The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

Year BCE
218-190 189-162 160-132 131-103 102-74 73-44 Total
Years with most CI 16 12 8 9 9 2 56
Years with most BIZ 9 5 2 6 3 2 27
Years with equal 2 2 3 1 4 1 13
N(reporting years) 27 19 13 16 16 5 96
Table 10.3 Amount of counterintuitive and bizarre prodigies per reporting
year.
It therefore seems safe to conclude that the more attention demanding the occurrence the more
probable was it that it would be identified as a prodigy. Prodigies are thus a type of sign that in
itself is attention demanding and thus achieves salience as an omen.
Relatio
The new consuls seem to have related the reported prodigies to the senate (Liv.22.1.14;
Cic.Har.62). This is one of the obligatory actions the newly elected consuls had to carry out
when they entered office. In Livy (Liv.22.1.14) we hear of an interrogation by the senate of the
persons who reported the prodigy, but this was hardly the usual procedure.
Susceptio
Susceptio means acceptance of a report as a prodigy. The principles behind acceptance or
rejection has been the focus of much previous research (Krauss 1933; Latte 1960; Luterbacher
1967; MacBain 1982; Rasmussen 2003; Rawson 1991a; Rosenberger 1998; Warde-Fowler 1971;
Wülker 1903). Unfortunately it is one of the most obscure parts of the process. Except for two
examples we only have evidence of the prodigies that were accepted. We are therefore left to
guess what principles lay behind the acceptance procedure.
The key evidence is two prodigies that were not accepted. The passage runs as follows: “Two
portents were not treated as public matters, the one because it took place in a privately owned
spot: “Titus Marcius Figulus reported that a palm had sprung up in his catch-basin”. The other
because it had occurred in a non-Roman place: “at Fregellae, in the house of Lucius Atreus, a
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