860 religion and cosmology: Rome the deity is a loving one who cares for the welfare of the people he created The ancient Romans saw their relationship with the gods in somewhat different terms A god was to be honored, but the relationship was often one of bargaining Public vows, for example, were made to form a legal contract with a god, in which the person making the vow promised to perform an act to honor the god in exchange for the god’s favor Thus, for example, armies vowed publicly to build a temple to a god in exchange for a victory in war The god might or might not choose to grant the person’s wish, but the person still owed a duty of loyalty to the god The notion of bargaining required a way for people to communicate wishes to the gods and for the gods to communicate their intentions to humans The ancient Romans believed that the gods communicated their wishes through omens that had to be read by a class of priests This was the role of the College of Augurs To carry out their function the augurs took part in two types of activities; the activities were supervised by civil magistrates, but the augur was present to interpret the results and report his conclusions One activity was to read the intention of the gods by interpreting patterns in the flights of birds in a templum, or sacred space The magistrate and augur marked out the sacred space and then waited for birds to fly overhead Alternatively, augurs interpreted the behavior of specially selected sacred chickens For example, grain would be fed to the chickens by a pullarius, or “chicken man,” and whether they ate the grain or how enthusiastically they did so was taken as an omen These kinds of omens were read in connection with virtually any sort of political activity: an election, a war, the passage of a statute, and so on The rules for conducting these rituals were extremely detailed and complex If even the smallest detail was overlooked or conducted improperly, the ritual was deemed invalid and had to be redone Often the Roman Senate reviewed the conclusions of the augurs and, if they determined that the ritual was improperly conducted, ruled that it had to be conducted again The other ritual activity the augurs supervised was divination through animal sacrifice An animal such as a goat was ritually sacrificed and its exta, or entrails, especially the gallbladder and liver, were examined The augurs who conducted this ritual were a suborder of the augurs called haruspices—literally, “men who look at guts.” There were 60 official haruspices, though others practiced this type of divination unofficially It is believed that this type of divination was an Etruscan practice that the Romans absorbed Again, the requirements were very specific A particular animal had to be selected, including size, gender, age, and color, depending on the god whose will was being questioned The animal was blessed, carried to an altar in procession, and killed with a single blow If the animal struggled or if the haruspex tripped or slipped, it boded ill The haruspex then examined the entrails If there was anything wrong with them, such as gallstones or spots, it was a sign that the gods had rejected the sacrifice and a new animal had to be slaughtered If the en- trails were flawless, that was a sign that the gods approved the course of action being proposed The Romans believed that they could read the will of the gods in at least three additional ways One consisted of monstra, or prodigies, from which the modern word monster comes Monstra could consist of any natural but strange occurrence, such as the birth of a calf with two heads or severe lightning When such an event occurred, the Senate called in haruspices to inquire into the prodigy and interpret the gods’ will The monstra were not necessarily punishments or prophecies of doom; rather, they were warnings that the gods felt neglected, giving the Romans a chance to respond and perhaps mend their ways A second additional way the Romans read the will of the gods was through the Sibylline Books These books date back to the monarchial period in Rome and the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (r 534–510 b.c.e.), or Tarquin the Elder This was a period in Roman history that remains shrouded in legend It is known that the Sibyls were priestesses and prophets in ancient Greece One of these, who lived in Cumae, a Greek colony northwest of Naples, Italy, was the most famous and has been known to history as the Sibyl According to the legend, she arrived in Rome to sell Tarquin nine books that, she claimed, foretold the history of Rome Initially Tarquin rejected her offer, so she burned three of the books and renewed her offer Again Tarquin refused, so she burned three more Tarquin relented and purchased the remaining three The Sibylline books were not prophetic, but they did include advice on what Romans should when signs from the gods were inauspicious, or unfavorable The books were housed in the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill in Rome until the temple and its contents were destroyed by fire in 83 b.c.e In charge of the books were the duoviri sacris faciundis, or “the two men for sacred actions,” yet another order of priests, albeit a small one Later the number of priests in charge of the books increased to 10 and then to 15 Normally the Senate ordered the duoviri or haruspices to consult the books in cases of crisis or emergency or when they had observed monstra The usual recommendation that came from consulting the books was for Rome to import a new god or cult, often from Greece The duoviri played some role in establishing the new cult, at which point their role ended A final additional way the Romans believed they could learn the will of the gods was in the interpretation of dreams According to the Roman historian Livy (59 b.c.e.–17 c.e.), in 293 b.c.e an epidemic broke out on the Italian peninsula After the Sibylline Books were consulted, it was concluded that they directed the Romans to build a cult site and temple for the Greek god of medicine, Aesculapius, on an island in the Tiber River This temple became a hospital of sorts, where ill or troubled Romans went to recover by making sacrifices to Aesculapius Patients slept in the temple and asked the god to explain what was wrong with them in a dream The temple priests then interpreted the dream