Note 664 — Chapter V · THE AUSPICES

Ael. Don. in Terent. Ad. iv. 2. 8: “Qui malam rem nuntiat, obnuntiat, qui bonam, adnuntiat: nam proprie obnuntiare dicuntur augures, qui aliquid mali ominis scaevumque viderint.” In this late author (350 A.D.) obnuntiatio is ascribed to the augurs. When Cicero says to Antony (Phil. ii. 33. 83) “Augur auguri, consul consuli obnuntiasti,” he does it only to find fault with the proceeding; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 111, n. 2. These are the only instances known to us in which the distinction is not observed; Mommsen, ibid.; Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. ii. 2335; Valeton, in Mnemos. xix (1891). 75 ff., 229 ff.; Bouché-Leclerq, in Daremberg et Saglio, Dict. i. 582.