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Though auspices were prevalent before the Romans, Romans are often linked with auspices because of their connection to Rome's foundation and because Romans established rules for the reading of auspices that helped keep it an essential part of Roman culture.
The augural ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society – public or private – including matters of war, commerce, and religion. Augurs sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Rome's pax, fortuna, and salus (peace, good fortune, and well-being). [2]
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".
Auspicious is a word derived from Latin originally pertaining to the taking of 'auspices' by an augur of ancient Rome. It may refer to: Luck, the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable positive or negative events; Auspicious Incident, the forced disbandment of the Janissary corps by Ottoman sultan Mahmud II
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" ().
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]
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.
Within the auguraculum, the elected monarch, during the Roman Kingdom, was seated by the augurs with his face to the south. [4] A magistrate who was serving as a military commander also took daily auspices, and thus a part of camp-building while on campaign was the creation of a tabernaculum augurale. This augural tent was the center of ...