The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

Direct prestige It is not stated who the operators of the sortition for offices were. A guess
would be either the elected officials or the presiding magistrate. This indicates a high level of
social status. Concerning the selection of vestal virgins, the operator was the pontifex
maximus, who was the most prestigious priest in the Roman republic.
Indirect prestige The counterintuitive agent for the selection of tasks for the newly elected
officials was putatively Iuppiter Optimus Maximus since his temple was opened and the
sortition apparel was stored there. He was the highest god in Rome. In other cases the identity
of the counterintuitive agent it is not explicitly stated.
Utility and Credibility value Sortition can determine either a sequence or determine which
of two or more alternatives is to be decided. Examples are: Allocation of duties to consuls,
praetors, quaestors and military tribunes (cf. Stewart 1998), determination of sequence of
voting in election (Stewart 1998: 105-110) or of command among equal magistrates
(Ehrenberg 1896), decision in cases of equal amount of votes 142 , sometimes appointment of
legates in late republic 143 , appointment of judges in the judicial process 144 , appointment of
Vestal virgins. 145 The credibility value is indirectly high, since, for example, the duties of the
consuls had great consequence for the Roman republic.
History It probably came into use in the early republic in the shift from autocratic to
democratic rule. That would probably place it in the 6 th century where the expulsion of the
kings and adoption of dual magistracy suddenly created the need for a way to decide the
competences between equal magistrates (Cornell 1995: 226). The technique seems especially
adapted to situations where a choice between two or more equal alternatives has to be made,
and there is no superior authority to make it. The technique seems to have fallen into disuse
again at the highest level with the reintroduction of autocratic rule in the principate.
Cultural model There are some indications that the allotment of provinces to magistrates
was conceptualized as a decision made by Jupiter (cf. Stewart 1998).
142 Cf. Cic.Planc.53, CIL.2.1964, but this was probably only in the late republic (Ehrenberg 1896: 1495).
143 According to Tacitus this was an old tradition Tac.Hist.4.8.
144 Probably not regularly until the time of Augustus Suet.Aug.29.1 (Ehrenberg 1896: 1495)
145 For the procedure see Gel.1.12.11
162