ''auspices''

In ancient Rome the ''auguria'' (augural rites) were considered to be in equilibrium with the '' sacra'' ("sacred things" or "rites") and were not the only way by which the gods made their will known. The ''augures publici'' (public augurs) concerned themselves only with matters related to the state. The role of the augur was that of consulting and interpreting the will of gods about some course of action such as accession of kings to the throne, of magistrates and major ''sacerdotes'' to their functions (

inauguration In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...

) and all public enterprises. It sufficed to say that the augur or magistrate had heard a clap of thunder to suspend the convocation of the

comitia The legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people (and thus the assemblies) who had the final say regarding the election ...

. Since ''auguria publica'' and inaugurations of magistrates are strictly connected to political life this brought about the deterioration and abuses that condemned augury to progressive and irreversible debasement, stripping it of all religious value.

Ancient tradition

According to Varro, before his time augures had distinguished five kinds of territory: ager Romanus, ager Gabinus, ager peregrinus, ager hosticus, ager incertus. These distinctions clearly point to the times of the prehistory of Latium and testify the archaic quality of the art of augury. The ''jus augurale'' (augural law) was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the technical aspects of ceremonies and rituals has been recorded. We have only the names of some ''auguria'': *The ''augurium salutis'' took place once a year, before the magistrates and the people, in which the gods were asked whether it was auspicious to ask to for the welfare of the Romans, *The ''augurium canarium'' required the sacrifice of red dogs and took place after wheat grains had formed and before they were shelled. *The ''vernisera auguria'' – we know only the name that implies a ritual related to the harvest. The terms ''augurium'' and ''auspicium'' are used indifferently by ancient authors. Modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find a distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases. By such considerations Dumezil thinks that the two terms refer in fact to two aspects of the same religious act: *''auspicium'' would design the technical process of the operation, i.e. ''aves spicere'', looking at the birds; *''augurium'' would be the resulting interpretation i.e. the determination, acknowledgement of the presence of the ''*auges'', the action favoured by the god(s), the intention and the final product of the whole operation. In Varro's words "''Agere augurium, aves specit''", "to conduct the ''augurium'', he observed the birds".

Ritual

Magistrates endowed by the law with the right of ''spectio'' (observation of auspices) would establish the requested ''auspicium'' (observation platform) before taking the '' auspicia impetrativa'' ("requested" or "sought" auspices; see above). The ''templum'', or sacred space within which the operation would take place had to be established and delimited (it should be square and have only one entrance) and purified ( ''effari'', ''liberare''). The enunciation of the requested auspicia that began the observation portion of the ceremony was called ''legum dictio''. Observation conditions were rigorous and required absolute silence for validity of the operation. Technically the sky was divided into four sections or regions: ''dextera'', ''sinistra'', ''antica'', and ''postica'' (right, left, anterior and posterior). The prototype of the ritual of inauguration of people is described in Livy's description of the inauguration of king

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are a ...

The augur asks Jupiter: "''Si fas est''" (i.e. if it is divine justice to do this) "... send me a certain ''signum'' (sign)" then the augur listed the ''auspicia'' he wanted to see. When they appeared Numa was declared king.

Precedence

Since the observation was complex, conflict among signs was common. A hierarchy among signs was devised: e.g. a sign from the eagle would prevail on that from the woodpecker and the ossifragae (parra). During the last centuries of the republic the auspices ''ex caelo'' and ''ex tripudiis'' supplanted other types, as the other forms could be easily used in a fraudulent way, i.e. bent to suit the desire of the asking person. Cicero condemned the fraudulent use and denounced the decline in the level of knowledge of the doctrine by the augurs of his time, but in fact the abuse developed from the evasion of negative signs, described in the next subsection.

Evasion

The interpretation of signs was vast and complex, and magistrates devised protective tricks to avoid being paralysed by negative signs. Against the negative ''auspicia oblativa'' the admitted procedures included: * actively avoiding seeing them * ''repudiare'' – refuse them through an interpretative sleight of hand * ''non observare'' – by assuming one had not paid attention to them * declaring something that in fact had not appeared * ''tempestas'' – choosing the time of the observation at one's will * ''renuntiatio'' – making a distinction between observation and formulation * ''vitia'' – resorting to acknowledging the presence of mistakes * repeating the whole procedure.

Attus Navius

Contrary to other divinatory practices present in Rome (e.g. haruspicina, consultation of the

libri Sibyllini The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at mo ...

) augury appears to be

autochthonous Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to: Fiction * Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis * Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick * Autochthon, a Primordial in the ' ...

: originally Latin or Italic. The art has its roots in the prehistory of the Italic people and is attested in the

Iguvine Tables The Iguvine Tablets, also known as the Eugubian Tablets or Eugubine Tables, are a series of seven bronze tablets from ancient Iguvium (modern Gubbio), Italy, written in the ancient Italic language Umbrian. The earliest tablets, written in the nati ...

(''avif aseria'') and among other Latin tribes. The very story or legend of the foundation of Rome is based on augury, i.e. the ascertaining of the will of gods through observation of the sky and of birds. Romulus and Remus indeed acted as augurs and Romulus was considered a great augur throughout the course of his life. The character that best represented and portrayed the art however was Attus Navius. His story is related by Cicero:

He was born into a very poor family. One day he lost one of his pigs. He then promised the gods that if he found it, he would offer them the biggest grapes growing in his vineyard. After recovering his pig he stood right at the middle of his grape yard facing South. He divided the sky into four sections and observed birds: when they appeared he walked in that direction and found an extraordinary large grape that he offered to the gods. His story was immediately famous and he became the augur of the king (see above the episode with king Tarquinius narrated by Livy). Henceforth he was considered the patron of the augurs.Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 1.17

Notes

Sources

* * * s.v. ''augures''. *

External links

article ''Augurium'' in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
*{{Cite EB1911 , wstitle=Augurs , volume=2 , pages=903–904
Wissowa, ''Augures'' in Paulys Realencyclopaedie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaften vol. II (trans. into English)
Roman augurs Divination