in basis of truth and fact in the
observation of such presages. But Horace mentions other animals, wolf,
fox, and snake, and some at least of the folklore about omens which is
to be found in Pliny's descriptions of animals may help us to appreciate
the nature of the old Roman ideas on this subject. The tiller of the
land and the shepherd on the uplands used their eyes and ears, not
wholly without advantage to themselves; but in the life of the city such
observation became gradually formal and meaningless, and degenerated
into the superstition reflected in Horace's ode. I must parenthetically
confess to a personal feeling of regret that this people, who in their
early days had good opportunities, made little or no contribution to the
knowledge of animals and their habits.[619] But I must pass on to the
more important subject of divination as developed and formalised by the
authorities of the State.

In explaining the ritual of the _ius divinum_ I laid stress on the fact
that its main object was to maintain the _pax deorum_, the right
relation between the divine and human citizens.[620] To make this _pax_
secure, it was necessary that in every public act the good-will of the
gods should be ascertained by obtaining favourable auspices--it must be
done _auspicato_. To take the first illustration that occurs, Livy
describes a dictator about to fight a battle as leaving his camp
_auspicato_, after sacrificing to obtain the _pax deorum_.[621] It is
for this reason that the _auspicia_ have a leading place in the
foundation legends of the city. We are all familiar with the story of
the _auspicia_ of Romulus and Remus, which goes back at least as far as
Ennius;[622] and we find them also in the foundation of _coloniae_ in
historical times.[623] I do not know that I can better express the place
which the _auspicia_ occupied in the mind of the Roman than by quoting
the words which Livy puts into the mouth of Appius Claudius in 367 B.C.,
when supposed to be inveighing against the opening of the consulship to
plebeians: "Auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace,
domi militiaeque, omnia geri, quis est qui ignoret?" He goes on to argue
that these _auspicia_ belong to patricians only, that no plebeian
magistrate is created _auspicato_, that the man who wants to allow
plebeians to become curule magistrates, _tollit ex civitate auspicia_.
"Nunc nos, tanquam iam nihil pace deorum opus sit, omnes caerimonias
polluimus."[6