Figure 1: Unrecorded Artist, “Relief plaque with Vulture and Cobra on baskets; falcon on opposite,” 400-30 BCE, limestone, Egypt, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, NY (CC0).
Since the regal period of the early kings of Rome (753-509 BCE), Romans believed that the Gods sent messages to humanity that could—and should—be divined by mortals. In Cicero’s treatise on how to translate these missives, a work called De Divinatione, the late Republican orator remarked that while some diviners relied on signs from the internal realm (e.g., dream prognosticators, soothsayers), it was an ars (“skilled discipline”) and science to learn to divine the signs of the heavens as a public priest called an augur (1.12). Cicero was a part of this collegium (“association”) of public priests; experts that worked as professional diviners of the messages sent by the Gods within the plain of the sky.
To become an augur required particular celestial, cartographic training and deep disciplina (“instruction”) that was not intuitive for all Romans. For instance, in most cases within Roman antiquity (and many other societies), the left is seen in a negative light, whereas the right was preferred (see Ellis 2011). This is where we get the pejorative connotation for sinister (“left”) even today. However, in taking the Roman auspices, the sinister side is the lucky one as the augur faces South, whereas the dexter (“right”) is often unlucky and associated with ominous birds like owls, who can signal death or disaster. As Ashleigh Green notes in her Birds in Roman Life and Myth, a woodpecker or crow on the left is seen as lucky, whereas an owl or a raven on the left is unlucky. However, ravens and owls seen on the right side can be lucky. It is all about the quadrant they are seen within. Although we might not have faith in these beliefs today, I have found that while teaching my Roman Empire class, having students reconstruct these fastidious rules, in order to learn to engage with the ars of divination, can provide them with deeper access into Roman beliefs about communication with the gods. The activity also underscores the importance of religious literacy when we attempt to parse sacred spaces of any type in the ancient world.
Figure 2: Unrecorded artist, “Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle,” Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle, 1stC BCE-1stC CE, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, NY (CC0).
We should perhaps start at the beginning, as I do in class, and address the Roman love of birds and their connection to the divine from the city’s founding. Birds played a significant part in Roman history ab urbe condita—but students are often surprised to hear that it was vultures (who honestly get a bum rap today) rather than aquilae (eagles) present at Rome’s foundation. Later writers of the city’s origin story recount that around 753 BCE, Remus stood on the Aventine hill and Romulus stood on the Palatine hill, at the future site of the Eternal City. Each brother then looked to the heavens.
Scanning the skies for signs from Jupiter that they should be king, the twins trusted in ornithomancy, just as many other ancient cultures had, going back to at least Bronze Age Mesopotamia (Smith 2013). Remus first saw six vultures, whereas Romulus would then allegedly see twelve (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.86.3-4). Believing himself to have won the contest with his twin, Romulus began to plow a ditch around his new city and to order his workmen to build the first city wall. Most versions note that either Romulus or a construction overseer named Celer then killed Remus as the brother tried to jump over Romulus’ new circumvallation—setting a standard that those who attempted to breach the walls of Rome would not be tolerated.
Myths surrounding Romulus and Remus helped to explain to later Romans about the reasoning behind the formation of the auspices and the purpose for the rules consistently applied by the augurs. Roman religion was often about the ways of the ancestors, but also relied heavily on formulaic replication in word and act. Even the time at which Romulus was spoken to by the gods would be replicated. During the early Augustan period of the late first century BCE, the Greek historian and rhetoric teacher Dionysius of Halicarnassus recounted that Romulus would rise at the break of day, left his tent, and looked for signs from Jupiter that the king of the pantheon approved of Romulus as Rome’s new sovereign. A flash of lightning appeared and went from left to right. This was seen as a positive sign that Jupiter supported Romulus, even if Romans tended to see lightning striking a person or building as a negative that required propitiation. In an augural context from then on, however, the lightning flash on the left was good in the divinatory book of the augurs.
But when to broach the subject of augurs when teaching? I like to do the mapping of the skies early on in the semester, around week 2 or 3, so that the particular and persnickety relationship between gods and man within Roman society becomes undeniable. Through student group reading, listening, and drawing; they work with new classmates and get to know their names while reconstructing this important skill. Addressing the physical reconstruction of traditional Roman religious actions also grounds students in an understanding of the mos maiorum (“ways of the ancestors”) and the ways in which the Gods were believed to have communicated with humans within the confines of traditional Roman religio. Finally, the idea that religion and politics were inextricably linked and could not be separated is a basic tenet for understanding many of the actions, decisions, and institutions at play within the Roman state. Separation of church and state was a foreign concept to Romans. The extensive rules governing religion for Romans are key to understanding, for instance, why Augustus had to wait for Lepidus to die to become Pontifex Maximus (shoring up his full religious and political powerhold) and will come in handy when we later discuss the tenets of the imperial cult and the persecution of Christians.
Before giving them the handout below, I also discuss the other magistracies who held the power of the auspices and thus auspicium (“power to take the auspices”) as holders of imperium and ask them to pay attention to the signs these pontiffs or magistrates looked for. As classicist and ancient religion scholar Jerzy Linderski noted in 2012, there was a strict typology and hierarchy of divine signs for Romans that they looked for when posing yes or no questions. When examining the sky, ex caelo, thunder and lightning are of the signs of highest import as tied to Jupiter, with the left side being the lucky and thus fortunate side, followed by the calls and flight of birds. Rather than me explaining all of the signs and the mapping of the sky in class, I try instead to ask students to do close readings of the primary sources in the handout. We then go outside to take the auspices within their 3-person collegium after formulating their own, secret, yes or no question for the gods.
The goal in the close reading is for students to reconstruct the mental map of the sky used by augurs and apply it to their own questions. Asking students to move medium, from text to visualization, and then sketch out their own mental understanding of a text is a great way to teach close reading methods, encourage collaboration, and underscore the utility of reconstructive archaeology. It also helps them to internalize and remember what they read. As I have discussed prior in regard to teaching ancient geography like the Spartacan rebellion, in doing phalanx reconstructions, and in having students examine late Republican Gaul in Caesar’s Gallic Wars: reenacting the spatial aspects of the Greco-Roman underworld transports students but also emphasizes that cultures organize and experience space in different ways.
Figure 3: Ancient Historians in my HIST 4400: The Roman Empire course look for signs from the gods on the day prior to the first presidential debate while on the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest.
Here is the activity I use, although you can modify it as needed:
HIST 4400: Roman Religion and the Auspices Handout:
Class Directions: Have the class read the passages to themselves for 10-15 minutes. Next ask them to get together with two other partners into a group of 3, just as the original college of augurs had 3 patrician members. Ask each auspicium team to read the passages below aloud to each other again and 2 group members draw what they are hearing as one partner reads it aloud, each filling in a blank circle on the handout below as a sky map. Reconcile the two drawings and discuss why there are differences. After this, go outside and have students use their phone compasses to orient themselves to the South and set down the tabernacle in the center, before having them stand to the south and take the auspices to answer a yes/no question. Laying on their backs, they will then record all birds, signs, bird calls, or possibly strange omens for 15 minutes. Ask them to draw each sign or sound on the celestial map and then to interpret the answer to their question as yes or no.
Helpful Hints: Thunder and lightning are of the highest order of signs and eclipse all others—it means no popular assemblies can be held. But also I wouldn’t suggest doing this class activity in a storm, because, well, that seems ill advised. Also, a major magistrate can overrule a minor one, so please have a major and minor magistrate assigned within each group. Note that time is important: the sign seen first, if of equal weight, is given precedence usually, but not always. Before pronouncing a yes or no from the Gods based on birds, please proceed with the report by saying “aves admittunt” (“the birds allow it”), if certain birds have helped you to determine the outcome. Oscines are birds whose cries are interpreted as messages, like owls, crows, and ravens, so record the quadrant of the cry. But the most important birds are the Alites, of which the vulture and the eagle are the most important and biggest, and thus eclipse the littler cries as a sign trumping sound. Of the Oscines, a woodpecker or crow on the left side is an auspicious sighting, whereas owls or ravens on the left side are inauspicious. Owls and ravens can be luckier if seen in their own preferred quadrant, on the right. Most birds heard or seen from left to right, except these two ominous birds, are seen as favorable signs.
Plutarch, Life of Numa, 7.2: Regarding the Second King of Rome, Numa Pompilius, facing South as the auspices were taken.
[2] Then taking with him the augurs and priests, he ascended the Capitol, which the Romans of that time called the Tarpeian Hill. There the chief of the augurs turned the veiled head of Numa towards the south, while he himself, standing behind him, and laying the right hand on his head, prayed aloud, and turned his eyes in all directions to observe whatever birds or other omens might be sent from the gods. [3] Then an incredible silence fell upon the vast multitude in the forum, who watched in eager suspense for the issue, until at last auspicious birds appeared and approached the scene on the right. Then Numa put on his royal robes and went down from the citadel to the multitude, where he was received with glad cries of welcome as the most pious of men and most beloved of the gods.
Umbrian Tablets of Iguvium, Iguvine Tablet VIa Poultney's translation of the passage:
Este persclo aveis asseriater eneto:
parfa curnace dersua,
peiqu peica merstu.
Poei angla asseriato eest
esso tremnu, serse,
arsferture ehuelto:
"Stiplo asseriaia parfa dersua, curnaco dersua;
peico mersto, peica mersta;
mersta auei, mersta angla esona."
Arfertur eso anstiplatu:
"Ef asserio parfa dersua, curnaco dersua;
peico mersto, peica mersta;
mersta aueif merstaf anglaf esona;
mehe, tote Iioveine,
esmei stahmei stahmeitei."
This ceremony [the adfertor--officiating priest] shall commence by observing the birds:
a parra (perhaps jay, green woodpecker or hoopoe) and crow in the west,
a (black) woodpecker and magpie in the east.
The one who goes out to observe the messengers (or 'signs')
while in the tent, seated,
shall call out to the adfertor:
"Demand that I observe a parra in the west, a crow in the west;
a woodpecker in the east, a magpie in the east;
in the east, birds; in the east,
divine messengers."
The adfertor shall thus demand:
"There observe a parra in the west, a crow in the west;
a woodpecker in the east, a magpie in the east;
in the east, birds; in the east, divine messengers;
for me, for the state of Iguvium,
for this established ordinance."
Varro, On the Latin Language, 7.2.5-9
7.2.5. In this book I shall speak of the words which have been put down by the poets, first those about places, then those which are in places, third those about times, then those which are associated with time-ideas; but in such a way that to them I shall add those which are associated with these, and that if any word lies outside this fourfold division, I shall still include it in the account..
7.2.7. Whatever place the eyes had intuiti ‘gazed on,’ was originally called a templum ‘temple,’ from tueri ‘to gaze’; therefore the sky, where we attuimur ‘gaze at’ it, got the name templum, as in this: Trembled the mighty temple of Jove who thunders in heaven. That is, as Naevius says, Where land’s semicircle lies, Fenced by the azure vault. Of this templec the four quarters are named thus: the left quarter, to the east; the right quarter, to the west; the front quarter, to the south; the back quarter, to the north.
8. On the earth, templum is the name given to a place set aside and limited by certain formulaic words for the purpose of augurya or the taking of the auspices. The words of the ceremony are not the same everywhere; on the Citadel, they are as followsb: Temples and wild lands be mine in this manner, up to where I have named them with my tongue in properfashion. Of whatever kind that truthfulc tree is, which I consider that I have mentioned, temple and wild land be mine tothat point on the left. Of whatever kind that truthful tree is, which I consider that I have mentioned, temple and wild land be mine to that point on the right. Between these points, temples and wild lands be mine for direction, for viewing, and for interpreting, and just as I have felt assured that I have mentioned them in proper fashion.
9. In making this temple, it is evident that the trees are set as boundaries, and that within them the regions are set where the eyes are to view.
Varro. On the Latin Language, Volume I: Books 5-7. Translated by Roland G. Kent. Loeb Classical Library 333. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.
Cicero, De Divinatione, 1.31:
[1.31] What ancient chronicler fails to mention the fact that in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, long after the time of Romulus, a quartering of the heavens was made with this staff by Attus Navius? Because of poverty Attus was a swineherd in his youth. As the story goes, he, having lost one of his hogs, made a vow that if he recovered it he would make an offering to the god [p. 261] of the largest bunch of grapes in his vineyard Accordingly, after he had found the hog, he took his stand, we are told, in the middle of the vineyard, with his face to the south and divided the vineyard into four parts. When the birds had shown three of these parts to be unfavourable, he subdivided the fourth and last part and then found, as we see it recorded, a bunch of grapes of marvellous size.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
Pliny, The Natural History, 18.76-77.
The theory of the winds1 is of a somewhat more intricate nature. After observing the quarter in which the sun rises on any given day, at the sixth2 hour of the day take your position in such a manner as to have the point of the sun's rising on your left; you will then have the south directly facing you, and the north at your back: a line drawn through a field in this direction3 is called the "cardinal"4 line. The observer must then turn round, so as to look upon his shadow, for it will be behind him. Having thus changed his position, so as to bring the point of the sun's rising on that day to the right, and that of his setting to the left, it will be the sixth hour of the day, at the moment when the shadow straight before him is the shortest. Through the middle of this shadow, taken lengthwise, a furrow must be traced in the ground with a hoe, or else a line drawn with ashes, some twenty feet in length, say; in the middle of this line, or, in other words, at the tenth foot in it, a small circle must then be described: to this circle we may give the name of the "umbilicus," or "navel." That point in the line which lies on the side of the head of the shadow will be the point from which the north wind blows. You who are engaged in pruning trees, be it your care that the incisions made in the wood do not face this point; nor should the vine-trees5 or the vines have this aspect, except in the climates of Africa,6 Cyrenæ, or Egypt. When the wind blows, too, from this point, you must never plough, nor, in fact, attempt any other of the operations of which we shall have to make mention.7
That part of the line which lies between the umbilicus and the feet of the shadow will look towards the south, and indicate the point from which the south wind8 blows, to which, as already mentioned,9 the Greeks have given the name of Notus. When the wind comes from this quarter, you, hasbandman, must never fell wood or touch the vine. In Italy this wind is either humid or else of a burning heat, and in Africa it is accompanied with intense heat10 and fine clear weather. In Italy the bearing branches should be trained to face this quarter, but the incisions made in the trees or vines when pruned must never face it. Let those be on their guard against this wind upon the four11 days at the rising of the Vergiliæ, who are engaged in planting the olive, as well as those who are employed in the operations of grafting or inoculating.
It will be as well, too, here to give some advice, in reference to the climate of Italy, as to certain precautions to be observed at certain hours of the day. You, woodman, must never lop the branches in the middle of the day; and you, shepherd, when you see midday approaching in summer, and the shadow gradually decreasing, drive your flocks from out of the sun into some well-shaded spot. When you lead the flocks to pasture in summer, let them face the west before midday,12 and after that time, the east: if this precaution is not adopted, calamitous results will ensue; the same, too, if the flocks are led in winter or spring to pastures covered with dew. Nor must you let them feed with their faces to the north, as already mentioned;13 for the wind will either close their eyes or else make them bleared, and they will (lie of looseness. If you wish to have females,14 you should let the dams have their faces towards the north while being covered.
Please also add in Penn classicist Peter T. Struck’s directions, and his epitome, which is under copyright and thus cannot be reproduced here.
Ideally they will draw something akin to the drawing below. Give them space to draw their own templum in terris (“temple on the earth”) as a reflection of the templum in caelo (“temple in the sky”) for when they go outside:
Abbreviated Bibliography:
Beard, Mary, John North, and S. R. F. Price. Religions of Rome. 1st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Frothingham, A. L. “Ancient Orientation Unveiled: II.” American Journal of Archaeology 21, no. 2 (1917): 187–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/497123.
Gargola, Daniel J. Lands, Laws & Gods : magistrates & ceremony in the regulation of public lands in Republican Rome. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1995. Open Access.
Goldhahn, Joakim. “Bird Divinations in the Ancient World.” In Birds in the Bronze Age: A North European Perspective, 53–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Green, Ashleigh. Birds in Roman Life and Myth. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003247906.
Linderski, J. "auspicium." Oxford Classical Dictionary. 22 Dec. 2015; Accessed 16 Sep. 2024. https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-1001.
Mynott, Jeremy. Birds in the Ancient World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Struck, Peter T. “Augures,” Greek and Roman Mythology Website (2000).