Divinatio
(prevision of the future).
1.
In general the word is applied to all prophecy or foretelling in the simplest sense of the
word. Among the Romans, prophecy was based, not on inspiration, as with the Greeks, but on
the observation of definite signs, such as the
omen (or voice), the
prodigies and the auspices taken note of by the augurs. (See
Augur.) The science of the
haruspices (or the
foretelling of events from the inspection of the carcases of sacrificial victims) was a later
importation from Etruria. The ancient Romans were not familiar with the divinatio from
sortes or lots, which was common in many parts of Italy. The Sibylline Books
threw no light on future events. (See
Sibylla.)
Towards the end of the republican period the sciences of the augurs and haruspices lost their
significance, and the Greek oracles, in the various forms of their craft, with the Chaldaean
astrology, came into vogue, and carried the fashion in the society of the Empire. On
divination among the Greeks see
Mantiké.
2.
In the language of Roman law,
divinatio meant the legal inquiry for
deciding who, among many advocates proposing themselves, was the fittest to undertake a
prosecution, and also the speeches by which the various advocates tried to make good their
competency for the task. Thus Cicero's oration called
Divinatio in Caecilium
was pronounced by him against Q. Caecilius Niger, a sham accuser of Verres, who claimed the
right to prosecute, but who would have played into the hands of the accused.
