SectionsHomeI. Ancient oraclesII. Divinatory artsIII. Augurs and haruspicesIV. Dreams and visionsV. Prophets and seersItaliano
Chapter III

Augurs and haruspices

The divination of the Etruscans and Romans was a public science, practised by expert priests in the service of the community. Etruscan haruspices read the will of the gods in the entrails of sacrificed animals and in lightning, following books that tradition attributed to the prodigious Tages. Roman augurs marked out the templum in the sky with the lituus and watched the flight of birds or the way the sacred chickens ate, to learn whether an undertaking was approved by the gods. This section tells the history of these practices through ancient sources and archaeological documents: the bronze Liver of Piacenza, the Liber Linteus of Zagreb, the legend of Romulus and Remus, the prodigies expiated by the Senate, Spurinna's warning to Caesar and Cicero's criticism in De divinatione. The journey ends with the slow decline of haruspicy in the late Empire, when Christian laws banned sacrifices and the Etruscan discipline, after many centuries of life, disappeared.

IEtrusca disciplina: the sacred science of divine signsI · 3 min readIITages and Vegoia, the revealers of Etruscan wisdomII · 3 min readIIIThe Liver of Piacenza, a bronze map of the Etruscan skyIII · 3 min readIVHaruspicy: reading the divine will in the entrails of animalsIV · 3 min readVThe libri fulgurales and the Etruscan doctrine of lightningV · 3 min readVIThe libri rituales and the founding of cities by Etruscan riteVI · 3 min readVIIThe Etruscan saecula: the lifespan of peoples measured by portentsVII · 3 min readVIIIThe Liber Linteus of Zagreb, the only surviving Etruscan sacred bookVIII · 3 min readIXThe college of augurs and the lituus, the curved staff of the auspicesIX · 3 min readXThe templum: the sacred space traced in the sky by the augursX · 3 min readXIThe sacred chickens and the tripudium, auspices taken into battleXI · 3 min readXIIThe flight and song of birds in Roman auspicesXII · 3 min readXIIIRomulus, Remus and the contest of the vultures to found RomeXIII · 3 min readXIVAttus Navius, the augur who cut a whetstone with a razorXIV · 3 min readXVProdigies and procuratio: how Rome answered the signs of divine angerXV · 3 min readXVIThe haruspices in Rome, from the republican Senate to Claudius's reformXVI · 3 min readXVIISpurinna and the Ides of March: the omen Caesar ignoredXVII · 3 min readXVIIICicero and De divinatione: an augur against divinationXVIII · 3 min readXIXObnuntiatio: when the auspices halted the assemblies of RomeXIX · 3 min readXXThe end of haruspicy under Constantine, Julian and AlaricXX · 3 min read