INAUGURA´TIO
INAUGURA´TIO was in general the ceremony through
which the augurs obtained, or endeavoured to obtain, the sanction of the
gods to something which had been decreed by man. It was of especial
importance under the kings, for it was the formal rite whereby the gods
declared their acceptance of a certain person as the agent through whom
alone they would have dealings with the community, and who therefore had an
imperative claim upon the obedience of the citizens. The king himself asked
the gods for the sign of their approval: the augur only attended to recite
the proper formula of consultation, and to interpret according to the rules
of his art the answer given. It is a serious mistake to suppose with Lange
that a king was inaugurated under the auspices of an interrex: as soon as an
interrex had named a rex, the right of auspices passed to the latter, and he
himself asked the gods for their approval of his nomination (
Liv. 1.18,
44,
55;
Plut. Num. 7).
Under the republic the inauguratio of the rex sacrificulus and of the
flamines was performed by the college of pontiffs in the Comitia Calata
(Labeo in
Gel. 15.27). This was due to the fact
that while the king had the
spectio, or right
of taking the auspices himself, this was not the case with the rex
sacrificulus (Mommsen,
Röm. Staatsr. 2.9). The
pontifex maximus naturally acted with the assistance of the augurs; and
hence he had the right to enforce the inauguratio, if it was refused by the
augurs, and if he considered that there was no sufficient ground for
refusing it (
Liv. 27.8,
40.42). In the case of the pontiffs, augurs, vestal virgins,
Salii, and probably all the other priests, the inauguration took place, not
at an assembly, but
pro collegio (Marquardt,
Röm. Verw. 3.223). Livy seems to represent one
augur alone as performing the right of inauguratio in the case of Numa
Pompilius (
Liv. 1.18; compare
Cic. Brut. 1,
1; Macrob.
Sat, 2.9); and it would seem
that in some cases a newly-appointed priest might himself not only fix upon
[p. 1.1002]the day, but also upon the particular augur
by whom he desired to be inaugurated (Cic.
l.c.; and
Philip. 2.43, 110).
The higher magistrates continued to be inaugurated under the republic (
Dionys. A. R. 2.6), and for this purpose
they were summoned by the augurs (
condictio,
denuntiatio) to appear on the Capitol on the third day after their
election (Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 3.117). This inauguratio conferred
no priestly dignity upon the magistrates, but was merely a method of
obtaining the sanction of the gods to their election, and gave them the
right to take the auspicia; and on important emergencies it was their duty
to make use of this privilege. At the time of Cicero, however, this duty was
scarcely ever observed (Cic.
de Divin. 2.36,
76). A building was “inaugurated” only when it was to be used
for meetings of the senate, or when the rites to be performed there required
it should be a
templum. The
inauguratio hallowed the site, and the
consecratio the building. Thus the
Aedes
Vestae was consecrated, but not inaugurated, and meetings of
the senate were never held there.
[The word
inauguratio is post-classical, but the
verb
inaugurare is commonly in use.] Cp. AUSPICIA.
[
L.S] [
A.S.W]
