1 Earliest Rome

J. D I V I N A T I O N A N D D I V I N E R S
places in his speech. The first two clauses specify the religious action required;
the next five give the religious offences that have caused the gods to be angry
and require appeasement; the last four list the public dangers that need to be
averted by religious action.
See further: Vol. 1, 19-20,101-2, 137-8; R. Bloch (1963) 50-5; Lenaghan
(1969); Dumezil (1970) 671-2*; Wiseman (1974) 159-69.
Composite text from Cicero's speech, On the Response of the Haruspices (figures in
brackets represent chapter numbers of the speech)
Because in the territory of Latiniensis 5
a groaning noise was heard: (20)
Compensation is due to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Tellus, the Gods of the Heavens (20)
the games have been celebrated without enough care and polluted (21 ) 2
sacred and holy places have been profaned (9) 3
envoys have been slain against all faith and tight (34) 4
trust and sworn oaths have been neglected (36) ?
old and secret sacrifices have been celebrated without enough care and polluted (37) 6
in order that murders and perils should not be caused by discord and dissension amongst
the senators and the leading men; and that there should be no lack of divine help in
preventing the power falling to a single man and the army from weakening and losing its
strength (40) 7
in order that the Republic be not harmed by secret plans (55)
in order that honour should not be increased for men of low worth and political failure
(56)
in order that the basis of the Republic remain unchanged (60)
76
1. The exact location of the territory is unknown, but it was somewhere near Rome.
2. Cicero referred this to Clodius' disruption of the Megalesian Games (see 3.3a n.2).
3. Clodius had claimed that this was a reference to Cicero's rebuilding and inoccupation of
his house, which Clodius had demolished, consecrating part of the site as a Shrine of
Liberty; cf. 8.2a.
4. Ibis was generally referred to the killing of envoys from Egypt, on the instructions of
Ptolemy Auletes, the Egyptian king.
5- Cicero related this to Clodius' alleged bribery of the jurors in his trial for invading the
festival of Bona Dea, 8.2b.
6. Cicero referred this to Clodius' alleged invasion of the festival of Bona Dea, 8.2b.
7. The Latin text is uncertain at the end of this section.
7.4b The Liver from Piacenza
The haruspices were specialists in the examination of the entrails of sacrificial
victims ('exfispicy). This bronze liver (probably third-second century B.C.)
found near Piacenza in Etruria in 1877, seems to have provided a guide to the
interpretation of the victim's organ. The bronze (0.13 m. x 0.08 m.) is marked
out as a map of the heavens with the gods of each section identified on its surface;
so the animal's liver was seen as analogous to the divine sphere, and