AUGURACULUM
the open space (templum) on the arx, where the
public auspices were taken after the Capitoline hill had become a part
of the city. In the centre of this open space was the thatched hut of
the observer, which was preserved in its primitive form at least as late
as the time of Augustus (
Vitr. ii. 1. 5; Varro,
LL vii. 8; Cic. de off.
iii. 66; Fest. 18; cf. Plin.
NH xxii. 5;
Liv. i. 24; cf.
CASA ROMULI.
The auguraculum was on the north-east corner of the arx, above the
clivus Argentarius, probably near the apse of the present church of
S. Maria in Aracoeli (
Jord. i. 2. 102-106;
BC 1910, 132-140;
NS 1910,
132; Hulsen, Geogr.
Jahrb. 1911, 199; DAP 2. xii. 149-153; PT 148).
