Romulus and Remus were practitioners of augury. The former established the college of augurs, origi nally consisting of three members, to whom a fourth was added by Servius Tullius. These four were all of patrician rank. Five plebeians were afterwards added to the number ; and, in the dictatorship of ' Sylla, a farther addition of six was made ; after which period there was no addition or reduction of the numbers. These fifteen augurs were next in dignity to the college of pontifices ; and, though their authority was merely negative, they had it in their power to controul the highest officers of the state, and either to aid or obstruct the functions of government. Their office was held for life, and could not be forfeited by the commission. of the most flagrant crimes. The robe of an augur was a mix, ture of purple and scarlet, named the trabca. He wore a conical cap ; and, when exercising the duties of his mystical function, he held in his hand the /i tuns, a staff neatly incurvated at the top. Equipped in these peculiar badges of his office, he,was prepa red for the solemnity of taking the auspices from the meteors of the atmosphere, and from the winged messengers of Phoebus or of Jove. He walked out of the city at midnight, pitched a tent on an emi nence, lay till the dawn began to brighten, and then, after offering up prayers and sacrifices, sat down with his face directed to the east, or, as others tell us, to the south. With his crooked rod he circum scribed a space in the sky, beyond which he suffered not his eyes to wander. This imaginary space, on his attention was rivetted, was named ten:plum ; and hence arose the word contemplation, in the same manner as the term consideration originated from the eagerness with which the astrologer gazed on the stars. Omens on the left were generally accounted propitious by the Romans ; but the Greeks thought omens on the right more favourable. The reason commonly assigned for this apparent discrepancy, is, that the former looked towards the south, and the latter to the north, when they expected signs from the heavens ; so that the east, the quarter whence they looked for happy omens, was to the right of the one, and to the left of the other. There were, however, no general principles followed•by any set of augurs ; and what, on one occasion was hailed as the most joyful omen, was, on others, deplored as the presage of inevitably misfortune. Cicero informs us, that the rules observed by him were, in many respects, diametrically opposite to those of his friend King Deiotarus ; and that the particulars, accounted the most essential by the Pamphilians and Cilicians, were unknown, or disregarded by the professors of the art at Rome.
The Roman augurs did not confine their attention to birds. There were five classes of phenomena from _which they sought information : appearances in the sky ; the singing or the flight of birds ; the feeding of the sacred chickens ; the motions of particular quadrupeds ; and the accidents called dine. Light ning from the left to the right was one of the most favourable appearances which could visit them from the sky, except when it was proposed to hold the comitia. The birds from whose voice omens were taken were called oscines ; such as the cock, the owl, and the raven : creatures whose never-ceasing volubility furnished the interpreters of their inarticu late speech with inexhaustible stores of imposture.. The prcepetos were the fowls of boldest wing, in whose flight there was supposed to be great signifi d coney, such as the hawk, the eagle, and the vulture.
The sacred chickens were confined in pens, wider the charge of the pillarins. It was a most lamentable presage if they refused to eat ; but their devouring the food set before them so eagerly as to drop part of it, was one of the most indisputable signs of good fortune, and was called tripoli:on, (or terripavirn, from striking the ground). Their superintendent, no doubt, understoOd the art of eliciting hopeful or dis astrous intelligence, by means of seasonable inanition or repletion. He was but a bungling pullarius who could not contrive to effect a tripudium ; and, from the artifice which he employed, arose the phrase atispiciani enaction et erpression. A chicken, pre viously half starved, may be expected to stuff so vo raciously, that much of the grain will escape from its beak. The omens from quadrupeds were such as a wolf on the right carrying something in his mouth, which was favourable ; a hare crossing a road,—a strange dog, especially if black, coming into a house, —both of which were portentous of evil. Among the dine, it was very discouraging to spill oil, or salt, or honey ; but nothing could be more lucky than the accidental spilling of. wine, so as to leave an in delible stain on the garments.
These weak superstitions, contemptible as they appear to us, arc not yet entirely exploded. The vulgar in every nation ascribe a wonderful degree of significancy to frivolous incidents like those which have now been enumerated ; and we have seen per sons of considerable strength of intellect, not a little agitated at the sight of a magpie, or the voice of a cricket. All the world has heard, that if a company happen to consist of thirteen, one of the number may expect soon to die ; and what man or woman is igno rant of the prophetic virtue inherent in bees-wax, or mutton-fat, when moulded into the magic form of a a candle ? Such popular 'follies as these are finely ridiculed by Addison, in the 7th paper of the Spec tator. It is no new thing, indeed, to attack them with the weapons of ridicule. In the 12th book of the Iliad, Hector chides Polydamas for wishing to retire from the field, because an eagle appeared in the air, carrying a bleeding serpent in his talons. After expressing his contempt for the movements of birds, whether to the right or to the left, he introduces this noble sentiment 45 oteero5 4g07.705, ;rev From chains to save his country,—to repel Her ruthless foes, and save a falling state ; This glorious omen stimulates the brave, Whose lofty purpose is the pledge of triumph.
Cicero also, though himself a member of the'frater nity, speaks very contemptuously of their preten sions. " Where is the wonder," says he, " that a cock should be clamorous, an animal which scarcely ever ceases to strain his throat, either by night or by day ? It would be a prodigy indeed, if a fish were to do salutation to the morn,' in a shrill canorous voice, like the crowing of a cock." After Christian ity was introduced into the Roman empire, augury gradually lost its credit. It was discouraged by Gratian, and condemned by various ecclesiastical councils. In times still more modern, however, some delirious pretenders to magic, such as Michael Scot, attempted to revive and methodise the art, which had then fallen into desuetude ; but, notwithstanding their efforts to save it from oblivion, augury, strictly so called, is now so completely obsolete, that its arbitra ry canons are no longer interesting, except to those who delight in obscure and chaotic researches.