Editing Augur (section)

==History and public role==
{{Priesthoods of ancient Rome|275px}}
Political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury and by [[haruspices]].

Historically, augury was performed by priests of the college of augurs on behalf of senior magistrates. The practice itself likely comes from the neighboring region of Etruria, where augurs were highly respected as officials. Magistrates were empowered to conduct augury as required for the performance of their official duties. Magistracies included senior military and civil ranks, which were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the ''pax'', ''fortuna'', and ''salus'' of Rome and everything that was Roman.

The presiding magistrate at an augural rite held the "right of augury" (''ius augurii'').<ref>Brent (1999), pp.&nbsp;17, 20: Brent describes augury as the "spiritual equivalent of consulting the polls".</ref> The right of ''nuntiatio'' &ndash; announcing the appearance of ''auspicia oblativa'' (unexpected sign) &ndash; was reserved for the officiating augur, which would require the interruption of the proceedings then underway.<ref name=Catalano1965 />

===Kingdom of Rome===
The Roman historian [[Livy]] stressed the importance of the augurs: "Who does not know that this city was founded only after taking the auspices, that everything in war and in peace, at home and abroad, was done only after taking the auspices?"<ref>Livy, VI. 41: ''auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace domi militiaeque omnia geri, quis est qui ignoret?''</ref>

In the [[Kingdom of Rome|Regal period]], which ended 509 BC, tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time; they numbered nine by the third century BC; [[Sulla]] increased their number to fifteen. By the [[Principate]], their numbers swelled even further to an estimated 25&nbsp;members.<ref name=HoffmanLewis1955>{{cite book |author=Martha W. Hoffman Lewis |title=The Official Priests of Rome under the Julio-Claudians |place=Rome |publisher=American Academy |year=1955 |pages=9–12}}</ref>

===Roman Republic===
During the Republic, priesthoods were prized as greatly as the [[Roman consul|consulship]], the [[Roman censor|censorship]], and the [[Roman triumph|triumph]]. Membership gave the lifelong right to participate prominently in processions at ''[[ludi]]'' and in public banquets; augurs proudly displayed the symbol of the office, the ''[[lituus]]''.<ref name=HoffmanLewis1955 />

Roman augurs were part of a college (Latin ''[[collegium (ancient Rome)|collegium]]'') of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position. At the foundation of the [[Roman Republic|Republic]] in 510&nbsp;[[Before Christ|BC]], the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] held sole claim to this office; by 300&nbsp;BC, the office was open to [[plebeian]] occupation as well. Senior members of the ''collegium'' put forth nominations for any vacancies, and members voted on whom to [[co-option|co-opt]].

According to Cicero, the ''auctoritas'' of ''ius augurum'' included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law: Consular election could be &ndash; and was &ndash; rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Republic. Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career.<ref>Cicero replaced [[Publius Licinius Crassus (son of triumvir)|Publius Crassus]] after the latter's death at [[Battle of Carrhae|Carrhae]].</ref>

In the later Republic, augury was supervised by the college of ''[[pontifices]]'', a priestly-magistral office whose powers were increasingly woven into the ''[[cursus honorum]]''. The office of ''[[pontifex maximus]]'' eventually became a ''de facto'' consular prerogative.<ref>Brent (1999), pp.&nbsp;19–25: citing Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'', 2.4.</ref>

===Roman Empire===
The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively; the divinely ordained condition of peace (''pax deorum'') was an outcome of successful augury. Those whose actions had led to divine wrath (''ira deorum'') could not have possessed a true right of augury (''ius augurum'').<ref>Rosenstein (1990), pp.&nbsp;57–58: the ''post hoc'' search for ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#vitium|vitium]]'' in Republican ritual seems motivated by a need to limit aristocratic responsibility for military disaster, and offer some protection against accusations of incompetence by rivals.</ref> Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only [[Octavian]] could have possessed it, because he alone had restored the ''pax deorum'' to the Roman people. Lucan, writing during the [[Principate]], described the recent Civil War as "unnatural" &ndash; a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the traditional principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult.<ref>Brent (1999), p.&nbsp;48, citing Lucan, ''[[Pharsalia]],'' 1.522–605: "as if the stars themselves had strayed from their courses".</ref> In the Stoic cosmology the ''pax deorum'' is the expression of natural order in human affairs.<ref>Brent (1999), pp.&nbsp;17–18.</ref>

When his colleague [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)|Lepidus]] died, Augustus assumed his office as ''pontifex maximus'', took priestly control over the State oracles (including the [[Sibylline books]]), and used his powers as [[Roman censor|censor]] to suppress the circulation of "unapproved" oracles.<ref>Brent (1999), p.&nbsp;59: citing Suetonius, ''Augustus'' 31.1–2. cf. official reactions to "foreign cult" during the Punic crises, above.</ref>

Despite their lack of political influence under the [[Roman Empire]], the augurate, as with its fellow ''quattuor amplissima collegia'', continued to confer prestige on its members.