The Romans

OMENS

 

Entrance to the cave of the Cumaean sibyl. (VRoma: Susan Bonvallet)

A sibyl was a Greek prophetess. The story goes that one of her kind offered to Tarquinius Superbus a collection of prophecies and warnings in the form of nine books at a high price. When he refused, she threw three of them into the fire and offered him the remaining six at the original price of the nine. He refused again, so she burned three more and offered him the rest, still at the same price. This time he bought them. The Sibylline Books were consulted on the orders of the senate at times of crisis and calamity, in order to learn how the wrath of the gods could be allayed. They were accidentally burned in 83 BC, and envoys were sent all round the known world to collect a set of similar utterances. Augustus had the new collection put in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, where it remained until it was finally destroyed in the fifth century AD.

Apollo with lyre, copy of a cult statue in the Palatine temple of Apollo. The androgynous rendering is typical of this type of statue, associating the god with poetry and the muses. (VRoma: Glyptothek Museum, Munich: Barbara McManus)

Disasters were seen by the Romans as manifestations of divine disapproval, and unusual phenomena as portents of catastrophe. The taking of auspices - the literal meaning of which is “signs from birds” - was a standard procedure before any state activity.

Denarius of Augustus, showing him in his priestly role as an augur with crooked staff of office. (VRoma: British Museum: Barbara McManus)

An official augur, who was present on such occasions merely as a consultant, marked out and prepared the statutory square measure of ground and then handed over to the state official who was to perform the ritual. He took up his position and observed the flights of any birds he could see, their kind, height, position, speed, direction of flight. If there was any doubt about the interpretation of what the official saw, the augur was called upon to advise.

Birds on a bowl, detail of a mosaic. (VRoma: Capitoline Museums, Rome: Susan Bonvallet)

Armies took with them a portable auspice-kit, consisting of a cage of sacred chickens, in front of whom bits of cake were placed to see what would happen. It was a bad sign if they refused to eat: good if they ate the cake and let bits of grain fall from their beaks. Public business was frequently interrupted so that the omens could be consulted. A law passed by an assembly or an election could be declared invalid if the correct procedure had not been carried out.

Lightning which appeared while auspices were being taken was good news: not so when it came unbidden. (Illustration by Jennifer Campbell from Antony Kamm, Scotland in Roman Times, Scottish Children’s Press 1998)

There was a distinction between signs that were solicited and those which appeared without invitation. The more startling or unexpected the sign, for instance a flash of lightning or an epileptic fit on the part of a member of an assembly, the more seriously it was taken.

Overview of this page [Ref:4.4]

 

The Romans believed that the gods communicated with men indirectly through signs - this communication could be unsought (as with omens) or deliberately sought (as with augury).