Augur
An augur was a Roman priest responsible for taking and interpreting the auspices: ritual signs through which the gods' approval of public action was sought. Augurs did not simply predict a private future. Their expertise concerned the correct observation and interpretation of signs before assemblies, elections, military operations and other acts of state.
The best-known signs involved the flight or calls of birds, but Roman auspices also included thunder, lightning and the behaviour of sacred chickens. An augur marked out a ritual field of observation with the curved staff called a lituus. The priestly college guarded augural law and could rule that a public procedure had been conducted under defective auspices.
Roman altar with the image of the Augur (63 BC-14 AD)
Roman altar with the image of the Augur (63 BC-14 AD)
Image of lituus and kapis on the denarius Kv. Caecilia Metella Pius,81 BCHistory
Roman tradition traced augury to the city's kings and presented Romulus and Numa as founders of its religious institutions. In the Republic, the college of augurs was one of the major priestly colleges. The Lex Ogulnia of 300 BCE opened augural and pontifical places to plebeians, ending exclusive patrician control.
Membership and the method of appointment changed during the late Republic as co-option, popular election and political intervention competed with one another. Leading statesmen, including Cicero, held the priesthood. Under the emperors the college continued to preserve ritual authority, although imperial power increasingly shaped public religion.
Augur, reenactmentAugur and haruspex: the difference
An augur interpreted auspices within Roman public ritual, especially signs involving birds, thunder and lightning. A haruspex belonged to a different expertise associated with Etruscan tradition: inspecting sacrificial entrails and interpreting prodigies. The two specialists could address the same public crisis, but they did not hold the same priestly role.
Related topics
Roman religion, Pontifex, Toga, Vestal Virgin, Roman Republic, Roman Kingdom
Literature
Ancient sources
- Cicero. On Divination.
- Cicero. On the Laws.
- Livy. History of Rome.
Modern studies
- Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Jorg Rupke. Religion of the Romans. Polity, 2007.
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