Rome was founded according to Latin rites. It was not founded by Etruscans, did not use Etruscan foundation rites, was not later ruled from Etruria or ruled by Etruscan kings. Tarquinius Priscus was a Greek who came to Rome from an Etruscan city, and the reason specified was that he came because he could not be elected king in any Etruscan city because he was not Etruscan. See Livy 1.34.1-12, 1.40.2 and elsewhere. Coming from Etruria Tarquinius probably introduced some things that were Etruscan. However one thing that is signified in the story of Tarquinius and Attus Navius is that Navius represents the native Latin augurs in contrast to the Etruscan haruspices (Livy 1.36 and elsewhere). The legend of Romulus said that he came from Alba Longa, and at Rome he instituted religious rites according to Alban ritual (Livy 1.7). While plowing the primordialis that would become the pomerium, he was dressed in Gabiian fashion . This distinguishes Romulus' foundation rites as Latin rather than Etruscan. The only thing Romulus was said to have adopted from the Etruscans was the use of lictores and the paraphernalia of office used by Etruscan kings (Livy 1.8). Foundation rites were part of "a stock of ideas and customs which were not a monopoly of any one single people of early Italy, but were held in common by them all." Salmon was talking about the Samnites, but as he says this observation applies to all the various peoples of Archaic Italy. A version of the foundation rite described of Romulus is found also in southern Italy among Oscan speaking peoples, as on the Cippus Abella. It is seen in the petroglyphs of Val Camonica in the north. Caecina gave an account of the Etruscan foundation rites of Mantua, and what was noteworthy is that these rites differed from those rites used at Rome.

A distinction is also made that the auspices taken by Romulus and Remus were by Latin rite rather than Etruscan. There was good reason to make this distinction since Etruscans took auspice in a fashion different from that used by the Romans. Evidence that the Roman, or rather the Latin auspices, were distinguished from the disciplina etrusca is found in various Latin authors. Some of the evidence is given below.

(1) Varro sets out how the augurs distinguished out five different categories of lands.

"Our public augurs set out in their discussions that there are five kinds of land: these being Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus, and incertus. Those called Romanus take their name from Rome, founded by Romulus, Gabinus from the town of Gabii. Peregrinus are those peaceful lands which lie beyond Roman and Gabian lands, that are alike in this, that they are favorable (to Rome). They are called peregrinus from pergendo, that is, 'to advance outward', away from the lands of the Romans. The lands of the Gabii are therefore also foreign, but because they have the same type of auspices (as the Romans) they are subsequently distinguished from other foreign lands. The hosticus are called such since they are hostile to Rome. The incertus are those lands from the four corners of the earth that are unknown (Varro L. L. 5.53)."

Romans lands were specifically defined, "as we observe in the litany of the augurs of the rivers Tiber, Spino, Anemo, Nodinus and other rivers close to Rome (Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.20.52)". The town of Gabii represents all Latins. It was an ancient site, one that predated Rome. The association of Gabii, Rome and Alba Longa as distinctly Latin, and distinguished from Etruscans, is something seemingly confirmed by archaeology. The whole complex of the Villanovan burial customs is found at Rome alone. Characteristic parts of it however are found at Gabii and Alba Longa. Only one Etruscan grave has similar deposits and that may have been due to it being a Latin grave. While the burial customs would not necessarily pertain to rites of augury, it does show that while Latins and Etruscan shared a common Villanovan material culture, within that culture there were differences that marked out Latin communities from Etruscan communities.

The tradition of the Roman augurs was retained in the Augurum Libri. How far back this tradition extended is anyone?s guess, but what is clear is that the Roman augurs distinguished their own Latin tradition from that of the peregrinusEtruscan tradition.

(2) Cicero distinguishes out Roman auspices from that of Etruscans at De Divinationes 1.41, 2.35, 38; and De Natura Deorum 2.4. He noted divining by birds is Roman, distinct from prodigies found in entrails by Etruscan haruspices examining the exima (De Div. 13). Servilius made the same distinction when he said that the greater and older form of auspices were those used by Latins, specifying the tripudium and the auspices taken by the flight of birds, and contrasted those used along with a precatio (Ad Aen. 3.374). That is, he distinguished the art of Roman augurs from the Etruscan discipline of the haruspices. Cicero in De Divinatio says that Romans took auspices from birds both in their flight and from their songs, but Etruscans used only ostentaria, i. e. the direction from which birds called and not the flight of birds. So by specifically referring to alites, Servilius distinguished out Roman augurs observing the flight of birds from any Etruscan practice. Servilius referred to auspices that were taken during prayer. Roman prayer was always accompanied with sacrifices (Pliny N. H. 28.10). Servilius, mentioning auspices taken with praecatio, thereby refers to the Etruscan art of examining entrails. So the greater and older form of auspices used at Rome, attributed to the maiores is specifying as Latin and he is specifically discounting Etruscan practices as part of those auspices. Further this distinction between traditions and which were the more important is put forward in the story of Tiberius Gracchus, the consul and an augur himself, when he scolded an haruspex as an Etruscan barbarian (Cicero De Nat. Deor 2.10-11: Tusci barbari; Val. Max. 1.1.3). Romans held the left as propitious, the Etruscans thought it the right. That indicates too that Etruscans faced north when taking auspices, where as the Romans specify facing south. Where the three categories of birds of augury are given by Cicero and Festus, citing Appius Claudius, i. e. the oscines, alites, and those that are both, this again distinguishes Roman practice from that of Etruscans who used only ostentaria.

(3) In Festus a distinction is made, as some words he notes as derived from Etruscans, as in the case of Caelius mons being called caele among the Etruscans, but the terms of augury he consistently attributes to the Roman augurs and to Auguralibus Libris. These books of the augurs are distinct from the Libri Tagetici that Etruscans used. Cicero gives us examples of the subjects contained in these. Libri auruspicini, Libri fulgurales, Libri rituales, Libri fatales from Veii, and the Libri Acherunticion the afterlife. There is no mention of Etruscan books on augury, on birds of augury, or on thunder, or the other signs used in Roman augury. Another category of auspices used by Roman augurs that Etruscans were known for and consulted on were the ex diris. The Romans took many different things as ex diris but only those prodigies found in the exima were specifically attributed to Etruscans. The distinction between the books of Roman augurs from Etruscan books, and the distinction between Latin auspices from Etruscan, is carried throughout Servilius, Fulgentius, Censorinus, Macrobius, Capella, Columella, and also with Greeks authors who wrote about early Rome. It appears as well with Arnobius where he speaks of Etruscan tradition coming from Tages. Arnobius is our only source for some of the technical terms used by augurs for sacrificial offerings, and while some of those terms originate from Greek, none are Etruscan.

(4) Etruscans were noted for their lore on lightning flashes and Romans did study this Etruscan lore. But Romans used both thunder and lightning, unlike the Etruscans. Pliny (2.138) tells how Etruscans had nine Gods hurling eleven kinds of lightning; the Romans only two Gods, Summanus and Jupiter (although others mention Minerva as well). The same with Festus at 229a and Ep. 75. The categories of lightning bolts attributed to Etruscan are based, however, on a work by Caecina in the first century. The categories are given by Seneca in Naturales Quaestiones book two, and other reference is again found with Festus. Some reference to fulgurales is given in Columella also. There was a book on tonitruale written by Nigidius Figulus in the first century. A Greek text by Lydus on divining by thunder, the so-called Brontoscopia, claimed an Etruscan origin but its source was Nigidius. This was a calendar where the occurrence of thunder on any given day is said to presage one thing or another. It is said to apply to Rome alone and uses a Roman calendar, with references to astrology consistent with Nigidius? interest in such foreign subjects.

At every point Roman augury is distinguished from the Etruscan discipline of the haruspices. With regard to auspices specifically, the Etruscan auspices by fulgurale and ostentaria were more complex than that used by Romans with regard to such signs, and Romans used a much wider variety of signs than did Etruscans. Further, differences were noted between Etruscan practice and Latin practice, even where they shared some things in common, such as which side was considered propitious when divining by bird calls. Etruscan haruspices were called from Etruria to participate at Roman rites, both public and private, but they were in addition to and separate from Roman augurs. The Roman discipline of the augurs was always regarded as Latin in origin, and the distinction is seen in the differences between those auspices used by Romans and Etruscans. Therefore Roman augury did not originate from Etruscans.