Book 2, Chapter 34

71 “Indeed, the consuls Publius Claudius and Lucius Junius, who sailed against the auspices, deserved every punishment. Religious observance should have been obeyed; ancestral custom should not have been rejected with such defiance. Rightly, then, one was condemned by the people's judgment, while the other took his own life. Flaminius disobeyed the auspices, and so perished with his army. But the following year Paulus obeyed them: did that keep him from falling with his army in the battle of Cannae? Even if auspices existed—and they do not—those we use, whether from the sacred birds' feeding or from the sky, are certainly imitations of auspices, not auspices at all. ‘Quintus Fabius, I wish you to assist me in taking the auspices.’ He answers: ‘I have heard.’ In our ancestors' time an expert was employed for this; now anyone will do. Yet an expert is needed, someone who understands what ‘silence’ means. In taking auspices, we call a condition free of every flaw ‘silence.’

72 “Understanding this requires a fully trained augur. But when the man taking the auspices orders his assistant, ‘Tell me if there appears to be silence,’ the assistant neither looks up nor looks around; he immediately replies that there appears to be silence. Then the other says: ‘Tell me if they are feeding.’ ‘They are feeding.’ What birds? Where? ‘The man called the chicken-keeper from that very duty has brought chickens in a cage.’ These, then, are Jupiter's winged messengers! What does it matter whether they feed or not? Nothing, so far as auspices go. But when they feed, something must fall from their mouths and strike the earth—first called terripavium, then terripudium, and now tripudium. So when a morsel falls from a chicken's mouth, the person taking the auspices is informed of a tripudium solistimum, a fully favorable feeding sign.

71 “Still, the consuls Publius Claudius and Lucius Junius deserved every punishment for sailing against the auspices. They should have obeyed religious practice and not rejected ancestral custom so stubbornly. The people were therefore right to convict one; the other killed himself. Flaminius ignored the auspices and perished along with his army as a result. But the following year Paulus obeyed them. Yet he too died with his army at the battle of Cannae, didn’t he? Even if auspices existed—and they do not—our current signs, whether a chicken’s falling food or something in the sky, would still be mere copies, not genuine auspices. ‘Quintus Fabius, I want you to assist me in taking the auspices.’ He answers, ‘I hear you.’ Our ancestors employed an expert for this; now they use anyone at all. But the job requires skill: he needs to know the meaning of ‘silence.’ That is our augural term for the absence of any ritual defect.

72 “Understanding that takes a fully trained augur. But the person brought in to assist with the auspices does not look up or around when the man taking them gives this order: ‘Tell me if there appears to be silence.’ He immediately answers that there appears to be silence. Next comes the order: ‘Report whether they are eating.’ The reply: ‘Yes, they are.’ Which birds are these, and where are they? ‘The keeper brought chickens in a cage; that is why he is called a pullarius,’ he says. So these are Jupiter’s messenger birds! Does their eating or refusing to eat make any difference to the auspices? None at all. But when they feed, something is bound to fall from their beaks and strike the ground. This was first called terripavium, then terripudium, and is now called tripudium. So when a lump of food falls from a chicken’s beak, the person taking the auspices is told that there is a fully favorable feeding sign.