Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

2

AUGUSTALES.

did not possess the auspices, they conse-
quently could not possess the spectio [habere
spectionem) ; but as the augurs were con-
stantly employed by the magistrates to take
the auspices, they exercised the spectio, though
they did not possess it in virtue of their office.
When they were employed by the magistrates
in taking the auspices, they possessed the
right of the nuntiatio, and thus had the
power, by the declaration of unfavourable
signs [obnuntiatio], to put a stop to all im-
portant public transactions.—The auspices
were not conferred upon the magistrates in
any special manner. It was the act of thei)
election which made them the recipients of
the auspices, since the comitia, in which they
were appointed to their office, were held aus-
pieato, and consequently their appointment
was regarded as ratified by the gods. The
auspices, therefore, passed immediately into
their hands upon the abdication of their pre-
decessors in office.—The auspices belonging
to the different magistrates were divided into
two classes, called auspicia maxima or majora
and minora. The former, which belonged
originally to the kings, passed over to the
consuls, censors, and praetors, and likewise
to the extraordinary magistrates, the dicta-
tors, interreges, and consular tribunes. The
quaestors and the curule aediles, on the con-
trary, had only the auspicia minora.—It was
a common opinion in antiquity that a college
of three augurs was appointed by Romulus,
answering to the number of the early tribes,
the Ramnes, Tities, and Lucerenses, but the
accounts vary respecting their origin and
number. At the passing of the Ogulnian
law (b.c. 300) the augurs were four in num-
ber. This law increased the number of pon-
tiffs to eight, by the addition of four plebeians,
and that of the augurs to nine by the addi-
tion of five plebeians. The number of nine
augurs lasted down to the dictatorship of
Sulla, who increased them to fifteen, a mul-
tiple of the original three, probably with a
reference to the early tribes. A sixteenth
was added by Julius Caesar after his return
from Egypt. The members of the college of
augurs possessed the right of self-election
(cooptatio) until b.c. 103, the year of the
Domitian law. By this law it was enacted
that vacancies in the priestly colleges should
be filled up by the votes of a minority of the
tribes, i. e. seventeen out of thirty-five chosen
by lot. The Domitian law was repealed by
Sulla b.c. 81, but again restored b.c. G3,
during the consulship of Cicero, by the tri-
bune T. Annius Labicnus, with the support
of Caesar. It was a second time abrogated
by Antony b.c 44 ; whether again restored
by Iliuius and Tansa in their general annul-

ment of the acts of Anton}', seems uncertain.
The emperors possessed the right of electing
augurs at pleasure. The augurs were elected
for life, and even if capitally convicted, never
lost their sacred character. "When a vacancy
occurred, the candidate was nominated by
two of the elder members of the college, the
electors were sworn, and the new member
was then solemnly inaugurated. On such
occasion there was always a splendid banquet
given, at which all the augurs were expected
to be present. The only distinction in the
college was one of age; an elder augur
always voted before a younger, even if the
latter filled one of the higher offices in the
state. The head of the college was called
magigter collcgii. As insignia of their office
the augurs wore the trabea, or public dress,
and carried in their hand the lituits or curved
wand. [Lrrucs.] On the coins of the Ro-
mans, who filled the office of augur, we con-
stantly find the litiius, and along with it, not
unfrcquently, the capis, an earthen vessel
which was used by them in sacrifices. The

Coin representing the lituus and capis on the reverse.

science of the augurs was called jus augurum
and Jus augurium, and was preserved in books
[Ubri augurales), which are frequently men-
tioned in the ancient writers. The expres-
sion for consulting the augurs was referre ad
augures, and their answers were called de-
creta or responsa augurum. The science of
augury had greatly declined in the time of
Cicero ; and although he frequently deplores
its neglect in his Be Divinatione, yet neither
he nor any of the educated classes appears to
have had any faith in it.

ATjGURACULUM. [Arx; Augur, p. 50, b.]

AUGURALE. [Augur, p. 50, b.]

AUGURIUM. [Augur.]

AUGUSTALES—(1) (sc. ludi, also called
Augustalia, sc. certamina, ludicra), games
celebrated in honour of Augustus, at Rome
and in other parts of the Roman empire.
After the battle of Actium, a quinquennial
festival was instituted ; and the birthday of
Augustus, as well as that on which the vic-
tory was announced at Rome, were regarded
as festival days. It was not, however, till
b.c. 11 that the festival on the birthday of
Augustus was formally established by a de-
cree of the senate, and it is this festival