Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic

The first comprehensive assessment of the intersection between Roman politics, culture and divination in the late Republic.

Federico Santangelo (Author)

9781009296359, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2022

369 pages, 3 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.496 kg

'Santangelo's book constitutes an important contribution to the growing body of literature on ancient divination. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers, and useful in charting many of the ways in which the practice of divination shaped and was shaped by the political and intellectual concerns of the last century of the Roman Republic.' William E. Klingshirn, The Classical Journal

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the intersection between Roman politics, culture and divination in the late Republic. It discusses how the practice of divination changed at a time of great political and social change and explores the evidence for a critical reflection and debate on the limits of divination and prediction in the second and first centuries BC. Divination was a central feature in the workings of the Roman government and this book explores the ways in which it changed under the pressure of factors of socio-political complexity and disruption. It discusses the ways in which the problem of the prediction of the future is constructed in the literature of the period. Finally, it explores the impact that the emergence of the Augustan regime had on the place of divination in Rome and the role that divinatory themes had in shaping the ideology of the new regime.

Introduction - the power of signs
1. The De diuinatione in context
2. The terms of the debate
3. Fringe divination?
4. The haruspices and the rise of prophecy
5. Etruscan ages and the end of the Republic
6. Alien sooth: the Sibylline Books
7. Wild prophecies
8. Foresight, prediction, and decline in Cicero's correspondence
9. Between fortune and virtue: Sallust and the decline of Rome
10. Divination, religious change, and the future of Rome in Livy
11. Signs and prophecies in Virgil
12. The rise of monarchy
Envoi - away from the future
Appendix 1. Mark Antony and the election of Dolabella
Appendix 2. Glossary.

Subject Areas: Fortune-telling & divination [VXF], Ancient religions & mythologies [HRKP], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], New Testaments [HRCF2], History of religion [HRAX], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]