in 208bcand later even Caesar on the Ides of March 44bcdied because they were
not careful enough to pay attention to negative signs (Livy 25.16.1– 4; Cic. Div.
1.33; Livy 27.26.13f. with 27.27; Caesar: Cic. Div.1.119; Suet. Caesar77; Plut.
Caesar63.4). During the second centurybcthe practice of divination became more
personalized and thus sometimes “private.” The decision to ask a diviner for his assist-
ance became a question of politics (MacBain 1982; Haack 2003: 51–75). By means
of divination, militarily and politically ambitious leaders could present themselves
as protected by the gods and thus being more qualified than their rivals in politics.
C. Gracchus was on friendly terms with his personal haruspex(Val. Max. 9.12.6).
Marius (Sall. Bellum Iugurthium 63.1; Plut. Marius8.8), Sulla (e.g. Cic. Div.1.72;
Plut. Sulla 9.6), and later the notorious Verres (Cic. In Verrem2.3.28) had each
a haruspexof his own. The haruspices’ duties were to protect their patrons and to
add to their success and glory, respectively. However, beside these private diviners
attached to political leaders, throughout the last two hundred years of the republic
public haruspicesexisted and performed their regular duties, serving the Roman com-
munity and its elected magistrates.
At least during the late republic and early empire, there was an ordoof 60 harus-
pices(e.g. CIL6.2161–2, 32439, 11.3382; Tac. Ann.11.15; Rüpke 2005a: 591f.),
not all of them Etruscans. Romans and men from other Italian regions were
members, too. The emperor Claudius stressed that this kind of divination was the
vetustissima Italiae disciplina(Tac. Ann.11.15). Thus, regional differences between
Roman and Etruscan or other Italian traditions seem to have vanished in the mid-
first centuryad. The emperors, too, could have their own haruspices. All these official
haruspiceslived in Rome, and made their living from their knowledge and special
ritual techniques. We do not know whether they received regular pay or fees for
their duties; however, a salary is quite likely.
We do know that at least some of the haruspicesin the cities of the Roman empire
and those in the legions were paid on a regular basis. But unlike the haruspicesof
the city of Rome, the municipal diviners were integrated into the group of civic atten-
dants, the apparitores. The city law of Urso states that the fee for a haruspexto the
IIviri (see above) was 500 sesterces a year, quite a small sum. Of such haruspicesof
cities in Italy and the provinces more than thirty inscriptions are known (Wiegels
1988: 17–28 and texts later published in AE). They all were Roman citizens, most
of them freeborn, some freedmen. Some haruspicesare known from the Roman army,
serving in the legions (at least in Numidia). Only one haruspexis known as part of
the conciliumof a Roman governor in a province (AE1921, 39).
According to Cicero, there was a time (second centurybc?) when the senate sought
to protect the accepted and needed professionals of Etruscan haruspicy and divina-
tion. The senate’s decree made provisions for boys from leading families to be sent
to Etrusan communities to study the art, lest – because of the poverty of its mem-
bers (the haruspices) – the art should lose its religious authority and be converted
into a means of mercenary gain. (Cic. Div. 1.92, cf. Val. Max. 1.1) The state
had an eminent interest in the haruspices, but poor, freelance, and therefore gain-
seeking professionals were not in the senate’s interest. Yet “private” haruspices– that
is, diviners not paid by the state, the city, or a magistrate – existed. They did not
Living on Religion 337