HARUSPICES, Etruscan diviners, "entrail observers" (cf . Skt. Kira, Gr. Xopb)). Their art (disciplina) consisted especially in deducing the will of the gods from the appearance presented by the entrails of the slain victim. They also interpreted all portents or unusual phenomena of nature, especially thunder and lightning, and prescribed the expiatory ceremonies after such events. This formed a most complicated pseudo-science, in sharp contrast to native Italian divination, which consisted of asking the approval of the gods for a proposed action and deducing a "yes" or "no" from such omens as the flight of birds (see AUGURS, OMEN), and in simple inspection of the entrails of a victim to see if the beast were normal and therefore acceptable. The Etruscans were said to have learned it from a being named Tages (q.v.). Instructions were contained in certain books called libri hams picini f ulgurales, rituales. The art was practised in Rome chiefly by Etruscans, occasionally by native-born Romans who had studied in the priestly schools of Etruria. Though of great im portance under the early republic, it never became a part of the state religion. In this respect the haruspices contrast with the augurs, who were an ancient and purely Roman institution, and were a most important element in the political organization of the city. In later times the art fell into disrepute (Cic. de div.
ii. 24). Under the empire, however, we hear of a collegium of sixty haruspices ; but this was never a state priesthood but a body of salaried expert advisers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. See A. Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination Bibliography. See A. Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquite (1879-81) ; Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung, iii. pp. 410-15 (1885) ; C. O. Thulin, Die etruskische Disciplin (1906 1909) ; Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer (2nd ed.), P. 543, et seq.