The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

public use of extispicy are performed in connection with public sacrifices such as the
sacrifice on entering office.
The necessity to merely repeat the sacrifice, if a bad sign was obtained, indicates a low
credibility value. If we compare with the auspicium, it can be seen to be less important in
practice. No consuls abdicated because of a bad sign from extispicy and no armies were
lost. 168 If one type of divination approaches a formality, this would be the one.
History Livy tells us that haruspices were employed according to legend already in the time
of the Etruscan kings in Rome (Liv.5.21.8). This is not surprising since the haruspices were
central in Etruscan culture. The first time we hear of them in the Roman republic is when
they were employed by Decius in 340 BCE (Liv.8.9.1), and we hear of them later in 275
(Plin Nat.11.186), 215 (Liv.23.36.10), 212 (Liv.25.16.3), 209 (Liv.27.26.14) and 208
(Plin.11.186). It is difficult to trace the historical origin beyond this. Some have tried to trace
it through Etruscan extispicy to the Babylonians, but extispicy is so common that all peoples
in the Mediterranean seem to have had one form or another (Blecher 1905; Thulin 1906b).
This is a point also noticed by Cicero (Cic.Div.1.16). There were naturally differences and
there does seem to exist some differences between the Etruscan and the Roman (Pfiffig 1975:
120; Thulin 1912: 2449). These divergences may reflect either adaptation to the Roman
context, a separate history or a common source. Either way the differences suggest a long
period of divergence from the Etruscan form, which is the closest. I think it is possible that
the Romans adopted extispicy in the time of Etruscan domination, and then adapted it to their
own purposes. That would explain why public extispicy conforms to the same rules as
auspices, that is, a yes or no answer.
Cultural model In 176 the consuls Cn. Cornelius Scipio Hispalus and Q. Petilius Spurinus
were elected consuls. On the day of entering office they were both sacrificing an ox, but in
Petilius’ ox the liver did not have a head (Liv.41.14.7) and subsequently Scipios’ liver
disappeared from the boiling pot (Liv.41.15.2). They were ordered to keep sacrificing until
litatio was obtained. In the end they obtained litatio, but Petilius did not obtain litatio from
Salus (health) (Liv.41.15.4). Eventually Petilius died in war against the Ligurians (Liv.
168 At least not based on this alone. There are, though, reports of consuls dying on duty after not obtaining
litatio (e.g. Liv.41.15-18), but loss of entire armies are not attributed to bad prognostications from extispicy.
In practice the inforrmations was merely used to determine whether extra sacrifices had to be made.
169