Note 606 — Chapter V · THE AUSPICES

Cic. Div. ii. 34. 71: “Hic apud maiores nostros adhibebatur peritus, nunc quilubet.” As in the time of Cicero auspices had come to be a mere pretence (p. 118), an attendant without skill or scruple would best serve the magistrate’s purpose. In Livy iv. 18. 6, the augurs see the omen for the dictator, but some other attendant might serve the purpose. Being a paid functionary, the bird-seer mentioned by Dion. Hal. ii. 6. 2 as assisting in an auspication could not have been a public augur; Valeton, in Mnemos. xviii. 406 ff.; Wissowa, Relig. u. Kult. d. Römer, 456, n. 8. The magistrate requested assistance in the following form: “Q. Fabi, te mihi in auspicio esse volo;” and the reply was “Audivi;” Cic. Div. ii. 34. 71; cf. § 72. From this formula it appears that the person summoned did not hold, but assisted in, the auspices; Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 338. The auspices are always said to belong not to the augurs, but to the magistrates; Cic. Leg. iii. 3. 10; Messala, in Gell. xiii. 15. 4. Instead of remaining with the augurs in the city the auspices followed a duly elected consul into the field; Livy xxii. 1. 6. Auspicari is strictly a function of the magistrate (cf. Varro, Rer. hum. xx, in Non. Marc. 92) though the word is sometimes applied to the observation made by augurs (Fest. ep. 18), whose function is properly termed augurium, augurare; Aust, Relig. d. Römer, 200 f.; Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. ii. 2580 f.