What Role did Rituals of Divination Play in Roman Politics & Religion?

Rituals of Divination in Rome
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Role of Divination Rituals in Roman Politics and Religion
Roman divination is a controversial issue that discloses the features of Roman religion. Rituals of divination played a significant role in Roman politics and religion in identifying the source of trouble and eliminating it. In ancient Rome, religious troubles or bad omen occurred in numerous ways. For instance, some believed that meeting mules transporting ornamental burial plants in the street was a sign of bad luck. Others also considered inauspicious animals and house beams damaged without an apparent reason bad luck. Roman religious figures performed divination rituals to find out and eliminate these superstitions. Religiously, divination rituals were believed to eliminate the evil spirits associated with bad luck. It was a move to appease the gods to create a normal situation.
Another role of divination rituals was to predict the gods' political and religious pursuits. In ancient Rome, the senate was the utmost decision-making organ for politics and religion. Thus divination rituals were conducted to identify bad omens in political or religious matters. As the highest-decision-making body, the senate depended on these rituals to approve or disapprove of religious or political activity. Therefore, the ultimate decision-making right and practice rested with the senate.
Augury, a practice associated with divination rituals in ancient Rome, was performed on four occasions: before the opening of the senate conference, before enacting the assembly laws and elections, and before the general or borderline sacred head entered the city, and before waging war. In other words, augury was a principal action to seek the divine will and gods' sanction. The primary objective of the augury and other divination rituals was to identify the existence of the ill omen. Ill omen is a report on whether Rome deemed the occurrences unnatural. Such unnatural occurrences include lightning, abnormal weather, and the birth of alien creatures. In this case, it was the role of the senate to determine the existence of such abnormal phenomena based on the rituals performed by the religious figures.
Forms of Divination
The forms of divination practiced in Rome: auspicium, or observation of birds by the augur, and (3) haruspicy or the inspection of the liver of sheep and poultry by the haruspex (Kobori, 2020). Auspicium was an auspices-taking ceremony that involved the readin...