The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

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Introduction At the climax of the play Casina by the Roman playwright Plautus, there is a scene, where the two slaves Olympio and Chalinus have to reach a decision on which of them gets to marry the beautiful Casina. Today one might expect that the female part be heard in such a case, but Roman times were different, so they choose to decide it like real men: by drawing lots! But that is not all; when Olympio eventually wins the draw, he thanks the gods for the decision. This makes, what was already a strange situation, even more puzzling to the modern reader, since we just heard that the decision was made by the use of a random draw of lots. This is not an isolated funny story from an obscure playwright. Quite the contrary; Plautus was very popular in his time and following centuries and his plays were attended by everyone from the lowest to the highest classes. The scene points to something very central about the ancient Romans, namely that divination pervaded their culture from top to bottom. The basic question of this thesis follows from this example “why did divination pervade Roman culture through centuries?” I will argue that in order to answer this question a general theoretical model of divination must first be constructed. This will be done by investigating the cognitive basis of divination. The thesis will therefore fall in two parts of more or less equal size, one theoretical the other empirical. Consequently the dissertation combines two scholarly fields that are polar opposites: history and cognitive science. It is difficult to think of any two disciplines that differ more. Whereas cognitive science is interested in phenomena that are synchronic, isolated and general, history is interested in diachronic, composite and particular phenomena. So before we can even start, it is necessary with a two front apology for the project. The objections are probably innumerable, but in order to pre-empt the most obvious ones, I have compiled a small list of “Frequently Posed Objections” that I have encountered. First we will consider typical objections by historians then by cognitive scientists. “We cannot access the minds of historical persons”. That is obviously true, but that does not mean that the minds of historical people were not important to them. Their actions were formed by their mind just as contemporary people. It does not, therefore, follow that we should not care about minds at all. “Knowledge of modern minds will not help us in understanding historical minds”. This objection assumes a fundamental difference between the mind of modern and historical 8
people. It is almost unanimously agreed that no significant mutations have occurred in the human brain since around 100.000 years ago (Mithen 1996; Tremlin 2006: 24). If there is any difference between the minds of historical and modern people it cannot be attributed to any biological difference in the brain. This leads to two other options: a) the mind is not constrained by the brain. This is a dualist assumption implying a fundamental difference between spirit and matter. As this is not consistent with the assumptions of modern science, it is not an appropriate solution. b) A weaker version of this admits that the brain to some degree in principle is important. In practice, though, it is the local culture and socialization which determines the mind of a person. This is a version of the nurture view in the nature/nurture debate of the human mind. This view assumes that the mind is a blank slate just waiting to be filled out. Compelling arguments against this assumption has been made by cognitive scientists and anthropologists alike (cf. Brown 1991; Pinker 2002). This is not to say that culture is not important, just that the human mind of modern and historical people are sufficiently similar in general cognitive function to warrant a meaningful comparison. To put it differently, historical minds are not more different than those of other cultures in our contemporary world. We could therefore also ask: if the psychic chasm is so great that the minds of modern people are not in principle as those of historical people, then how is it possible at all to say something about historical people’s actions, motivations or thoughts? “We cannot understand historical particulars by the aid of the universal”. It actually may be the other way around: we cannot understand anything particular without the general. Just as Wittgenstein showed there can be no private language (Wittgenstein & Anscombe 2003), there cannot be any “private history” consisting only of particulars. Just using language is making use of the general (Jensen 2003: 141). In this sense, the general is a precondition for understanding the particular historical. Maybe some would feel that there is a difference between the general and the universal. Let us therefore look at an example of how the universal aids our understanding of the particular. Imagine a geologist who wishes to understand the magnitude and character of a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. In order to understand this particular historical eruption, he will make use of the universal laws of chemistry and physics. There is therefore no reason to assume prima facie that universal characteristics of the human mind will not help us understand historical particulars. “Theories will not help in history. It merely distorts the sources”. This is a typical objection in ancient history (Morley 2004: 1). It is, however, built on a number of controversial 9
Page 1 and 2: The Dissemination of Divination in
Page 3 and 4: Chapter 8 - Sources to Roman Divina
Page 5 and 6: List of Figures Figure 3.1. Types o
Page 7: Acknowledgements Certain parts of t
Page 11 and 12: that precludes the investigation fr
Page 13 and 14: asic cognitive functions could acco
Page 15 and 16: Lienard & Feeney 2006), prayer (Bar
Page 17 and 18: “the making clear of something”
Page 19 and 20: In chapter 5 it is argued that obla
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 1 - History of divination a
Page 23 and 24: with *-eu appears in two forms. One
Page 25 and 26: involving the Korinthian Polyidos.
Page 27 and 28: The 15 th edition of the Encyclopae
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 2 - A History of Modern Div
Page 31 and 32: and games of chance a secondary dev
Page 33 and 34: causes. This is also the case conce
Page 35 and 36: Evans-Pritchard also uses a lot of
Page 37 and 38: through casting the decision “upo
Page 39 and 40: transformed and new relations are g
Page 41 and 42: Somewhat between the great currents
Page 43 and 44: efutations. With this article Zeitl
Page 45 and 46: the function of divination. Special
Page 47 and 48: Chapter 3 - Definition and typology
Page 49 and 50: means signs obtained from the gods
Page 51 and 52: producer. In this case we see that
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 4 - Impetrative Divination
Page 55 and 56: ontogenetic histories. Some feeling
Page 57 and 58: direct people in their life. It can
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or potential misfortune or lack of
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Before making blood-brotherhood Bef
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It was argued that emotion was cent
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Figure 4.2. Intentional action It i
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Figure 4.4. Ritualized action in di
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was the counterintuitive agent who
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education. 43 These problems requir
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Credibility 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 1,5 1
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Clairvoyant, and Astrologist. There
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Materials A booklet similar to the
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Summary The thesis of this chapter
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present existence, as the slogan go
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Let us presently consider how hyper
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1963). Michotte had subjects watch
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another that they were playing agai
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monkeys. There is evidence that in
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Sperber and Wilson programmatically
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humans communicate by producing sig
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Let us consider some examples of th
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Henrich and Gil-White supply precis
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communicator (T.S. Elliot) or a mil
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professors are not routinely attrib
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thought it most likely the main cha
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Chapter 5 - Oblative divination 82
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her life”. 85 In the example the
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in the city. To most modern people
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answer. In oblative divination the
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Figure 6.1. brings together the obs
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questions on how much disease there
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While many good and detailed models
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Unexpected event Figure 6.3. Web of
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Chapter 7 - Research history on Rom
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assumption is that divination, espe
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It can be seen that Latte's as well
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oth shared the same attitude toward
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vastly different views on what legi
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& Scheid 1994; Linder & Scheid 1993
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the observation. If the fear thesis
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Based on the evidence available to
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linear regression analysis was made
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criticism of it. His antiquarian cu
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Post-republican writers Verrius Fla
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M. Servius Honoratus Marius Servius
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The only full description we have o
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called interpretes Iovi, interprete
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All places where auspices should be
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anyhow. There is therefore no reaso
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The credibility value of the greate
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according to Cicero, the point is t
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Utility and Credibility value The a
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History Since it is mentioned in th
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Technique Let us consider public so
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Private sortition Private sortition
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shuffled the lots and drew one 149
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Extispicy is a form of divination w
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public use of extispicy are perform
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(North 1990). In Etruria these indi
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Sibylline books The Sibylline Books
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The word vates can probably be trac
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counterintuitive agent. In all the
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Howevere, there are practices in wh
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Technique Descriptives Credibility
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History Let us see how these observ
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Summary To summarize the conclusion
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as specified in equation 3, but it
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Dissemination Private sortition Pub
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“may the gods avert (bad) omens
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excelled every race and every natio
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calf ran away and spattered many of
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the cultural model of omens, identi
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very widespread 196 and along with
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Although there is great imprecision
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1,2 1 0,4 0,2 0 Omen words in Greek
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e distinguished: nuntiatio, relatio
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ating whether a prodigy involved a
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Year BCE 218-190 189-162 160-132 13
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distinction between public and priv
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140,00 120,00 100,00 80,00 60,00 40
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two seem to have been used in the c
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8) Sacrificia vetusta occultaque mi
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The actual interpretations we hear
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this type among the prodigia, where
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consideration here the cultural mod
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encounter of people using it to a g
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action. It was argued that these re
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investigate the dissemination of di
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practices that did not survive were
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divination. At the same time the op
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Appendix 1 The Kurabi among the Mwa
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Appendix 2 The Guzul In Central Aus
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Appendix 4 Roman Words Omen Prodigi
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Theocritus 21261 1.88 1.88 0 0 0.32
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Moon fell down Capua Goats got wool
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Note: *this is possibly not a separ
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Temple of Ceres struck by lightning
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Sheep with two heads born Suessa Pi
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12 year old hermaphrodite discovere
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Cows were talking Campania Bronze c
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*This prodigy may be the same as th
Page 257 and 258:
156 Storm destroys sacred places on
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* Since the Graecostasis was right
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An owl was seen on the Capitol Roma
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* Rasmussen counts as two (Rasmusse
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Sun formed a disc like a shield at
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Two calfs were found in the entrail
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Fire in the sky Note: While this pr
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Tornado ripped of roofs Bridge coll
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Doors to the temple of Fortuna open
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Appendix 6 Examples of counterintui
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Bibliography Primary Sources 220 La
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Secondary sources Abbink, J. 1993:
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Bering, J. M. and Johnson, D. P. 20
Page 283 and 284:
Callaway, H. 1970: The Religious Sy
Page 285 and 286:
Dumezil, G. 1970: Archaic Roman Rel
Page 287 and 288:
Guillaumont, F. 1984: Philosophe et
Page 289 and 290:
Koenig, M. A., Clement, F., and Har
Page 291 and 292:
Luterbacher, F. 1967: Der Prodigien
Page 293 and 294:
Patton, L. L. 2000: "The Magic in M
Page 295 and 296:
Schilling, R. 1979: "A propos des "
Page 297 and 298:
Taylor, L. R. 1949: Party Politics
Page 299 and 300:
Woodward, J. 2000: "Explanation and
Page 301 and 302:
Oprindeligt blev divination forklar
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menneskelig perception eller ræson
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I kapitel 6 sammenlignes observatio
Page 307 and 308:
Den sidste ligning udtrykker, at sa
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The dissemination of divination in roman republican times

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