augur

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 2.5 §2 since Nepos is setting out, on whom the augurate is being conferred

  Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos was leaving to govern Nearer Spain, vacating his place in the college of augurs. Cicero, who coveted a priesthood, admits this single prospect could still tempt him back into the politics he claims to renounce.

• Ad Familiares 3.4 §2 our common membership of the college

  Cicero and Appius were both members of the college of augurs, the priestly board charged with taking the auspices; Appius had supported Cicero's co-option into it in 53 BC.

• Ad Familiares 3.9 §3 the knowledge itself of augural law

  Cicero had been co-opted into the college of augurs (in 53/52 BC, into the place left by the dead Crassus); Appius, a noted authority on augural lore, had promised him instruction in the discipline (ius augurium).

• Ad Familiares 3.11 §4 the books on augural law

  Appius, like Cicero, was an augur, and was composing a treatise on augural science (the Auguralis disciplina); Cicero asks him to set it aside for their shared leisure.

• Ad Familiares 6.6 §7 I too, a public augur, have on the strength of my earlier predictions

  Cicero was a member of the College of Augurs from 53 BC; the augurs were the senior Roman priestly college responsible for observing bird-signs and other auspices before public business. The self-deprecating irony is that he turns his failed political advice into 'augury' now proved accurate.

• Ad Familiares 8.14 §1 the augurate, of which I had been the promoter

  The vacant place in the college of augurs went to Antony, whom Caelius had backed, over L. Domitius Ahenobarbus; Domitius blamed Caelius for the humiliating defeat.

• Ad Familiares 12.17 §1 CICERO S. D. CORNIFICIO CONLEGAE.

  S. D. is salutem dicit, "sends greetings". CONLEGAE ("to my colleague") marks Cornificius as Cicero's fellow-member of the college of augurs, the priests who took the auspices; the augurate was a lifelong honour and the shared title carries real warmth.

• Ad Familiares 12.18 §1 CICERO S. D. CORNIFICIO CONLEGAE.

  S. D. is salutem dicit, "sends greetings"; CONLEGAE addresses Cornificius as Cicero's fellow-augur, a member of the same priestly college.

• Ad Familiares 15.4 §13 I afterwards desired to become augur

  The augurate was a lifelong priesthood charged with reading the auspices, one of Rome's most coveted honours; Cicero was co-opted into the college in 53 BC after the death of the younger Crassus.

• Brutus §1 so great an augur

  An augur was a member of the priestly college that interpreted the will of the gods by observing birds and other signs; no public business could proceed without favourable auspices. Hortensius and Cicero were colleagues in this college.

• Cato the Elder, On Old Age §11 as an augur he dared to say that whatever was done for the safety of the republic was done under the best auspices

  Augurs interpreted the will of the gods from the flight and behaviour of birds and other signs; no public act could proceed against the auspices. Fabius's dictum subordinates the augural veto to the welfare of the state.

• Cato the Elder, On Old Age §12 what mastery of augural law

  Ius augurium, the technical body of rules governing the taking and interpreting of auspices and the consecration of space and time, was the special expertise of the augural college, of which Cicero himself became a member in 53 BC.

• On Divination §2.70 the auspices

  The taking of omens, chiefly from birds (their flight, feeding, or cries), supervised by the college of augurs. Cicero, himself an augur, denies the auspices are divination while upholding them as a venerable institution of state.

• On the Laws §2.20 the public augurs

  The priestly college, of which Cicero himself was a member, charged with reading the will of Jupiter from the flight and behaviour of birds and other signs. No public business could proceed against unfavourable auspices.

• On the Laws §2.31 greatest and most outstanding right in the commonwealth

  Cicero, himself an augur, sets out the powers of the college: to dismiss or annul assemblies, to break off public business with the words ``on another day,'' to compel consuls to lay down office, and to void any act declared faulty. No magistrate's act could stand without augural sanction.

• On Duties §3.66 the augurs were about to conduct an augury

  The augurs were the Roman priests who took the auspices, observing birds and signs to learn the gods' will before public business. A building that blocked their sight-lines on the Citadel had to be demolished.

• First Philippic §31 augur of the Roman people

  An augur observed the auspices that governed public acts; Cicero notes that Antony, himself an augur, set aside his own announced auspices to confirm Dolabella as colleague at the Tellus meeting.

• Thirteenth Philippic §12 his father's place in the augural college, into which I

  Cicero, himself an augur, promises to co-opt Sextus Pompeius into the college of augurs in the place once held by Pompey the Great. The augurate was a lifelong priesthood interpreting the will of Jupiter through the auspices.

• Second Philippic §4 nominated me as augur

  The augurs were a priestly college that interpreted the will of the gods by signs (the auspices). Cicero was co-opted into it about 53 BC; a candidate could be nominated by no more than two existing members.

• Third Philippic §9 this consul-and-augur

  Antony was both consul and augur in 44 BC; Cicero charges that he abused the auspices, both by legislating against them and by using false auspices to invalidate his colleague Dolabella.

• Fifth Philippic §7 when Jupiter thunders, it is not lawful to transact business with the people

  By augural law, thunder (an unfavourable sign from Jupiter) invalidated any business conducted with the popular assembly. Cicero uses this to argue Antony's laws were carried against the auspices and so void.