- chapter 26: Haruspicy and augury –
divination. His many references to the Etrusca disciplina and to haruspices must be seen
in the context of the debates he staged in his treatises De natura deorum and De divinatione
(45–44 bce). Having studied thoroughly the tenets of the various schools of philosophy
of the Hellenistic period in his youth and again in his later years, he described himself
as an academic who, with open mind, also gave his full attention to other schools; for
divination this meant in particular the Stoics and Epicureans. Thus in the De divinatione,
in Book I the remarks of his brother Quintus representing the Stoic view stress the
successes of divination (with the Etruscans mentioned side by side with other peoples
devoted to the art), while in Book II his own remarks as Marcus are aimed at refuting the
claims of divinatory practice. Perhaps the most cited statement is his snide quote from
Cato, who had wondered why one haruspex did not laugh aloud when he met another
haruspex (De div. 2.52). And while we may be grateful to Cicero for preserving a tidy
version of the story of the prophecies of Tages, usually no one cites his own personal
reaction to the story:
Who in the world is stupid enough to believe that anybody ever ploughed up – which
shall I say – a god or man?...Could not this so-called god have delivered this art to
mankind from a more exalted station? But if this fellow Tages was a man, pray, how
could he have lived covered with earth? Finally, where had he himself learned the
things he taught others?^48It has been argued that Cicero’s knowledge of Etruscan divination was superfi cial,^49 but
certain parts of the De divinatione give us precious information. Quintus relates the story,
for example, of Attus Navius, augur for Tarquinius Priscus, searching for the best grape
cluster to offer to Jupiter, delimiting his vineyard by standing in the middle, facing
south, and dividing it fi rst into quarters, then eliminating three of the quarters through
augury, and fi nally subdividing the fi nal quarter to achieve success (De div. 1. 31). The
description has a ring of authority and authenticity, and gives reason to believe that such
Etruscan divination may have already been practiced in Rome in the time of Tarquinius
Priscus (a legendary fi gure, but traditionally assigned to the late seventh-early sixth
century bce). Still, it leaves further details to be revealed by the Augustan-era Greek
historian and antiquarian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus (d. after 7 bce), who relates how
birds helped the augur as a boy to select the appropriate quadrant for the best grape
cluster (Roman Antiquities, 3.73.3).^50
Certainly, Livy is an important source for the activities of Etruscan priests and details
of Etruscan ritual embedded in his historical accounts. His description of the expansion
of the city of Rome under Servius Tullius, for example, sheds light on the meaning of
the pomerium and the ceremonial inauguration of spaces (1.44.3). Attention has been
given appropriately to his various reports of prodigies, seemingly drawn from pontifi cal
archives.^51 Other distinguished literary fi gures of the Augustan period who were formed
in the intellectual climate described above were able to relate easily to information
about ancient Etruscan religious practice in their poetry. Propertius (4.2) has left the
memorable description of the statue of Vertumnus, “chief god of Etruria” (Varro, De
lingua latina 5.46), while Vergil in the Aeneid and Ovid in his Fasti and Metamorphoses
related imaginative stories and customs that provide hints about Etruscan traditions.^52
From the early Empire, Pliny’s Natural History (circa 77 ce) provides numerous
miscellaneous observations on various practices of divination. Of particular usefulness are