Editing Augur (section)

===Precedence===
Since the observation was complex, conflict among signs was common.<ref>Maurus Servius Honoratus, ''In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii'', 4.462</ref> A hierarchy among signs was devised: e.g. a sign from the eagle would prevail on that from the woodpecker and the ossifragae (parra).<ref>Maurus Servius Honoratus, ''In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii'', 2.374</ref>

During the last centuries of the republic the auspices ''ex caelo'' and ''ex tripudiis'' supplanted other types, as the other forms could be easily used in a fraudulent way, i.e. bent to suit the desire of the asking person.<ref>Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2.72–73</ref>
Cicero condemned the fraudulent use and denounced the decline in the level of knowledge of the doctrine by the augurs of his time,<ref>Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 1.25; ''Leg. Agr.'', 2.32 and 2.34</ref> but in fact the abuse developed from the evasion of negative signs, described in the next subsection.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}