Augur

An augur was a Roman official who had to investigate whether a planned by the State or by a paterfamilias ( head of family) company was agreeable to the gods. He proclaimed the will of the gods, he read the augury from the flight and cries of birds and other animals ( auspices of Latin auspicium " bird's eye view ").

Features

Augur is not a priest in the Roman sense ( sacerdos ), ie perform no official with the task sacrificial ceremonies. However, the Augurat of priests could be taken in the sense of offices accumulation. The sign of the augurs was a crook ( lituus ). The transfer of the Office of a augurs on his successor was called inauguratio; even today, the word inauguration for a solemn inauguration in use.

The Augur denoted by crook a quadrilateral area in nature, the so-called templum, the - sometimes oriented to the east - the observation served. Here practiced Augur from the contemplatio, ie he looked at the different signa ( " Marks"). Of which there were two main classes, the auguria impetrativa ( " requested " character) and the auguria oblativa ( " unfavorable " character). Furthermore, there were five different types of signs, one of which is ex quadripedibus ("from the quadrupeds " ), which indicates to us that the restriction on birds represents a narrowing of later.

The root word of Augur and Augurium itself is of some (Georg Wissowa ) " multiply " with the Latin augere associated, and it makes reference to an assumed fertility and reproduction ritual in connection with the crook Lituus. However, it remains open how then entered the historically tangible function of the bird's eye view. It may be that for the same Anlautung the forgotten was transferred to the related exercise. The Latin auspex " bird rain " is derived from avis or Auis " bird" and spectare "look".

Initially, there were three augurs in Rome, later there were nine. Since Sulla there were fifteen and sixteen since Caesar. Originally augurische priesthood was there to ask for an increase in the harvest or increase the value of state welfare. Later, the function of the augurs took the Etruscan haruspices, liver Deuter.

Today's use of language

Even today we are talking with statements about possible future developments of " pundits " in common parlance. A " knowing smile " refers figuratively the knowing smile of an initiate who knows about the future.

The term goes back to a traditional statement of Cicero Senior Cato, who, however, did not refer to the pundits, but to the haruspices ( visceral shudder ). In contrast to the usual interpretation today but Cicero, who was Augur even used this quote ironic in his argument against the credibility of scrying possibilities of soothsayers. The smile is therefore based on the knowledge of an insider who knows that he just can not read from their practices, the future self and other pundits and the prophecies are nonsense or can be used as an influential participating political instrument.

The Italian word for Auguri Congratulations derives from the augurs.