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AUGUR.
probation and confirmation to the act of his ward. Though a pupillus had not a capacity to do any act which was prejudicial to him, he had a capacity to receive or assent to any thing which was for his benefit, and in such case the auctoritas of the tutor was not necessary.
The authority of decided cases was called similiter judicatorum auctoritas. The other mean ings of auctoritas may be easily derived from the primary meaning of the word, and from the ex planations here given. [G. L.]
AUDITORIUM, as the name implies, is any place for hearing. It was the practice among the Romans for poets and others to read their composi tions to their friends, who were sometimes called the auditorium (Plin. Ep. iv. 7) ; but the word was also used to express any place in which any thing was heard, and under the empire it was applied to a court of justice. Under the republic the place for all judicial proceedings was the comi- tium and the forum. (Ni pagunt in comitio aut in foro ante meridiem causam coniicito quum per- orant ambo praesentes. Dirksen, Uebersicht, &c. p. 7*25.) But for the sake of shelter and conve nience, it became the practice to hold courts in the Basilicae, which contained halls, which were also called auditoria. In the dialogue de Oratoribus (c. 39), the writer observes that oratory had lost much by cases being generally heard in "auditoria et tabularia." It is first under M. Aurelius that the auditorium principis is mentioned, by which we must understand a hall or room in the imperial residence ; and in such a hall Septimius Severus and the later emperors held their regular sittings when they presided as judges. (Dig. 36. tit. 1. s. 22, 49. tit. 9. s. 1; Dion Cass. Ixxvi. 11; Dig. 4. tit. 4. s. 18.) The provincial governors also under the empire sometimes sat on their tribunal as in the republic, and sometimes in the praetorium or in an auditorium. Accordingly, the latest jurists use the word generally for any place in which justice was administered. (Dig. 1. tit. 22. s. 5.) In the time of Diocletian, the auditorium had got the name of secretarium ; and in a constitution of Constantine (Cod. Th. i. tit. 16. s. 6), the two words seem to be used as equivalent, when he enacts that both criminal and civil cases should be heard openly (before the tribunal), and not in auditoria or eecretaria. Valentinianus and Valens allowed causes to be heard either before the tribunal or in the secretarium, but yet with open doors. From the fifth century, the secretarium or secretum was the regular place for hearing causes, and the people were excluded by lattice-work (cancellae) and curtains (vela) ; but this may have been as much for convenience as for any other purpose, though it appears that at this late period of the empire there were only present the magistrate and his officers, and the parties to the cause. Only those whom the magistrate invited, or who had business, or persons of certain rank (honorati) had admission to the courts, under the despotic system of the late empire. (Cod. 1. tit. 48. s. 3 ; Hollweg, Handbuch des Oivilprozesses, p. 215.) [G. L.]
AUGUR, AUGU’RIUM ; AUSPEX, AUS-PI’CIUM. Augur or auspese meant a diviner by birds, but came in course of time, like the Greek olwv6s, to be applied in a more extended sense: his art was called augurium q? auspicium. Plutarch relates that the augures were originally termed auspices (Q,uae$t-< Rom. c. 72), and there seems no
AUGUR.
reason to doubt this statement as Plartung does (Die Religion der Romcr, vol. i. p. 99), 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 (Romisch. Verfassung, p. 45) draws a distinction between the meaning of the words auspcoo 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 words auspicium and augurium, when they are used together (Cic. de Div. ii. 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 auspeos 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 Sanscrit akshi, the Latin oculus, and the German auge, and ur to be a termination ; the word would thus correspond to the English seer. 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 Etruscan rites, and thus have superseded the original terra auspesc. There is, however, no certainty on the point; and, although the first mentioned etymology seems improbable, yet from the analogy of au-spex and au-ceps, we are inclinsd 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 an • cient forms of augur and auguratus. By Greek writers on Roman affairs, the augurs are called otcoz/oTroAot, ofWocr/fOTroi, olwviffrcd, ol eV oluvots iepels. The augurs formed a collegium 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.
An acquaintance with this subject is one of primary importance to every student of Roman history and antiquities. In the most ancient times, no transaction took place, either of a private or a public nature, without consulting the auspices, and hence we find the question asked in a well-known passage of Livy (vi. 14), " Auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace, domo mili-tiaeque omnia geri, quis est, qui ignoret ?" An outline of the most important facts connected with the auspices, which is all that our limits will allow, therefore, claims our attentive consideration.
All the nations of antiquity were impressed with the firm belief, that the will of the gods and future events were revealed to men by certain signs, which were sent by the gods as marks of their favour to their sincere worshippers. Hence, the arguments of the Stoics that if there are gods,
