CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

HARUSPICY AND AUGURY:

SOURCES AND PROCEDURES

Nancy T. de Grummond

INTRODUCTION

H

aruspicy and augury are forms of divination practiced assiduously by the Etruscans.^1

At its most basic, haruspicy may be defi ned as the art of divining the will of the

gods, especially by examining the entrails of animals (Lat. extispicium). In Rome, the

practitioner was called a haruspex (pl. haruspices), a word that was explained in Antiquity

as one who inspects the entrails of a hariuga (sacrifi ced animal).^2 In a bilingual Latin/

Etruscan inscription from Pesaro (ET Um 1.7; CIL XI 6363; 1st century bce), the

Etruscan word netśvis is found as a translation of haruspex. The –vis may also refer to “one

who inspects” and thus netś may have the same meaning as hariuga. As will be noted

below, the haruspices also interpreted a wide variety of other types of signs, but the

emphasis in this article will be on extispicy, especially in regard to the liver.

Augury or augurium referred – at least in Rome – to watching the activities of birds

and deciding whether they showed favorable or unfavorable omens from the gods. The

Etruscan word for such a religious practice is uncertain. It is safe to conclude that the

Etruscans did practice augury, but we cannot be sure that their responses were similarly

limited, or whether there were more nuanced answers depending on the species, number,

color or activity of the birds. Augurs occasionally dealt with other prodigies as well.^3

SOURCES

Truly primary sources on Etruscan divination are exiguous and only modestly

informative. Of Etruscan inscriptions the aforementioned Pesaro bilingual is among the

most illuminating: [L. CA]FATIUS.L.F.STE.HARUSPE[X] FULGURIATOR cafates.

lr.lr.netśvis.trutnvt. frontac. It tells us, besides the Etruscan word for haruspex, that such an

individual of the fi rst century bce in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast could also be skilled

in the reading of lightning. The Etruscan phrase trutnvt.frontac, using two words in place

of fulguriator (=frontac?) may refer to additional competency.^4 The title of netśvis, with a

slight variation in spelling was given to a certain Nae Cicu, son of Pethnei, buried at

Poggio al Moro, Chiusi.^5 One of the longest Etruscan inscriptions known, still meager