Note 138 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME
Reading edition
Cic. de Div. ii. 36, 76 “a populo auspicia accepta habemus.” The relation of auspicia habere to the spectio is that the former denotes the abstract right of questioning the gods, the latter its exercise in a particular case (Momms. Staatsr. i. 89 n. 3). The specification by the magistrate of the signs which he wished to see was known as legum dictio (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 89; cf. p. 43 n. 2).