The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

in the city. To most modern people they might be slightly irregular occurrences but not quite
bizarre. However, a wolf seen in the city was to the ancient Romans a highly bizarre feature,
as this animal was part of a group of animals which were seen as the antithesis of
civilization. 87 The Romans did not have a theory that animals in general couldn’t be in the
city, lots were indeed, but this specific animal was incompatible with city life; there was a
kind-level expectation that this kind lives in and roams the countryside, not the city. This is
not an expectation for the entire category of animals.
Recent research has nuanced the picture somewhat (Alles 2006; Atran & Norenzayan 2004;
Norenzayan et al. 2006a), but it seems clear that for concepts that are minimally
counterintuitive concepts presented with a context, such as a narrative or event, are the most
attention demanding (Gonze et al. 2006: 544). It therefore seems safe to say that
counterintuitiveness and bizarreness is a good index of how attention demanding some
occurrence is.
All forms of omens are interpreted as intentional signs from counterintuitive agents. The
identification depends on two primary factors: a wide dissemination of a cultural model
which functions like priming in heightening the population’s general sensitivity to the
communicative potential of salient events. Events become salient in one of three ways: either
by the context of the current concern of a person, by the recognition of an event as one from a
pre-existing catalogue of omens, or by the event being unexpected or attention demanding in
itself. The basic motivation and the interpretation is the same as in impetrative divination.
87 Wolves are the most prominent non domesticated animal and predator, featured in the mythology of
Rome’s origins (e.g. Ovid´s Fasti (Ov.Fast.2. 267-452); (cf. Wiseman 1995) for myths surrounding the
origins of Rome). The “anti-civilizedness” can also be seen in the character of the celebration Lupercalia (the
wolfish celebration) on February 15. Here half naked young boys ran around wildly and hit bystanders with a
thong inside the sacred perimeters of Rome (cf. Scullard 1981: 76).
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