The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

formed a half-circle going from the South to the North. Possibly the field may have been
further sub-divided into a lower and higher part by the limit of the city wall, the pomerium
(Valeton 1890: 246-248). The augur then put the lituus in his left hand and his right hand on
the head of the inaugurandus. He asked if Jupiter approved of the inaugurandus, in which
case he should send positive signs within the formerly delimited area. Some birds gave
positive or negative signs depending on which side of the field of vision they appeared on.
For example a picus (woodpecker) and cornix (crow) in the left field were good or
“admitting” birds and likewise a corvus (raven) and parra (screech-owl) in the right
(Pl.As.259-261; Cic.Div.1.12). The cries of birds, like that of the owls called bubo and
noctua were always bad signs. When a positive sign had been observed the inaugurandus
was declared a specific kind of priest, he was to be, and stepped down.
Ritualization The ritualization is established through the action of asking a question and
then marking a field in the air in which birds are observed. Depending on their position and
kind, they give an answer to the question. No one is controlling the birds to give the answers
and the birds themselves do not speak or qualify as intentional agents. This produces a
deficiency in the intentional structure of the action. It is repaired through the context in which
the birds are taken as answers from a hidden agent: Jupiter.
Direct prestige Since only the augurs could perform the inauguratio, it is relatively easy to
asses the prestige of the operator. The augural college was the second most prestigious
priesthood. The known members of the college also held the highest political offices
(Szemler 1978: 2326; Szemler 1972: 184-186). Another interesting observation is that augurs
could not have any physical abnormalities. This was one of the empirical markers of
prestigious individuals that we found above. Further they are male and comparatively old,
which are other markers of prestige. The same is the case for all public priesthoods (Beard
1990).
Indirect prestige The associated counterintuitive agent is Iupiter Optimus Maximus
(Cic.Phil.13.12; Leg.2.20). 122 This can be seen explicitly in the text by Livy treated above,
where the augur addresses Jupiter directly (Liv.1.18.9), and from the fact that the augurs are
122 For sources and discussion see (Catalano 1960: 155; Linderski 1986: 2226f; Mommsen 1952: I, 77, n.2;
Wissowa 1912: 119).
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