Editing Religion in ancient Rome (section)

==== Omens and prodigies ====
[[Omen]]s observed within or from a divine augural templum – especially the flight of birds – were sent by the gods in response to official queries. A magistrate with ''ius augurium'' (the right of [[augury]]) could declare the suspension of all official business for the day (''obnuntiato'') if he deemed the omens unfavourable.<ref>Caesar used his ''ius augurium'' to declare ''obnuntiato'' to Cicero's disadvantage: and vice versa.</ref> Conversely, an apparently negative omen could be re-interpreted as positive, or deliberately blocked from sight.<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 65–66.</ref>

[[Prodigy (divination)|Prodigies]] were transgressions in the natural, predictable order of the cosmos – signs of divine anger that portended conflict and misfortune. The Senate decided whether a reported prodigy was false, or genuine and in the public interest, in which case it was referred to the public priests, augurs and haruspices for ritual expiation.<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 60.</ref> In 207 BC, during one of the Punic Wars' worst crises, the Senate dealt with an unprecedented number of confirmed prodigies whose expiation would have involved "at least twenty days" of dedicated rites.<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 297.</ref> Citing [[Polybius]], [[Livy]] records a number of these including a "phantom navy" of ships flying through the sky and an ox climbing to the third story of a home. Later historians viewed these accounts as reactions to the unfolding military crisis.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70252 |title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Rome and the Mediterranean |volume=VIII |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=S. A. |editor2-last=Adcock |editor2-first=F. E. |editor3-last=Charlesworth |editor3-first=M. P. |date=1930 |pages=44–45}}</ref>

Livy presents these as signs of widespread failure in Roman ''religio''. The major prodigies included the spontaneous combustion of weapons, the apparent shrinking of the sun's disc, two moons in a daylit sky, a cosmic battle between sun and moon, a rain of red-hot stones, a bloody sweat on statues, and blood in fountains and on ears of corn: all were expiated by sacrifice of  "greater victims". The minor prodigies were less warlike but equally unnatural; sheep become goats, a hen become a [[rooster|cock]] (and vice versa) – these were expiated with "lesser victims". The discovery of an androgynous four-year-old child was expiated by its drowning<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 295–8: the task fell to the haruspex, who set the child to drown in the sea. The survival of such a child for four years after its birth would have between regarded as extreme dereliction of religious duty.</ref> and the holy procession of 27 virgins to the temple of [[Juno (mythology)#Epithets|Juno Regina]], singing a hymn to avert disaster: a lightning strike during the hymn rehearsals required further expiation.<ref>Livy, 27.37.5–15; the hymn was composed by the poet [[Livius Andronicus]]. Cited by Halm, in Rüpke (ed.) 244. For remainder, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 297.</ref> Religious restitution is proved only by Rome's victory.<ref>See Livy, 22.1 ff: The expiatory [[#Sacrifice|burial of living human victims]] in the Forum Boarium followed Rome's defeat at Cannae in the same wars. In Livy's account, Rome's victory follows its discharge of religious duties to the gods.</ref><ref>For Livy's use of prodigies and portents as markers of Roman impiety and military failure, see Feeney, in Rüpke (ed.), 138–9. For prodigies in the context of political decision-making, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 295–8.</ref>

In the wider context of Graeco-Roman religious culture, Rome's earliest reported portents and prodigies stand out as atypically dire. Whereas for Romans, a comet presaged misfortune, for Greeks it might equally signal a divine or exceptionally fortunate birth.<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 293.</ref> In the late Republic, a daytime comet at the murdered Julius Caesar's funeral games confirmed his deification; a discernible Greek influence on Roman interpretation.<ref>Hertz, in Rüpke (ed.), 315.</ref>