Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AUGUR. AUGUR'. J17
wras employed, who knew how to form temnpla and 1. The distinction between the duties of the:
was acquainted with the art of augury, and was magistrates and the augurs in taking the auspices
therefore called ausspex or augur: it does not ap- is one of the most difficult points connected with
pear to have been necessary nor usual in such this subject, but perhaps a satisfactory solution of
cases to have recourse to the public augurs, the these difficulties may be found by taking an hismembers of the collegium, who are therefore torical view of the question. We are told not only
frequently called augures pyblici, to distinguish that the kings were in possession of the auspices,
them from the private augurs. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 8, but that they themselves were acquainted with
ad Fam. vi. 6; Festus, s. v. quinque genera.) The the art and practised it. Romulus is represented
case, however, was very different with respect to to have been the best of augurs, and from him all
the auspicia publica, generally called auspicia succeeding augurs received the chief mark of their
simply, or those which concerned the state. The office, the litaus, with which that king exercised
latter could only be taken by the persons who re- his calling. (Cic. de Div. i. 2, ii. 17; Liv. i. 10.)
presented the state, and who acted as mediators He is further stated to have appointed three augurs,
between the gods and the state; for though all but only as his assistants in taking the auspices,
the patricians were eligible for taking the auspices, a fact which is important to bear in mind. (Cic.
yet it was only the magistrates who were in actual de Rep. ii. 9.) Their dignity gradually increased
possession of them. As long as there were any in consequence of their being employed at the
patrician magistrates, the auspices were exclusively inauguration of the kings, and also in consequence
in their hands; on their entrance upon office, they of their becoming the preservers and depositaries
received the auspices (accipiebant auspicia, Cic. de of the science of augury. Formed into a collegium,
Div. ii. 36); while their office lasted, they were they handed down to their successors the various
in possession of them (habebant or erant eorunz rules of the science, while the kings, and subseauspicia, Gell. xiii. 15); and at the expiration of quently the magistrates of the republic, were liable
their office, they laid them down (ponebant or de- to change. Their duties thus became twofold, to
ponebant auspicia, Cie. de Nat. Deor. ii. 3). In assist the magistrates in taking the auspices, and
case, however, there was no patrician magistrate, to preserve a scientific knowledge of the art. They
the auspices became vested in the whole body of were not in possession of the auspices themselves,
the patricians, which was expressed by the words though they understood them better than the maauspicia ad patres redclunt. (Cic. Brut. 5.) This gistrates; the lightning and the birds were not
happened in the kingly period on the demise of a sent to them but to the magistrates; they disking, and the patricians then chose an interrex, charged no independent functions either political
who was therefore invested by them with the or ecclesiastical, and are therefore described by
right of taking the auspices, and was thus enabled Cicero as privati. (De Divin. i. 40.) As the
to mediate between the gods and the state in the augurs were therefore merely the assistants of the
election of a new king. In like manner in the magistrates, they could not talke the auspices
republican period, when it was believed that there without the latter, though the magistrates on the
had been something faulty (vitaiul) in the auspices contrary could dispense with their assistance, as
in the election of the consuls, and they were must frequently have happened in the appointment
obliged in consequence to resign their office, the of a dictator by the consul on military expeditions
auspices returned to the whole body of the pa- at a distance from the city. At the same time it
tricians, who had recourse to an interregnum for must be borne in mind, that as the aulgurs were
the renewal of the auspices, and for handing them the interpreters of the science, they possessed the
over in a perfect state to the new magistrates: right of declaring whether the auspices were valid
hence we find the expressions repetere de integyro or invalid, and that too whether they were present
auspoiciac and renorare per interregmnu az.spicia. or not at the time of taking them; and whoever
(Liv. v. 17, 31, vi. 1.) questioned their decision was liable to severe
It will be seen from what has been said that punishment. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 8.) They thus posthe Roman state was a species of theocracy, that sessed in reality a veto uponI every important public
the gods were its rulers, and that it was by means transaction. It was this power which made the
of the auspices that they intimated their will to the office an object of ambition to the most distinrepresentatives of the people, that is, the magis- guished men at Rome, and which led Cicero, himtrates. It follows from this, as has been already self an augur, to describe it as the highest dignity
remarked, that no public act could be performed in the state (de Leg. ii. 12). The augurs frequently
without consulting the auspices, no election could employed this power as a political engine to vitiate
be held, no law passed, no war waged; for a ne- the election of such parties as were unfavourable
glect of the auspices would have been equivalent to to the exclusive privileges of the patricians. (Liv;.
a declaration that the gods had ceased to rule the vi. 27, viii. 23.)
Roman state. But although the augurs could declare that there
There still remain three points in connection with was some fault in the auspices, yet. on the other
the auspices which require notice:-1. The rela- hand, they could not, in favour of their office,!detion of the magistrates to the augurs in taking the clare that any unfavourable sign had appeared to
auspices. 2. The manner ill which the magistrates them, since it was not to them that the auspices
received the auspices. 3. The relation of the dif- were sent. Thus we are told that the aunrurs did
ferent magistrates to one another with respect to not possess the spectio, that is, the right of taking
the auspices. We can only make a few brief re- the state-auspices. This spectio, of which we have
marks upon each of these important matters, and already briefly spoken, was of two kinds, one
must refer our readers for fuller information to the more extensive and the other more limited. In
masterly discussion of Rubino (Rom. Veifassuny, the one case the person, who exercised it, could
p. 48, &c.), to whom we are indebted for a great put a stop to the proceedings of any other magispart of the present article. - trate by his obulumtiatio: this Wvas called secctio et
N