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The use of the word is usually associated with Latins as well as the earliest Roman citizens. Though some modern historians link the act of observing Auspices to the Etruscans, Cicero accounts in his text De Divinatione several differences between the auspicial of the Romans and the Etruscan system of interpreting the will of the gods.
This practice was known as "taking the auspices". As circumstance did not always favour the convenient appearance of wild birds or weather phenomena, domesticated chickens kept for the purpose were sometimes released into the templum, where their behaviour, particularly how they fed, could be studied by the augur. [1]
Only magistrates were in possession of the auspicia publica, with the right and duty to take the auspices pertaining to the Roman state. [40] Favorable auspices marked a time or location as auspicious, and were required for important ceremonies or events, including elections, military campaigns and pitched battles.
Since Roman augurs predominantly looked at birds for omens, they were also called auspex ("bird watcher", plural auspices), however they also interpreted thunder, lightning, the behavior of certain animals, and strange events. The phrase "under the auspices" is derived from this need for a favourable reading of the omens by the augurs. [10] [11]
In ancient Roman religion and law, the auspicia maxima (also maxima auspicia) were the "greatest auspices," conferred on senior magistrates who held imperium: "auspicium and imperium were the twin pillars of the magistrate's power" ().
The Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the disciplina Etrusca. The Latin terms haruspex and haruspicina are from an archaic word, hīra = "entrails, intestines" (cognate with hernia = "protruding viscera" and hira = "empty gut"; PIE *ǵʰer-) and from the root spec-= "to watch, observe".
Nevertheless, even in the late Republic it was still believed that the auspices ultimately resided with patrician magistrates, and certain ancient priesthoods: the Dialis, Martialis and Quirinalis flamines, and the college of the Salii were never opened to the plebeians. [5] The number of members in the College of Pontiffs grew over time.
There was a belief that patricians communicated better with the Roman gods, so they alone could perform the sacred rites and take the auspices. Additionally, not only were the patricians of higher status in political offices but they also had the best land in ancient Rome. [10]