6.  The usual form of taking an augury was very solemn; the augur ascended a tower, bearing in his hand a curved stick called a lituus.  He turned his face to the east, and marked out some distant objects as the limits within which he would make his observations, and divided mentally the enclosed space into four divisions.  He next, with covered head, offered sacrifices to the gods, and prayed that they would vouchsafe some manifestation of their will.  After these preliminaries he made his observations in silence, and then announced the result to the expecting people.

7.  The Arusp’ices were a Tuscan order of priests, who attempted to predict futurity by observing the beasts offered in sacrifice.  They formed their opinions most commonly from inspecting the entrails, but there was no circumstance too trivial to escape their notice, and which they did not believe in some degree portentous.  The arusp’ices were most commonly consulted by individuals; but their opinions, as well as those of the augurs, were taken on all important affairs of state.  The arusp’ices seem not to have been appointed officially, nor are they recognised as a regular order of priesthood.

8.  The pontiffs and fla’mens, as the superior priests were designated, enjoyed great privileges, and were generally men of rank.  When the republic was abolished, the emperors assumed the office of pontifex maximus, or chief pontiff, deeming its powers too extensive to be entrusted to a subject.

9.  The institution of vestal virgins was older than the city itself, and was regarded by the Romans as the most sacred part of their religious system.  In the time of Numa there were but four, but two more were added by Tarquin; probably the addition made by Tarquin was to give the tribe of the Lu’ceres a share in this important priesthood.  The duty of the vestal virgins was to keep the sacred fire that burned on the altar of Vesta from being extinguished; and to preserve a certain sacred pledge on which the very existence of Rome was supposed to depend.  What this pledge was we have no means of discovering; some suppose that it was the Trojan Palla’dium, others, with more probability, some traditional mystery brought by the Pelas’gi from Samothrace.

10.  The privileges conceded to the vestals were very great; they had the most honourable seats at public games and festivals; they were attended by a lictor with fasces like the magistrates; they were provided with chariots when they required them; and they possessed the power of pardoning any criminal whom they met on the way to execution, if they declared that the meeting was accidental.  The magistrates were obliged to salute them as they passed, and the fasces of the consul were lowered to do them reverence.  To withhold from them marks of respect subjected the offender to public odium; a personal insult was capitally punished.  They possessed the exclusive privilege of being buried within the city; an honour which the Romans rarely extended to others.