Overview

Scholarly discussion of augury, a form of Roman state divination designed to consult the god Jupiter, has previously tended to focus either upon its legal-constitutional aspects or its role in maintaining and perpetuating Roman social and political structures. This volume challenges the prevailing view that official divination was organized to produce only the results its users wanted, arguing instead that its rules and precepts did not allow human beings simply to create or ignore signs at will - that in theory as in practice it was the Romans, not their supreme god, who were 'bound' by the auguries and auspices.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lindsay G. Driediger-Murphy (Assistant Professor in Latin and Roman Social/Religious History, Department of Classics and Religion, University of Calgary, Canada)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.70cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.30cm
Weight:   0.480kg
ISBN:  

9780198834434

ISBN 10:   0198834438
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   27 December 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Frontmatter Texts and Abbreviations 0: Introduction 0.1: Of Gods and Men 0.2: Why Now? 0.3: What Is Needed? 0.4: How? Four Guiding Principles 1: Do As I Say, Not As I Do? Report versus Reality in Augury 1.1: Introduction 1.2: Principle 1 in the High and Late Empire: Comments on Signification 1.3: Principle 1 in the High and Late Empire: Claims that Augural Rules Gave Humans the Freedom to Accept or Reject Signs 1.4: Principle 1 in the Middle (and Late) Republic: Claims that Human Awareness of Signs Determined their Validity 1.5: Principle 2 in the Early Principate: The Claim that Augural Rules Gave Humans Freedom to 'Create' Signs by Reporting Them 1.6: Principle 2 in the Late Republic: The Claim that Humans Contrived Auspication so as to Receive Favourable Signs and Avoid Receiving Unfavourable Ones 1.7: Conclusions 2: Convenience or Conversation? Why 'Watching the Sky' was More than Wishful Thinking 2.1: Introduction 2.2: What Was Sky-Watching? 2.3: Did Sky-Watching Invariably Produce Signs? 2.4: Was Sky-Watching Technically Sufficient to Prohibit Assemblies? 2.5: Possible Objections: The Timing of Servare de Caelo 2.6: But Would It Actually Work? Appendix: Ancient References to the Bibulus Affair 3: Out of Control? The Effects of Augury on Roman Public Life 3.1: Introduction 3.2: Motives, Part 1: Cicero, the Augurium Salutis, and the Limits of our Knowledge 3.3: Motives, Part 2: Two Methodological Problems and Two Abdicating Consuls 3.4: Motives, Part 3: The Consul, his Colleague, a Tribune, and Roman Respect for Augury 3.5: The Dynamics of State Divination 3.6: But Did It Really Matter? 3.7: Conclusion: When Signs Said No 4: Conclusion Endmatter Bibliography Index Locorum General Index

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Author Information

Lindsay G. Driediger-Murphy is an Assistant Professor in Latin and Roman Social/Religious History at the University of Calgary, Canada. After completing a DPhil in Ancient History at the University of Oxford in 2011 she became a Stipendiary College Lecturer at Oriel and Jesus Colleges, Oxford, before moving back to Canada to take up her current post. Her research and teaching focus on the religious history of the ancient world.

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