Auguraculum
The Auguraculum was a templum on the area of the Capitol in Rome called arx .
It was an Augur observation post in arce on the Capitol, from where the Augurs carried out public auspices and in the area of which the fetiales gathered their herbs. With Marcus Terentius Varro the formula for creating and dividing a templum is handed down, while Titus Livius gives the formula for the inauguration of the fetiales .
The location on the arx is undisputed, but the only more precise description of the location within the area is provided by Marcus Tullius Cicero , who reports that the house of Claudius Centumalus on the Caelius impaired the line of sight at the auspices and therefore had to be demolished. Accordingly, the auguraculum is to be assumed on the northeast side of the arx , above the clivus Argentarius , near the apse of Santa Maria in Aracoeli .
The auguraculum was structurally just a very simple facility, a small thatched hut that apparently was regularly renewed. Possibly this hut stood at the beginning of the via Sacra and faced the Alban Mountains .
In the case of Varro, it is said that there was another Auguraculum on the collis Latiaris at the southern end of the Quirinal . Varro mentions it in his list of argei or argeorum sacraria , but the passage is corrupt and of little value for a more precise interpretation.
literature
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 61 ( online ).
- Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1992, ISBN 0-8018-4300-6 , p. 45, ( Auguraculum ).