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Omina Sunt Omnia: Foretelling the Future in Ancient Rome 1 Omina Sunt Omnia: Foretelling the Future in Ancient Rome 1 Due to the unpredictable, turbulent times in which ancient peoples lived, past civilizations, including the Romans, gravitated towards methods of fortune telling in order to gain security or foresight into an otherwise risky future. The Romans, a highly superstitious society fearful of the gods’ volatile tempers, introduced prophecy into almost every aspect of their lives, including marriage, warfare, government policy, civil disagreements, and obviously religious functions. Thus, priests gifted in divination could attain lofty levels of superiority in society regardless of their method of prophecy. However, unlike other ancient cultures, in Rome the professional predictions of augurs and haruspices, which unraveled unusual omens’ hidden meanings, largely prevailed and surpassed in popularity the riddled, complex words of oracles and sibyls, inspired by gods and interpreted by mortals. An auspice in the ancient world was a message from the gods, indicating whether a particular action had their support, and it usually required interpretation by a skilled priest, an augur or haruspex, depending on how the gods delivered the omen. Augury and haruspicy specifically referred to different methods by which certain types of auspices were deciphered; while augurs read the flight patterns of birds in the sky to determine a god’s volition, haruspices inspected the arrangements of animal entrails. Although both “augur” and “haruspex” were purely Roman titles, the art of “taking auspices” first gained traction in Greece where famous seers, most notably mythical Tiresias, laid down the foundations for this skill. Having spread to Rome early in the city’s history from its northern neighbors, the Etruscans, augury and haruspicy provided divine guidance for legendary Roman statesmen making tough preliminary decisions that would ultimately determine their young civilization’s future. For instance, Romulus and Remus diverged on whether to build Rome’s foundations on the Palatine or Aventine hill, so they employed augury in order to seek divine advice. When Romulus, stationed on the Palatine, Omina Sunt Omnia: Foretelling the Future in Ancient Rome 2 observed twelve vultures and Remus, squatting on the Aventine, only noticed six, Remus had to consent and obey the perceived will of the gods. Many years later, even after Rome evolved into a thriving, seemingly invincible political Republic, prophetical practices still retained their impact upon the state’s leading men. Although their predecessors introduced to Rome solid concepts for the practice of augury, the Romans sought to improve upon this relatively undeveloped system. First they transformed augury from an unmanageable, unorganized religious trade into a state-sponsored, structured system, held together by governing laws and legislative bodies. Unlike the freelance, unregulated augurs of other societies, authentic Roman augurs and haruspices were elected into a sacred priestly college, which functioned as a guild or assembly by distributing the office’s duties among members. In addition to their instrumental roles as public servants, augurs were employed in many matters of private life as well. For instance, in the earlier forms of the confarreatio wedding celebration, an augur took the auspices to ensure a couple’s prosperous marriage. In later times, haruspices, consulting a sacrificed sheep’s entrails, replaced augurs as the primary clairvoyants at weddings and were available for more ceremonies than just the exclusive confarreatio. Also, regarding public affairs, the college’s priests decided whether to sanction the various political, military, and civil actions of senior magistrates based on the favorability of auspices conducted before a decision was reached. Negative interpretations could doom public officials’ legislative agendas or military decisions. An unfavorable, errant auspice could even render consular elections invalid, thereby overturning the process of law and people’s will! For this reason, Cicero famously concluded that augurs were among the most influential forces in the Republic, having been elected to this position himself in 53 BC and having written extensively about divination in his treatise, “De Divinatione.” Omina Sunt Omnia: Foretelling the Future in Ancient Rome 3 Despite Cicero’s acknowledgement of augury’s great influence on Romans, in the same treatise Cicero voices skepticism over the gods’ existence and, in extension, the validity of prophecy. By condemning the very institution that he was previously charged to uphold, Cicero demonstrates the increasing illegitimacy of these “religious” figures, which stems from the college’s inclusion in government. While the absorption of this religious institution into the bureaucracy through election enhanced augurs’ influence over politicians and their effectiveness at meeting responsibilities, it also overly politicized a supposedly religious post, thereby diluting the organization’s sacrosanct spiritual authority. Ambitious politicians, seeking political or personal goals rather than the honor of communicating the gods’ wills, used these priestly offices as stepping-stones on their pathways to success. Some augurs either refused to make religion an integral part of their lives or denied the gods’ existence altogether since they associated the priesthood more with politics than spirituality. Also, the priests’ commanding influence regarding matters of state made them likely recipients of bribes or corrupt, politically motivated deals. These arrangements encouraged them to manufacture inauspicious divinations to meet their benefactor’s wishes, which might involve postponing state functions requiring an augur’s approval to begin, especially elections or senate sessions. While augury and haruspicy played fundamental roles in Rome’s founding and initial success, as corruption heightened in the practice, and the system lost religious sanctity, these practices were conducted without their former substance or purpose, having been reduced to merely the shell of a now ancient, irrelevant tradition. The people’s newfound indifference towards augury was best demonstrated by the irreverent reactions of many generals towards unfavorable auspices; many stubbornly continued with their former battle plans regardless of the gods’ warnings. As early as the First Punic War some members of the military exhibited this independent persistence, most notably Omina Sunt Omnia: Foretelling the Future in Ancient Rome 4 Claudius Pulcher. On military expeditions, priests took auspices by feeding chickens and observing whether they decided to eat; if the chicken feasted, the commander could foresee a good climate for victory while if the animal abstained from food, the general should expect ruin. When the chickens of Claudius Pulcher acted in the latter fashion, he famously ignored this particularly correct omen, instead throwing the innocent animals overboard while yelling, “If they will not eat, then let them drink!” Claudius’ stubbornness and nervousness over an inauspicious omen helps explain the Romans’ eventual complicated outlook on augury; while the practice’s decline into corruption and untrustworthiness made disregarding its predictions more commonplace than ever before in Rome’s history, the Romans still possessed many superstitious characteristics that prevented them from totally freeing themselves of its influence. Roman religion heavily relied on augury and haruspicy to retain its popularity and following among the Roman people since prophecy was a popular advantage of paganism. While this enabled Roman religion and traditional values to develop easily during the civilization’s first years of existence, as the system was plagued by corruption and doubt, a decline in these same practices precipitated a subsequent decline of the entire pagan religious establishment, thereby resulting in Christianity’s surprising ascendancy. Thus, the statement “omens are everything” accurately summarizes Roman religion, whose main function in society was the wellbeing of its followers through the clairvoyant practices of prophecy. .
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