Note 593 — Chapter V · THE AUSPICES
Reading edition
The usual view, represented by Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 89, n. 1, is that the plebeians did not possess this right originally but acquired it later; cf. also Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. ii. 2581; Di Marchi, Cult. priv. di. Rom. i. 233. This hypothesis not only lacks support, but is also vitiated by the fact that at the time of the supposed equalization private auspices must have been declining, as Cicero found them extinct.
The treatment of private auspices here given is supplementary to the study of the social classes made in ch. ii.