s "interpretes Iovis Optimi
maximi" (_de Legibus_, ii. 20), and herein could hardly
have made a mistake, as he was himself an augur. As the
great deity was of Etruscan origin in this form, I
should conjecture that the college took new ground and
gained new influence under the Etruscan dynasty.

[636] Cp. also Mueller-Deecke, _Die Etrusker_, ii. 165
foll. Our knowledge comes chiefly from the learned but
obscure writer Martianus Capella (ed. Eyssenhardt), who
wrote under the later Empire.

[637] For these meetings see Cic. _de Div._ i. 41. 90;
Regell, p. 23. They were obsolete in Cicero's time, but
seem to have still existed in the time of Scipio
Aemilianus: Cic. _Lael._ 2. 7.

[638] _Staatsrecht_, i. 73 foll.; Greenidge, _Roman
Public Life_, p. 172 foll.

[639] The best account of the constitutional power of
the augurs is in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopaedie_,
_s.v._ "augur," vol. i. p. 2334 foll.; cp. Wissowa,
_R.K._ 457-8.

[640] _De Legibus_, ii. 21.

[641] The outward form of _co-optatio_ was still
preserved, like our "election" of a bishop by a chapter.
Cicero was co-opted by Hortensius after nomination by
two other augurs. See his interesting account of this in
his _Brutus_, ch. i. The survival may be taken as
throwing light on the original secrecy and closeness of
the _collegium_.

[642] For the _leges Aelia et Fufia_, cf. Greenidge,
_op. cit._ p. 173. The Stoics of the last century B.C.
were divided on this point. See below, p. 399. In the
second book of his _de Divinatione_, following the
Academic or agnostic school, he himself confutes his
brother Quintus' argument for divination contained in
Bk. I.

[643] This is the view of Thulin, _Die Goetter des
Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza_
(Giessen, 1906), p. 7 foll., and it seems at present to
hold the field: see Gruppe, _Die mythologische Literatur
aus den Jahren 1898-1905_, p. 336.

[644] Mueller-Deecke, vol. ii. p. 7 foll.

[645] See Deecke's note on p. 12 of Mueller-Deecke, vol.
ii. It is possibly connected with _hariolus_.

[646] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 470, and Mueller-Deecke, vol.
ii. 165 foll.

[647] See above, note 50.

[648] References to Livy will be found in Wissowa,
_R.K._ p. 473, note 11. One of these, to Livy xxvii. 16.
14, i