Attus Navius, the augur who cut a whetstone with a razor
The legend of the augur Attus Navius and King Tarquinius Priscus, told by Livy and Cicero: a story about the power of the auspices over the kings of Rome.
Among the legends of regal Rome, that of Attus Navius is one of the most remarkable. Livy and Cicero tell it as an example of the authority of the augurs, strong enough to prevail even over the will of a sovereign. Its hero is a celebrated augur who, according to tradition, lived in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, the first king of Etruscan origin to rule Rome.
The king's challenge
Tarquinius wanted to increase the centuries of knights established by Romulus, creating new units to which he would give his own name. Attus Navius opposed him, declaring that no innovation of that kind could be introduced without first taking the auspices. The angry king decided to put him to the test before the people and asked him whether what he was thinking at that moment could be done.
The augur took the auspices and answered yes. The king then revealed his thought: he had been wondering whether Navius could cut a whetstone, the stone used for sharpening, with a razor. He had both objects brought to him, convinced that he had embarrassed him in front of everyone. According to the legend, Navius took the razor and cut the stone without the slightest hesitation.
The memory of the marvel
Livy relates that in the Comitium, on the spot where the marvel took place, there stood a statue of Attus Navius with his head veiled, and that according to tradition the whetstone too had been placed at that same spot. The most important result, however, was institutional: from then on, the historian observes, the augurs gained such honour that no undertaking, in peace or in war, was ever begun without consulting the auspices.
Tarquinius gave up creating new centuries with different names, but doubled their numbers while keeping the old names. The solution respected the form willed by the gods while granting the king the substance of what he wanted. It is a compromise that reflects well the spirit of Roman religion, which was very attentive to the correctness of forms. What mattered was not to prevent all change, but to ensure that no innovation was introduced without the consent of the gods.
An augur's childhood
Cicero, in the first book of De divinatione, adds a story about Navius's childhood. As a poor boy charged with looking after pigs, he had lost one of them. He then promised the gods that, if he found it, he would offer them the largest bunch of grapes in his vineyard. Having found the animal, he stood in the middle of the vineyard, divided it into four regions following the signs of the birds and found a bunch of extraordinary size.
In the second book, however, Cicero treats these stories with irony, regarding them as inventions useful for upholding the prestige of the augurs and suggesting that they be left to fable. It is a contrast typical of his work: on the one hand respect for the institutions of the Republic, of which he himself was part, on the other the scepticism of the philosopher who will not accept proofs based only on tradition.
Whether true or not, the legend of Attus Navius expresses a deep conviction of Roman society: political power had to submit to the judgement of the gods, expressed according to known rules guarded by specialists. Even a king, in Roman memory, had been forced to bow before the art of the augur. That is why the veiled statue in the Comitium long remained a warning to the magistrates who passed in front of it.