Editing Religion in ancient Rome (section)

==== Haruspicy ====
{{Main|Haruspex}}
[[File:Piacenza Bronzeleber.jpg|thumb|The bronze [[Liver of Piacenza]] is an Etruscan artifact that probably served as an instructional model for the haruspex]]

[[Haruspex|Haruspicy]] was also used in public cult, under the supervision of the augur or presiding magistrate. The haruspices divined the will of the gods through examination of entrails after sacrifice, particularly the liver. They also interpreted omens, prodigies and portents, and formulated their expiation. Most Roman authors describe haruspicy as an ancient, ethnically Etruscan "outsider" religious profession, separate from Rome's internal and largely unpaid priestly hierarchy, essential but never quite respectable.<ref>Beard et al., Vol 1, 12-20. See also [[John Scheid|Scheid]], in Rüpke (ed.), 266.</ref> During the mid-to-late Republic, the reformist [[Gaius Gracchus]], the populist politician-general [[Gaius Marius]] and his antagonist [[Sulla]], and the "notorious [[Verres]]" justified their very different policies by the divinely inspired utterances of private diviners. The Senate and armies used the public haruspices: at some time during the late Republic, the Senate decreed that Roman boys of noble family be sent to Etruria for training in haruspicy and divination. Being of independent means, they would be better motivated to maintain a pure, religious practice for the public good.<ref>Horster, in Rüpke (ed.) 336–7.</ref> The motives of private haruspices – especially females – and their clients were officially suspect: none of this seems to have troubled Marius, who employed a Syrian prophetess.<ref>Cicero finds all forms of divination false, except those used in State rituals; most Romans were less skeptical. See Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 300, and Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 67.</ref>