1. Divination

2. Establishing right relationship with gods and induce them to cooperate
DREAMS
CHANCE
REMARKS
ASTROLOGY
HARUSPICY
(gut gazing)
PRAYER
&
SACRIFICE
DIVINATION
LIGHTNING &
THUNDER
Establishing right relationship with gods and induce them to cooperate
AUGURY
(Bird watching)
PORTENTS &
PRODIGIES

3. Two main beliefs:
The belief that the gods sent signs in the form of extraordinary phenomena. Vary rarely did the gods make a direct appearance – if they did it was to one of a few favoured people
The belief that divine will COULD be ascertained

4. Divination – the art of interpreting divine will
Omina oblativa
Signs that were not asked for
Omina impetrativa
Deliberately solicited signs
Attach your copy of the following evidence
Now I am aware of no people, however refined and learned
or however savage and ignorant, which does not think that
signs are given of future events, and that certain
persons can recognize those signs and foretell
events before they occur.?
Cicero De Divinatione 1.2

5. AUGURY
The art of interpreting and watching the flight and song of birds
Romulus and Remus and the site for Rome
Remus stood on the Aventine Hill
Romulus stood on the Palantine Hill
He spotted 12 vultures
He spotted 6 vultures
The favoured site –
The gods liked him!

6. A magistrate empowered to ask for a sign was said to have the “auspices”.
Auspicial – literally means bird-watching
The magistrate would take a seat in the open and designate a quarter of the sky to watch. In Rome this was usually done on the Capitol Hill – a special site called the “augaraculum”.
He would be accompanied by one of the college of 15 augurs. This person would be blindfolded and would interpret what the magistrate said he was seeing.

7. Outside of Rome the magistrate may have done the interpretation as well.
The exact interpretation process has now been lost but it seems much depended on the time of the day and the season of the year. Disputes would often have occurred between the magistrate and the advisor.
SIGNS
Eagle and vulture – signs by flying – “alites” – speed, direction, number and height
Raven, crow and owl – signs by singing – “oscines” – pitch, tone, frequency

8. See also story p35 of Findlay text
A later study included how chickens ate. Mostly used in military expeditions. Chickens were especially bred by licensed bird handlers for the purpose.
Cage opened
Bad if
Favourable if
Declined to come out
Flew away
Bits fell from its beak
Gobbled up the food outside the cage
Flapped wings and cackled
See also story p35 of Findlay text

9. NB – When divination was adopted in Rome the people were still farmers
Birds do tell us things:
Swallows do forecast the approach of rain as the change in air pressure and humidity keeps insects they eat close to the ground, hence more would be seen and in a flock.
The auspices were sometimes consulted in private life as well as public. For example, in marriage – “wedded with the blessing of a bird”.
The reading of bird behaviour remained far more important for the people of the country than those of the town.

10. Lightning and Thunder
Par excellence – an authoritive sign from Jupiter.
The place where lightning struck was immediately fenced off and declared holy.
The appearance of lightning before a public assembly would stop the meeting for the day. Sometimes this was a political ploy as all business ceased.
Thunder was most significant on certain days:
Dec 3 – meant a shortage of fish so people would eat more meat.
Aug 19 – women and slaves will commit murder.

11. Use p35-36 to make your own notes on examples
Portents & Prodigies
Unsolicited omens – omina oblativa
Prodigy – a great example of a marvelous thing in nature.
Portents – something of significance.
Use p35-36 to make your own notes on examples

12. Unsolicited omens caused problems because the people would not know which god it came from and what it really meant. Private citizens were required to report unsolicited omens to a member of the college of priests so that if necessary an augur could be consulted.

13. Primary evidence – Aeneas’ departure from Troy – “The Aeneid” by Virgil
Attach the evidence from the sheet 13. Omens
Aeneas has been told to take his family and as many others as he can and flee the city as it is being sacked and burned by the Greeks. His father Anchises refuses to leave and since Aeneas sees him as the most important member of the family stays to fight the Greeks. However, Fate has decreed tha descendents of Iulus are to found Rome, so Jupiter as Fate’s executive has to make both father and son leave the city.

14. Highlight the two signs from the PE
Highlight the two signs from the PE. Label each as being asked for or not.
Why did Anchises ask for a sign?
In Anchises’ prayer (lines 689 – 691) what elements of the prayer formula are present?

15. The Sibylline Books
The books that contained a collection of oracles purchased from a prophetic woman (Sibyl) by the last king of Rome, Tarquin, and had been kept in a stone chest underground in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol Hill.
However, they were said to have been burned in a fire that destroyed the temple in 82BC. The books were replaced by a new collection assembled from various places in Italy, Greece and the East.

16. Attach the PE from the sheet.
The Sybil was the one mentioned in the sacrifice evidence about Aeneas going to the underworld. She was long lived as she supposedly meet both Aeneas and Tarquin who lived about 6 centuries apart.
The new books were verse-oracle written in Greek. They were re-copied and housed in two gold chests in the Temple of Apollo on the Palintine Hill by Augustus.
There was a college of 15 men, known as Quindecimviri, who were in charge of them. They were not professional priests but public men appointed to these prestigious positions.
On a motion passed by the Senate, the Quindecimviri would see what the Sybilline Books had to say. The exact process is not known. The leaves of the books may have been separate and they may have been randomly chosen and read. The authority of the Sybilline Books was so great that the recommendations were almost always followed.
Attach the PE from the sheet.

17. Haruspicy The art of “gut gazing”.
This was a science started by the Etruscans and the real experts, the haruspices, in early time always came from Etruria.
They were not an official priesthood like the Augurs and Pontifices. By Cicero’s time the Haruspices did not have to be from Etruria. There was a society of about 60 Haruspices who could be consulted, for a fee, to give their opinion about the interpretation of the animal entrails from a sacrifice. There were also a number of unofficial haruspices.

18. Attach the PE picture of the liver
The detailed science is no longer known but there is a preserved bronze model of a liver which is believed to have been used as a model in teaching. It is divided into 16 regions which correspond to the divisions into which the Etruscans divided the sky. Names of gods are also written on the liver so that if a particular part of a real liver was diseased, the Haruspex would know which God was angry. The art of reading the liver is called hepatomancy.
Attach the PE picture of the liver

19. Fig. 1 Etruscan Bronze Mirror of Chalchas the Seer Reading a Liver (Vatican: Gregorian Museum, Rome,

20. There is some evidence to suggest that one practice in haruspicy involved the reading of the entrails of preferably a sheep (called epatoscomancy).
It involved the roasting of the sheep’s shoulder blade and then the reading of the cracks in it after it was cooked and cleaned off. Also in the roasting it was that the rising smoke feed the gods.

21. Read page p38 of Findlay and note down some other example.
Dreams
Always seen as a way of foretelling the future.
Example – Augustus was saved at Phillipi by a dream that advised him to not stay sick in his tent. He took the advice. The camp was surprised and his tent was cut to pieces.
Dreams were prominent in the writings of Livy and Virgil.
People in Rome specialised in the interpretation of dreams.
Read page p38 of Findlay and note down some other example.

22. Astrology
The use of the stars to tell the future. The key thing was that everyone’s destiny was seen to be set at the time of birth because of the relative position of the seven heavenly bodies to the earth.
Astrologers were banned from Rome from time to time because of the effect on the need to worship the gods. If your life is set at birth then what was the need to consult the gods because they couldn’t change the future anyway.
Attach the astrology PE by Tacitus
Tacitus records some of Tiberius’ dealing with astrologers. Tacitus is well known for his dislike of Tiberius and never having said anything good about him. Hence, this writing is perhaps very one-sided in this view.

23. Chance Remarks
This was an omen which the Romans attached particular importance. A simple remark by an army officer to his company of soldiers “lets stop here” might be regarded as divine inspiration.