Salve Favoni

As with anything in Roman history, especially dealing with the roles of religion, we need at times to clarify what period we refer to. The Religio Romana was constantly evolving. The political and military institutions were constantly changing. Adjustments were made in religious prescriptions to accomdate the changing political situation in Rome, in its empire as it grew, and with the changing nature of its military.

Everything in the military was conducted under augural presciption. It was more important in the earlier periods, say to 130's. Marius certainly broke with some of those augural prescriptions. Some of the areas where the auspices played a role with the military are given below, but by no means every aspect of military life where they would be used.

The election of consules and praetors, the assignment by lot of their areas of responsibility (provincia), assembly of the Comitia Centuriata to levy the armies, drawing of lots to determine the order of the centuries in this levy, dismissing the Comitia (those levied given so many days to return equipted), the swearing in of the legiones, and the various rites required before consules and praetores could take office. These would include the sacrifices on the Capitolium, taking auspices at the auguralium on the Arx, declaring and attending the Feriae Latinae, the calling of the Senate for the first time under the consules' auspices, among other things. How this was done changed in the periods of the early Republic when there were no consules but only one praetor, then when two consules were elected, the era of tribunes with consular powers, the triumvir of 366 when the consules were distributed between patrician and plebeian and a patrician praetor was first introduced, later as more praetores were added, and then into the later periods. "The paludatus (a cloak traditionally worn by generals) is observed in the augurs' books, according to Veranius, to signify that he is equipted with arms (Festus 253a)." The general only donned his paludatus after the army formed. "Equipted with arms" means he had an army under his command, and with that it meant he had the proper auspices under which to command, armed with "the favor and protection of the Gods," as it were. The paludatus was a religious article signifying a general's religious as well as military authority.

When Livy wrote about the fetiales he had to explain to his readers what they were. The fetiales had not been used for years by the Late Republic. They were reintroduced by Augustus and then by Marcus Aurelius. Still the whole process of declaring war was handled under auspices and in a ritual manner. Livy and Valerius Maximus give examples of when auspices were disregarded, often mentioned as an explanation of some military disaster.

Establishing a camp, or for that matter a city, colony, estate or any space really, you defined the area by first establishing its center. The center of a miliary camp was the auguralicum where the auspices would first be taken. The matter of doing this just after a river crossing was mandated by augural prescription. commentaries on the Libri auguralis make mention that aupscipes did not carry over a river. They also mention exceptions to this rule (Festus 250b). A consul or any other commander could not conduct any operation without approval from the Gods. If it was determined to set up camp on that spot, the the commander's tent would be set up next to the auguralicum and the rest of the camp laid out from there. There were certain rites to perform while building and once the camp was completed. Moving out of camp to form battle lines required good omens. Then engaging in battle would require an additional taking of auspices. If no battle was fought auspices would be taken, and might determine whether the consul proceed further into enemy territory or withdraw. At times consules were recalled because of some error in their auspices. Such things played more in the era of the Italian Wars, the Samnite Wars, and then in the Punic Wars, Livy being our main source for such instances.

Military auspices differed from those used for political or religious matters. Those chickens you've heard about. We do not hear of consules observing the sky. The flight of birds, the calls of birds, other auspices might be taken into account, certainly thunder bolts would be observed, but primarily a general relied on the tripudium. A general always carried along with him a patera and a salser, according to Pliny, for making the initial sacrifice. He always had along with him priests (or public slaves) that cared for the chickens. The general would pour out the puls as though offering a sacrifice to the Dis Manibus, and the chickens then released. "A sonivium tripudium, according to Appius Pulcher, was that named "attentive", being the sound made when the puls fell to the ground out of the mouths of chickens as though they ate like quadrupeds (Festus 297b)." "This augury is like that in the discipline of augurs, what is called a sonivium tripudium, i. e. a sound like that of a tree uprooted by an earth tremor and suddenly falls (Servius Ad Aen. 3.90)."

A description of the rite of holding a tripudium is given in a scholia by Veranius on the Aeneis, but it's garbled and a bit confusing.

"How the signal to fight was given in the army, the general under whose authority it served (imperium auspicumque) would be seated in the tabernaculum (under a tent in the auguralicum) on his magisterial stool in the presence of the army. The sacred chickens would be released from their coop into the area around his stool ... an announcement from ...the chickens ... a favourable omen seen by each (chicken) eating up grain so greedily that the corn falls from thier beaks to the ground, an announcement of a favourable omen. [Afterwards in silentium he seated himself once more and said, 'The cavalry and the infantry of the Latins and ... dressed for war ... how soever many of you are present so as to have seen the favourable omen, carry the message (to your troops). [The morale of the men was boistered by the fortunate announcement] ... by my imperium and faith ... what he undertakes may be advantageous, they proclaimed with a strong voice. Then the army formed into its battle line, there again the auspices were taken, again the hinderance (?) is attested to as was the customary method used to make ready the army for battle (Ad Aen. 10.241)."