National Latin Exam Study Guide: A Journey Through Ancient Rome

Augur or auspex meant a diviner by birds, but came in course of time to be applied in a more extended sense: his art was called augurium or auspicium. Plutarch relates that the augures were originally termed auspices (Quaest. Rom. c. 72), and there seems no reason to doubt this statement as Hartung does (Die Religion der Römer, vol. I p99), on the authority of Servius (ad Virg. Aen. I.402, III.20). The authority of Plutarch is further supported by the fact, that in Roman marriages the person who represented the diviner of ancient times, was called auspex and not augur (Cic. de Div. I.16). Rubino (Römisch. Verfassung, p45) draws a distinction between the meaning of the words auspex and augur, though he believes that they were used to indicate the same person, the former referring simply to the observation of the signs, and the latter to the interpretation of them. This view is certainly supported by the meaning of the verbs auspicari and augurari, and the same distinction seems to prevail between the wordsauspicium and augurium, when they are used together (Cic. de Div. I.48, de Nat. Deor. II.3), though they are often applied to the same signs.

 

The word auspex was supplanted by augur, but the scientific term for the observation continued on the contrary to be auspicium and not augurium. The etymology of auspex is clear enough (from avis, and the root spec or spic), but that of augur is not so certain. The ancient grammarians derived it from avis and gero (Festus, s.v. augur; Serv.ad Virg. Aen. V.523), while some modern writers suppose the root to be aug, signifying "to see," and the same as the Sanscritakshi, the Latin oculus, and the German auge, and ur to be a termination; the word would thus correspond to the Englishseer.

 

Others again believe the word to be of Etruscan origin, which is not incompatible with the supposition, as we shall show below, that the auspices were of Latin or Sabine origin, since the word augur may thus have been introduced along with the Etruscan rites, and thus have superseded the original term auspex. There is, however, no certainty on this point; and, although the first mentioned etymology seems improbable, yet from the analogy of au-spex and au-ceps, we are inclined to believe that the former part of the word is of the same root as avis, and the latter may be connected with gero, more especially as Priscian (I.6 §36) gives auger and augeratus, as the more ancient forms of augur and auguratus.  The augurs formed acollegium at Rome, but their history, functions, and duties will be better explained after we have obtained a clear idea of what the auspices were, and who had the power of taking them.