The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

example of a rich and open practice is the private extispicy operated by Etruscan diviners.
We have examples of them giving detailed predictions about future occurrences.
Cultural model - reflective representation of divination
In virtually all instances we explicitly read about a communication with a counterintuitive
agent: that the birds were messengers of Jupiter in the auspices, that the entrails speak on
behalf of gods or that the gods respond through the lots. In some practices, as in the case of
public sortition, the involvement of the counterintuitive agent is often not explicit.
Concerning astrology and the auspicium peremne we hear nothing, but that is probably more
due to the fact that the sources are severely limited.
In all instances where it is possible to test, we find a reflective conceptualization of
divination as a communication with a counterintuitive agent in Roman divination. For every
practice, apart from the two most obscure (auspicium peremne, and astrology) it has been
possible to determine which god is answering. Thus the answer is seen explicitly as coming
from a counterintuitive agent.
Often, as in the case of private sortition or the auspicium ex tripudio, a cultural model is
found, resembling the one we will see for oblative divination in the next chapter. The fact
that omens and divination are conceptualized by reference to a similar cultural model
indicates a mutual reinforcement that may also have stimulated the dissemination of
divination in general. Table 9.2. Shows a summary of the different factors considered for
each of the different practices.
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