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Fancy a bit of bird-watching, along with the opportunity to influence an almost-infinite sphere of affairs? Try being an augur. The “augur” was a term given to a Roman diviner who would read the will of the gods in the flight patterns or songs of the birds. The position was also called the “auspex.” It’s thought that later on, the term “auspex” was used when talking about the actual act of observing the birds, while “augur” was the act of assigning meaning to their actions.

During large sections of history, nothing happened before a diviner was consulted, and that gave augurs enormous power. The argument went that since the gods were known to care for men, they must be sending signs to help them in whatever way they could. Not listening to those that had been blessed with the gift of interpreting the will of the gods was to be nothing less than an atheist, but each nation soon developed their own sort of trademarked method of divination. At the time of the augur, the Romans thought astrology was a pretty risky pastime, but their version of the auspicia was sacred.

The idea of watching birds and telling the future from their flight patterns pre-dates Rome, but Romans were the ones to establish a set of firm guidelines and rules around the practice. Birds were sacred to Jupiter, they were his messengers, and therefore, they were the ones passing along guidance. Ravens and crows were studied by augurs called the “Oscines,” who listened to their calls and interpreted their speech, while the flight of eagles and vultures was studied by the “Alites.” Military matters were up to the auspices who read the behavior of chickens around feeding time. -- http://listverse.com/

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