The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

however, also assume that the senate blindly accepted every prodigy. The only way to decide
whether this or the alternative explanation proposed here is closer to historical reality, would be
to measure the accepted prodigies against the rejected. We have two rejected prodigies which
indicate that there was a conscious selection, but that is all we know. It then depends on whether
this is seen as something usual or unusual. Were prodigies often or rarely rejected? The mention
by, Livy noted above, that earthquake prodigies should not be reported, seems to indicate that the
general willingness to report prodigies was great, but the number of accepted prodigies rarely
exceed twenty. That would indicate a large number of rejected prodigy reports. All this is
ofcourse almost pure conjecture. I personally would find it peculiar if the senate accepted any
prodigy, especially since we know that they sometimes called in witnesses and also actively
rejected prodigies.
Another possible objection is that the distance is measured in beeline distance, whereas the
experienced distance through the roads would have been what was important. It would be a
minor thesis of its own just to calculate the distances through the actual roads known and even
that changed with time as new roads were constructed. We are therefore left with this admittedly
rough measure.
In conclusion, what can be gathered from the sources about the acceptance of Roman prodigies
with all the possible imprecissions is consistent with the hypothesis that they were accepted
according to the principle of relevance as stipulated in relevance theory. This interpretation is
simpler than previous explanations that stipulated two principles, for both of which many
exceptions could be found in the sources.
Responsum
Following the acceptance of a prodigy the senate would in most cases not be able to interpret it
itself. They would therefore send it to a priestly college of specialists for an interpretation. These
could be the decemviri, the haruspices or the pontifices. They were expected to produce a
responsum which, as a minimum, included the necessary expiatory rites (procuratio). The first
214