The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

The word vates can probably be traced to Celtic (Walde & Hofman 1954: II, 737). It may
therefore be that vates were Celtic diviners. Celtic diviners were, however, not specialized in
ecstatic divination, but instead in the flight of birds and extispicy. 181 Livy may sometimes be
alluding to such Celtic vates (Liv.2.42.10). Almost nothing is known of them and ecstatic
divination in general is absent in Roman republican times (Bouché-Leclercq 1879: 119). In
general the word is used in a very loose way and virtually all descriptions are poetic or
mythological fictions. It is therefore difficult to see exactly what sort of diviner was the
historical basis of the term vates.
Astrology
Whereas astrology as a form of divination can be traced back to the Mesopotamian cultures
of the 3 rd millennium BCE, the form with the zodiac and the astrological chart, which gained
great influence in the Roman Empire, was established through Greek influence in the 5 th
century BCE (Von Stuckrad 2005). It would thus be very likely that we could find astrology
in the Roman Republic already very early. Before the end of the republic, however, we have
only two mentions of astrology. They concern the 2 nd century BCE. The first concerns an
expulsion of astrologers from Rome (V.Max.1.3.3). The second concerns Cato’s order to his
vilicus (estate manager) not to consult astrologers among others (Cato.Agr.1.5.4). Astrology
was actively eliminated in the middle republican period, and was probably used by the lower
classes to judge from the Cato reference. The next we hear of astrology is in 86 BCE where
the consul Octavius was killed and an astrological diagram was found on him (Plut.Mar.42.4-
5). We also hear that astrologers were used by Sulla (Plut.Sull.37.1) and Caesar
(Cic.Div.2.99), and that the Etruscan friend of Cicero’s, Nigidius Figulus, should have been
an expert on the stars (Luc.1.639-672). 182 Thus, at the end of the republic it seems that
astrology was rapidly gaining momentum and peaked during the principate (Barton 1994;
Von Stuckrad 2005). It was used exclusively for private purposes.
181 Strabo speaks of ουατειζ among the Gauls. They are described as ι(εροποιοι και φυσιολογοι
(Strabo.4.4.4). We would expect μαντειϕ if they were diviners, not ι(εροποιο. But that the Gauls had a
special class of diviners is confirmed by Diodorus Siculus (Diod.5.31.3). They, however, used the flight of
birds and slaughter of animals to predict the future.
182 Plutarch may very well project something common in his era into the past for dramatic purposes as Barton
suggests (Barton 1994: 191, n.41). Lucan’s testimony is a dramatization that appears in a tour de force of
divination forms that show all the bad signs that portend the demise of the republic. We are therefore left with
the testimony of Cicero as the only solid one. It does seem probable, though, as Barton suggests, that at the
time of Cicero Etruscan haruspices were inspired by astrology and tried to incorporate it into their art, which
already operated with a division of the sky, although they had 16 regions and not 12 houses (Thulin 1906a:
15-22). For further evidence of this see (Barton 1994: 39).
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