Zunaed ebooks

Mathias. And the
garment or coat without a seam of our Saviour was lotted for by the
Jews. In Cicero's time this mode of divination was at a very low ebb.
The _sortes Homericae_ and _sortes Virgilianae_ which succeeded the
_sortes Praenestinae_, gave rise to the same means used among christians
of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important
circumstances; to learn the consequence of events and what they had to
fear among their rulers.
[12] Kennet's Roman Antiquities, Lib. XI, C. 4.
[13] Romulus, who founded the institution of the Aruspices, borrowed it
from the Tuscans, to whom the Senate afterwards sent twelve of the sons
of the principal nobility to be instructed in these mysteries, and the
other ceremonies of their religion. The origin of this act among the
people of Tuscany, is related by Cicero in the following manner: "A
peasant," says he, "ploughing in the field, his ploughshare running
pretty deep in the earth, turned up a clod, from whence sprung a child,
who taught him and the other Tuscans the art of divination." (Cicero, De
Divinat.


Pages:
56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80