Is it not plain from the astonishment which was at first excited in men’s minds, because they feared the thunder and the hurling of the thunderbolt, that they believed that they were the immediate manifestations brought about by the all-powerful ruler of all things, Jupiter? This is the reason of the enactment in the public registers, that the comitia of the people shall not be held when Jupiter thunders and lightens. It was enacted, perhaps with a view to the interest of the state, for our ancestors wished to have pretexts for not holding the comitia. Therefore, in the case of the comitia, lightning is the only vitiating irregularity. But in all other matters it is a most favourable auspice if it comes on the left hand. But we will speak of the auspices hereafter; at present we will confine ourselves to lightning.
XIX. What can be less proper for natural philosophers to say, than that anything certain is indicated by things which are uncertain? I cannot believe that you are one of those who imagine that there were Cyclopes in mount Aitna who forged Jove’s thunderbolt, for it would be wonderful indeed if Jupiter should so often throw it away when he had but one. Nor would he warn men by his thunderbolts what they should do or what they should avoid.
For the opinion of the Stoics on this point is, that the exhalations of the earth which are cold, when they begin to flow abroad, become winds; and when they form themselves into clouds, and begin to divide and break up their fine particles by repeated and vehement gusts, then thunder and lightning ensue; and that when by the conflict of the clouds the heat is Squeezed out so as to emit itself, then there is lightning. Can we, then, look for any intimation of futurity in a thing which we see brought about by the mere force of nature, without any regularity or any determined periods?
If Jupiter wished that we should form divinations by lightnings, would he throw away so many flashes in vain? for what good does he do when he throws a thunderbolt into the middle of the sea, or upon lofty mountains, which is very common, or upon deserts, or in the countries of those nations among which no meteorological observations are made? Oh! but a head was discovered in the Tyber. As if I affirmed that those soothsayers had no skill! What I deny is only their divination. For the distribution of the firmament, which we have just mentioned, and their various observations, enable them to note the direction from which the lightning has proceeded, and where it falls. But no reason can inform us of its signification. XX. You will, however, urge against me my own verses— The father of the Gods who reigns supreme - On high Olympus, smote his proper fane, And harl'd his lightnings through the heart of Rome. At the same time the statue of Natta and the images of the Gods, and Romulus and Remus, with that of the beast who was nursing them, were struck by the thunderbolt and thrown down; and the answers of the soothsayers, with reference to these prodigies, were found perfectly correct. That also was a surprising thing, that the statue of Jupiter was placed in the Capitol, two years later than it had been contracted for, at the very time that information of the conspiracy was being laid before the senate, Will you, then, (for this is the way you are used to argue with me,) bring yourself to uphold that side of the question in opposition to your own actions and writings? | | You are my brother, and all you say is entitled to my respect. Yet what is there here that offends you? Is it the thing itself, which is of such and such a character, or I myself, who only wish to get at the truth? I therefore say nothing upon it for the sake of contradiction, and only seek from you yourself information respecting all the principles of the art of soothsaying. - But you have involved yourself in an inextricable dilemma; for foreseeing that you would be hard pressed, when I should urge you to explain the cause of every divination, you made many excuses to show why, when you were sure of the fact, you did not inquire into its principles and causes,—that the question was, what was done, and not why it was done; as if I granted that it was done at all, or as if it were not the duty of a philosopher to inquire into the reason why everything takes place. At the same time you quoted my prognostics, and spoke-of the scammony, the aristoloch, and other herbs, whose virtues were evident to you from their effects, though the law of their operation was unknown to you.
ON DIVINATION, 219: XXT. All this is, however, beside the main question. For the Stoic Boethus, whose name you have cited, and even our friend Posidonius have investigated the causes of prognostics,, and though it is not easy to discover the cause of such occult mysteries, yet the facts themselves may be observed and animadverted upon.
But as to the statue of Natta and the tables of the law which were struck by lightning, what observations were made, or what was there ancient connected with the matter? The Pinarii Nattee are noble, therefore danger was to be feared from the nobility. This wasa very cunning device of Jupiter! Romulus, represented by the sculptor as sucking a she-wolf, was likewise smitten by the lightning. Hence, according to you, some danger to the city of Rome was threatened. How cleverly does Jupiter make us acquainted with future events by such signs as these! Again, his statue was being erected at the very same time that the conspiracy was being discovered in the senate, and you conceive this coincidence happened rather by the providence of God than by any chance of fortune. And you think that the statuary ‘who had contracted for the making of that column with Torquatus and Cotta, was not so long delayed in accomplishing his work by idleness or poverty, but by the special interposition of the immorta Gods. # Now I do not absolutely deny that such might possibly be the case; but I do not know that it was, and wish to be istructed by you. For when some things appeared to me to have happened by chance in the way in which the soothsayers had predicted, you launched out into a long discourse on the doctrine of chances, saying that four dice thrown at hazard may produce Venus by accident, but that four hundred dice cannot produce a hundred Venuses. In the first place, | know no reason in the nature of things why they should not do even this; but I will not argue that point, for you have plenty of similar examples, and talk about a chance dashing of colours, the snout of a pig, and many other similar instances. You say that Carneades argued in the same way about the head of a little Pan; as if that might not ~ have happened by chance, and as if there must not be in all marble the raw material of even such a head as Praxiteles would have made. For a perfect head is only formed by cutting away. Praxiteles adds nothing to the marble, but when much that was superfluous is removed, and the features are arrived at, then you learn that that which is now polished up was always contained within.
Such a figure, therefore, may have spontaneously existed in the quarries of Chios. But grant that this is a fiction, have you never fancied that you could discover in the clouds the figures of lions and centaurs? Accident may, therefore, sometimes imitate nature, though you denied that just now.
XXII. But as we have sufficiently discussed divination by entrails and lightning, we must now consider portents and prodigies, in order that we may leave no branch of the system of the soothsayers untouched, You have mentioned a wonderful story of a mule that was delivered. of a colt; a strange event, because of its extreme rarity. But if such a thing were impossible, it would never happen at all; and this may be said against all sorts of prodigies, that those things which are impossible never happened at all; and if they are possible, it need not surprise us that they happen occasionally.
Besides, in extraordinary events, ignorance of their causes produces astonishment; but in ordinary events such ignorance occasions no such result. The man who is astonished if a mule brings forth a colt, does not know how it is that a mare brings forth a foal, or indeed how, in any case, nature effects the birth of a living animal; but he is not surprised at what he sees frequently, even if he does not know why it happens; but if that which he never beheld before happens, then he calls it a prodigy. In this case, is it a prodigy when the mule conceives, or when she brings forth? Perhaps the conception may have been contrary to nature, but after that her delivery is almost necessary.
But we have spoken enough on this topic: let us examine the origin of the establishment of soothsayers. For when Wwe are acquainted with it, we shall be better able to judge © what degree of credit it is entitled to.
XXIII. They tell us that as a labourer one day was ploughing in a field in the territory of Tarquinium, and his ploughshare made a deeper furrow than usual, all of a sudden ~ there sprung out of this same furrow a certain Tages, who, as it is recorded in the books of the Etrurians, possessed the ON DIVINATION, 22} ON DIVINATION, 22} visage of a child, but the prudence of a sage. When the labourer was surprised at seeing him, and in his astonishment made a great outcry, a number of people assembled round him, and before long all the Etrurians came together at the spot. Tages then discoursed in the presence of an immense crowd, who treasured up his words with the greatest care, and afterwards committed them to writing. The information they derived from this Tages was the foundation of the science of the soothsayers, and was subsequently improved by the accession of many new facts, all of which confirmed the same principles. | Here is the story that the Etrurians give out to the world. This record is preserved in their sacred books, and from it their augurial discipline is deduced.
Now do you imagine that we need a Carneades or Epicurus to refute such a fable as this? Lives there any one so absurd as to believe that this (shall I say god, or man?) was thus ploughed up out of the earth? Ifhe was a god, why did he conceal himself under the earth against the order of nature, so as not to behold the light till he was ploughed up? Could not that same god have instructed mankind from a station somewhat more elevated? And if this Tages was a man, how could he have lived thus buried and smothered in the earth? and how could he have learnt the wonders he taught to others?
But Iam even more foolish than those who believe such nonsense, for thus wasting so much time in refuting them.
XXIV. There is an old saying of Cato, familiar enough to everybody, that “he wondered that when one soothsayer met another, he could help laughing.” For of all the events predicted by them, how very few actually happen? And when one of them does take place, where is the proof that it does not take place by mere accident?
When Hannibal fled to king Prusias, and was eager to wage war with the enemy, that monarch replied that he dared not do so, because the entrails of the sacrifice wore an unfavourable aspect. “Would you, then,” said Hannibal, “rather trust a bit of calf’s flesh than a veteran general?” And as to Cesar, when he was warned by the chief sooth-Sayer not to venture into Africa before the winter, did he not cross? If he had not done go, all the forces of the enemy would have assembled in one place, Why need. I enumerate the responses of the soothsayers, of which I could cite an infinite number, which have either received no accomplishment at all, or an accomplishment exactly the reverse of the prediction? In this last Civil War, for instance—good Heavens! how often were their responses utterly falsified by the result! How many false prophecies were sent to us from Rome into Greece! How many oracles in favour of Pompey! For that general was not a little _ affected by entrails and prodigies. I have no wish to recount these things to you, nor indeed is it necessary, for you were present. But you see that nearly all the events took place in the manner exactly contrary to the predictions. So much for responses. Let us now say a word or two on prodigies. — XXV. You have mentioned several things on this topic which I wrote during my consulship. You have brought up many of those anecdotes collected by Sisenna before the Marsian War, and many recorded by Callisthenes before the unfortunate battle of the Spartans at Leuctra, of each of which I will speak separately, as far as seems necessary; but at present we must discuss of prodigies in general.
For what is the meaning of this kind of divination—this dreadful denouncing of impending calamities—derived from the Gods? In the first place, what is the object of the Gods, in giving us prodigies and signs which we cannot understand without interpreters, and in advertising us of disasters which we. cannot avoid? But even honest men do not act thus, giving notice to their friends of impending misfortune which they cannot possibly avoid; and physicians, though they are often aware of the fact, yet never tell their patients that they must needs die of the complaint from which they are suffering. For the prediction of an evil is only beneficial when we can point out some means of avoiding it or mitigating it. _ What good, then, did these prodigies, or their interpreters, do to the Spartans, or more recently to the Romans? If they are to be considered as the signs of the Gods, why were they 80 obscure? For if. they were sent in order that we might understand what was about to happen, then it ought to have been declared intelligibly; and if we were not intended to know, then they should not have been given even obscurely.
XXVI. As for all conjectures on which this kind of divinaiil a ati tion depends, the opinions of men differ so much from each other that they often make very opposite deductions from the same thing. For as in legal suits, the plea of the plaintiff is contrary to that of the defendant, and yet both are within the limits of credibility,—so in all those affairs which only admit of conjectural interpretation, the reasoning must be extremely uncertain. And as for those things which are caused at times by nature, and at others by chance, (sometimes, too, likeness gives rise to mistakes,) it is very foolish to attribute all these things to the interpositions of the Gods, without examining their proximate causes. | You believe that the Beeotian diviners of Lebadia foreknew ‘by the crowing of the cocks that the victory belonged to the Thebans, because these birds only crow when they are victorious, and hold their peace when they are beaten. Did, then, Jupiter give a signal to ‘so important a city by the means of hens? But do cocks only crow when they are victorious? At that time they were crowing, and they had not conquered. You say that this was a prodigy. It would have been a prodigy, and a very great one, if the crowing had pro- ‘ceeded from fishes instead of birds. But what hour is there of day, or of night, when cocks do not crow? and if they are sometimes excited to crow by their joy in victory, they may likewise be excited to do the same by some other kind of joy..
’ Democritus, indeed, states a very good reason why cocks crow before the dawn; for, as the food is then driven out of their stomachs, and distributed over their whole body. and digested, they utter a crowing, being satiated with rest. But in the silence of the night, says Ennius, “ they indulge their throats, which are hoarse with crowing, and:give their wings repose.” As, then, this animal is so much inclined to crow of its own accord, what made it occur to Callisthenes to assert that the Gods had given the cocks a signal to-crow; since either nature or chance might have done it?
XXVIII. It was announced to the senate that it had-rained blood, that the river had become blackened with blood, and that the statues of the immortal gods were covered with sweat. Do you imagine that Thales or Anaxagoras, or any _ other natural philosopher, would have given credence to such news? Blood and sweat only proceed from the animal body; there might have been some discoloration caused by some contagion of earth very like blood, and some moisture may have fallen on the statues from without, resembling perspiration, as we see sometimes in plaster during the prevalence of a south wind; and in time of war such phenomena appear more numerous and more important than usual, as men are then in a state of alarm, while they are not noticed in peace. Besides, in such periods of fear and peril, such stories are more easily believed, and invented with more impunity.
We are, however, so silly and inconsiderate, that if mice, which are always at that work, happen to gnaw anything, we immediately regard it as a prodigy. So because, a little before the Marsian war, the mice gnawed the shields at Lanuvium, the soothsayers declared it to be a most important prodigy; as if it could make any difference whether mice, who day and night are gnawing something, had gnawed bucklers or sieves. For if we are to be guided by such things, 1 ought to tremble for the safety of the commonwealth, because the mice lately enawed Plato's Republic in my library; and if they had eaten the book of Epicurus on Pleasure, I ought to have expected that corn would rise in the market. _ XXVIII. Are we, then, alarmed if at any time any unnatural productions are reported as having proceeded from man or beast? One of which occurrences, to be brief, may be accounted for on one principle. Whatever is born, of whatever kind it may be, must have some cause in nature, so that even though it may be contrary to custom, it cannot possibly be contrary to nature. Investigate, if you can, the natural cause of every novel and extraordinary circumstance:— even if you cannot discover the cause, still you may feel sure that nothing can have taken place without a cause; and, by the principles of nature, drive away that terror which the novelty of the thing may have occasioned you. Then neither earthquakes, nor thunderstorms, nor showers of blood and stones, nor shooting stars, nor glancing torches will alarm you any more.
If you ask Chrysippus to explain the laws hat govern these phenomena, though he is a great defender of divination, he will never tell you that they have happened by chance, but he will give you a natural explanation of all of them. For, as it has been before stated, nothing can happen without a cause, and nothing happens which is impossible; nor, if that has happened which could happen, ought it to be regarded as a prodigy.’ Therefore there are no such things as prodigies. For if we place in the rank of prodigies every rare occurrence, it follows that a wise man is one of the greatest prodigies. For I believe there are fewer instances of wise men in the world, than of mules which have brought forth young.
So this principle concludes that that which cannot take place in the nature of things never does take place; and that that which can take place in the nature of things, is not a prodigy, and therefore there are no prodigies at all. Therefore a diviner and interpreter of prodigies being consulted by a man who informed him, as a great prodigy, that he had discovered in his house a serpent coiled around a bar, answered very discreetly, that there was nothing very wonderful in this, but if he had found the bar coiled around the serpent, this would have been a prodigy indeed. By this reply, he plainly indicated that nothing can be a prodigy which is consistent with the nature of things.
XXIX. Caius Gracchus wrote to Marcus Pomponius, that his father having caught two serpents in his house, sent to consult the soothsayers. Why were two serpents entitled to such an honour more than two lizards or two mice? Because these are every day occurrences, you would reply, while serpents were comparatively rare; as if it signified how often a thing which was possible took place. But I marvel, if the release of the female snake caused the death of Tiberius Gracchus, and that of the male was to be fatal to Cornelia, why he let either of them escape. For he does not record that the soothsayers had told him what would happen if he let neither of the snakes escape. But it seems T. Gracchus died soon after, doubtless of some natural malady which destroyed his constitution, and not because he had saved the life of a viper. ) 7 Not that the infelicity of the haruspices is so great that their predictions are never fulfilled by any chance whatever. And, I must confess, if I could but believe it, I should exceedingly wonder at the story which you have cited from Homer respecting the prediction of Calchas, who, from observing the number of a flock of sparrows, foretold the number of years that would be expended in the siege of Troy. _ DE NAT, ETO, Q Bs Of which conjecture Homer makes Agamemnon! speak thus, if I may repeat you a translation of the passage which I made in a leisure hour:— XXX. Not for their grief the Grecian host I blame; But vanquish’d! baffled! oh, eternal shame! Expect the time to Troy's destruction giv’, And try the faith of Calchas and of heav’n. What pass’d at Aulis, Greece can witness bear, And all who live to breathe this Phrygian air, Beside a fountain’s sacred brink was raised Our verdant altars, and the victims blazed; (‘T'was where the plane-tree spreads its shades around) The altars heaved; and from the crumbling ground A mighty dragon shot, of dire portent; From Jove himself the dreadful sign was sent. Straight to the tree his sanguine spires he roll’d, And curl’d around in many a winding fold. The topmost branch a mother-bird possest; Hight callow infants fill’d the mossy nest; Herself the ninth: the serpent as he hung, Stretch’d his black jaws, and crush’d the crying BORG While hov’ring near, with miserable moan, The drooping mother wail’d her children gone. The mother last, as round the nest she flew, Seized by the beating wing, the monster slew; Nor long survived, to marble turn’d he stands A lasting prodigy on Aulis’ sands. Such was the will of Jove; and hence we dare Trust in his omen and support the war. For while around we gazed with wond'ring eyes, And trembling sought the Pow’rs with sacrifice, Full of his god, the rev’rend Calchas cried: Ye Grecian warriors, lay your fears aside, This wondrous signal Jove himself displays, Of long, long labours, but eternal praise. As many birds as by the snake were slain, So many years the toils of Greece remain; But wait the tenth, for Ilion’s fall decreed, Thus spoke the prophet, thus the fates succeed.
Now is not this a curious mode of augury?—to conjecture by the number of sparrows eaten by a serpent, the number of years expended in the Trojan war. Why years rather than — months or days? And how was it that Calchas selected sparrows, in which there is nothing supernatural, for the signs — of his prophecy? while he is silent about the serpent, which * This is a mistake of Cicero’s, It is Ulysses who speaks. The passage occurs: Lliad ii. 299330.
NCR eee ma ON DIVINATION. ye f was changed, as it is said, into stone (an,event which is impossible). Lastly, what analogy or ‘relation can subsist between the sparrows seen and the years predicted?
As to what you have said respecting the serpent which appeared to Sylla while he was sacrificing, I recollect the whole circumstance; and remember that just as Sylla was about to attack the enemy at Nola, he made a sacrifice, and that at the moment the victim was offered, a serpent issued from beneath the altar, and that the same day a glorious victory was gained, —not owing to the advice of the soothsayers, but to the skill of the general.
XXXI. And prodigies of this kind have nothing miraculous in them; which, when they have taken place, are brought under con] ecture by some particular interpretation, as in the case of the grain of wheat found in the mouth of Midas while an infant, or that of the bees, which are said to have settled on the lips of the infant Plato. ‘Such things are less admirable for themselves than for the conjectures they gave rise to; for they may either not have taken place at the time specified, or have been fulfilled by mere accident.
I likewise suspect the truth of the report which you have related respecting Roscius—namely, that a serpent was found coiled round him when he was in his eradle. But even if it be a fact that a serpent was thus in the cradle, it is not very wonderful, especially in Solonium, where snakes are in the habit of basking before the fire. As to the interpretation which the soothsayers gave of the circumstance, that the child would become most. illustrious and most celebrated, I am astonished that the immortal Gods should have announced such great glory to a comedian, and preserved. such an wear nate silence respecting Scipio Africanus.
You have related several prodigies which hienealil to Flaminius; for instance, that his horse suddenly. fell with him —there i is surely nothing very astonishing in that. Also, that the standard of the first centurion could not easily be pulled out of the earth. Perhaps the standard-bearer was pulling but timidly at the stick which he had fixed in the ground with eonfident resolution. What is the wonder in the horse of Dionysius having escaped out of the river, and in his afterwards having had a swarm of bees cluster on his mane? But because Dionysius happened to ascend the e throne of Syracuse soon after this event, what had happened by chance was regarded as an extraordinary prodigy and prognostic, You go on to say, that at Lacedeemon, the armour in the temple of Hercules rattled. At Thebes the closed gates of the temple of the same God suddenly burst open of their own accord, and the bucklers which had been suspended on the walls fell to the ground. Certainly nothing of this kind could have happened without some motion or impulse; but why need we impute such motion to the Gods rather than call it an accident?
XXXII. At Delphi, you say, that a chaplet of wild herbs suddenly appeared growing on the head of Lysander’s statue. | Do you think then that the chaplet of herbs existed before any seed was ripened? ‘These seeds were probably carried _there by birds, not by human agency, and whatever is on a head may seem to resemble a crown. And as to the circumstance which you add, that about the same time the golden stars of Castor and Pollux, placed in the temple of Delphi, suddenly vanished, and could nowhere be discovered; this seems to me not so much the work of the Gods, as the sacrilege of thieves.
I certainly do wonder at the roguery of the Ape of Dodona being recorded in the Greek histories. For what is less strange than that a most mischievous animal should have upset the urn, and scattered the oracular lots? The historians, however, deny that this prodigy was followed by any disastrous event occurring among the Lacedzemonians.
Now to come to what you have reported respecting the citizen of Veii, who declared to the Senate that if the Lake Albanus overflowed, and ran into the sea, Rome would perish, and that if its course were diverted elsewhere, Veii must fall. Accordingly the water of the Alban lake was subsequently drained away by new channels, not for the safety of the citadel and the city, but solely for the benefit of the suburban district.
A short time afterwards, a voice was heard, warning certain individuals to beware lest Rome should be taken by the Gauls; and upon this they consecrated an altar on the New Road, to Aius the Speaker. What, then, did this Aius the Speaker speak and talk, and derive his name from that circumstance, when no one knew him; and has he been silent ever since he has had an habitation, an altar, and a name? And the same remark will apply to Juno the Admonitress; for what warning has she ever given us, except the one respecting the full sow?
XXXIII. This is enough to say about prodigies. Let me now speak of auspices and of lots—those, I mean, which are thrown at hazard, not those which are announced by vaticination, which we more properly call oracles, and which we shall discuss when we investigate divination of the natural order; and after this we will consider the astrology of the Chaldeans. But first let us consider the question of auspices. It is a very delicate matter for an augur to speak against them. Yes, to a Marsian perhaps, but not toa Roman. For we are not like those who attempt to predict the future by the flight of birds, and the observation of other signs; and yet I believe that Romulus, who founded our city by the auspices, considered the augural science of great utility in foreseeing matters. For antiquity was deceived in many things, which time, custom, and enlarged experience have corrected. And the custom of reverence for, and discipline _and rights of, the augurs, and the authority of the college, are still retained for the sake of their influence on the minds of the common people.
And certainly the consuls P. Claudius and L. Junius deserved severe punishment, who set sail in defiance of the auspices; for they ought to have been obedient to the established religion, and not to have rejected so obstinately the national ceremonials. Justly, therefore, was one of them condemned by the judgment of the people, while the other perished by his own hand. Flaminius, likewise, was not duly submissive to the auspices; and that was the reason, you say, why he was defeated. But, the year afterwards, Paullus was guided by them. Did he the less for that perish with his army in the battle of Carine?
Even allowing the existence of auspices, which I do not, certainly those at present in use, whether by means of birds or celestial signs, are but mere semblances of auspices, and not real ones.
XXXIV. “Quintus Fabius, I pray thee, assist me in the _ auspices.” He answers, “I have heard.” The augurial officer among our forefathers was a skilful and learned man; now they take the first that offers. For a man must needs be skilful and learned who understands the meaning of silence. For in auspices we call that silence which is free from all irregularity. To understand this, belongs to a perfect augur. It sometimes happens, however, that when he who wishes to consult the auspices has said to the augur whom he has chosen to assist him, “ Say, if silence is observed,” the augur, without looking above or around him, answers immediately, “Silence appears to be observed.” On this the consulter rejoins, “Tell me whether the chickens are eating.” The augur replies, “'They are eating.” But when the consulter fur~ ther demands, “ What kind of fowls are they, and whence do they come?” the augur answers, “The chickens were brought in a cage by a person who is termed a poulterer.”
Such, then, are the illustrious birds whom we call, forsooth, the messengers of Jupiter; and whether they eat or not, what does it signify? Certainly nothing to the auspices. But: since, if they eat at all, some portion of food must inevitably fall on the ground and strike (pavire) the earth, this was at first called terrupaviwm, then terripudium, and is now called tripudium. When, therefore, the chicken lets fall from its beak a particle of its food, the augur declares that the tripudiwm. solistimum is consummated. | - XXXV. What true divination can there be in an auspice of this nature, so artificially forced and tortured? which, we have a proof, was not used among the most ancient augurs; for we have an ancient decree of the college of augurs, that: any bird may make the tripudium. So that, then, there would be an auspice if the bird was free to show itself and the bird might appear to be the messenger and interpreter of Jupiter. But when a miserable bird is kept in a cage, and ready to die of hunger,—if such an one, when pecking up its food, happens to let some particle fall, can you think this an auspice, or do you believe that Romulus consulted the gods in this manner?
Do you imagine that those who pretend to augury apply themselves at the present day to discern the signs of heaven?' No; they give their orders to the poulterer. He makes his report.
It has been reckoned an excellent auspice on all occasions, ' ON DIVINATION. 931.
among the Romans, when it thunders on the left hand, excent in reference to the Comitia; and this exception was doubtless contrived for the benefit of the commonwealth, in order that the chiefs of the state might be the interpreters of the Comitia in whatever concerns the judgments of the people, the rights of the laws, and the creation of the magistrates. “ But, > you argue, “in consequence of the letters of Tiberius Gracchus, Scipio Nasica and Caius Martius Figulus resigned the consulship, because the augurs determined that they had been irregularly created.” Well, who denies that. there is a school of Augurs¢? What I deny is, that there is any such thing as divination.
“But the soothsayers are diviners; and after Tiberius Gracchus had introduced them into the senate, on account of the sudden death of the individual whose office it was to report the order of the elections, they said that the Comitia had not been legally constituted.”