The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

with *-eu appears in two forms. One is deus, from ind. *dyewo-. This root also develops into
the Latin word for day: diem (akk.). Consequently the root is not from the beginning limited
to the meaning god or divine. It also designates brilliance, day and sky. I therefore propose
that the derivation of divinare from divinus happened at a time when the adjective divinus
still denoted something like “clear” and was not fixed on the meaning “divine”. This verbal
derivation could then have meant something like “to make clear” since it is a verbal
derivation of a stem that designates brilliance, light or day.
Considering the use of this verb before Cicero where we do not find any explicit connection
with gods, it would be a meaningful derivation. It could explain the mysterious use in the
criminal process. The etymology would still accommodate the use by Cicero since he merely
adds the gods in the process of making clear what is hidden to normal human perception. We
can thus conclude that the core meaning of the Latin term divinare before Cicero probably
was “to make clear” (what is hidden to normal human perception).
Cicero’s De divinatione
The De divinatione is part of Cicero’s philosophical work 2 . At the time of its completion
Cicero was himself an Augur, which was one of the highest public Roman priesthoods
(Szemler 1972). Augurs’ field of expertise was the observation and interpretation of signs
from the gods. Cicero was thus in a sense a diviner himself. The De divinatione is part of
Cicero’s philosophical work. He was very inspired by Greek philosophy and in general tried
to adapt it to the Roman context. This clash between the philosophical influence from Greece
and traditional Roman state religion runs as a basic undercurrent in the work.
The setting is staged as a dialogue between Cicero himself (Marcus) and his brother
Quintus. Quintus is expounding the stoic arguments and Marcus the skeptical (Schofield
1986). The dialogue form was a form taken from Greek philosophy. The basic problem of the
work is whether or not knowledge of the future is possible (Cic.Div.1.1.). Divination is
defined as prasensio et scientia rerum futurarum (Cic.Div.1.1.): prediction and knowledge of
future things. Quintus defends this assertion from a stoic angle in the first book, whereas
Marcus attacks it from a skeptical angle in the second book. The stoic view ties it to the
2 Unfortunately I have not been able to utilize the doctoral thesis by Francois Guillaumon, Le De
divinatione de Cicéron et les theories antiques de la divination, published in 2006, since it has
only come in to my possession after the writing of the thesis. A quick glance through the book
does not, however, seem to prompt a significant revision of the views on Cicero and the De
divinatione expressed in this dissertation.
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