Editing Augur (section)

===Ancient tradition===
According to Varro,<ref>Varro, ''Lingua Latina'', 5.53</ref> before his time augures had distinguished five kinds of territory: ager Romanus, ager Gabinus, ager peregrinus, ager hosticus, ager incertus. These distinctions clearly point to the times of the prehistory of Latium and testify the archaic quality of the art of augury.<ref name=Catalano1965 >{{cite book |author=P. Catalano |year=1965 |title=Linee del sistema sovrannazionale romano |url=https://archive.org/details/lineedelsistemas00cata |url-access=limited |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lineedelsistemas00cata/page/n51 40] note&nbsp;20, p.&nbsp;60 note&nbsp;86, 273–280, 346–351 |location=Turin, IT |publisher=Giappichelli|isbn=9788834816608 }}</ref>

The ''jus augurale'' (augural law) was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the technical aspects of ceremonies and rituals has been recorded. We have only the names of some ''auguria'':
*The ''augurium salutis'' took place once a year, before the magistrates and the people, in which the gods were asked whether it was auspicious to ask to for the welfare of the Romans,
*The ''augurium canarium'' required the sacrifice of red dogs and took place after wheat grains had formed and before they were shelled.<ref>Pliny ''Nat. Hist.'' 18.14</ref><ref>Festus, p.&nbsp;386 L2</ref><ref name=Catalano1965 />
*The ''vernisera auguria'' &ndash; we know only the name that implies a ritual related to the harvest.<ref>Paulus ex Festus s.v. p.&nbsp;467 L2: "''auguria messalia''".</ref>

The terms ''augurium'' and ''auspicium'' are used indifferently by ancient authors.<ref>e.g. in  Cicero, ''De Legibus'', ''De Divinatione''.</ref> Modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find a distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases. By such considerations Dumezil<ref>{{cite book |author=G. Dumezil |year=1974 |title=La religion Romaine archaique |location=Paris}}</ref> thinks that the two terms refer in fact to two aspects of the same religious act:
*''auspicium'' would design the technical process of the operation, i.e. ''aves spicere'', looking at the birds; 
*''augurium'' would be the resulting interpretation i.e. the determination, acknowledgement of the presence of the ''*auges'', the action favoured by the god(s), the intention and the final product of the whole operation.
In Varro's words "''Agere augurium, aves specit''",<ref>Varro, ''Lingua Latina'', 5.83</ref> "to conduct the ''augurium'', he observed the birds".