acuminibus_, that is, the flames appearing at the points of spears or other weapons. The ordinary manner of taking the auspices, properly so called (i.e. _ex caelo_ and _ex avibus_), was as follows: The person who was to take them first marked out with a wand (_lituus_) a division in the heavens called _templum_ or _tescum_, within which he intended to make his observations. The station where he was to take the auspices was also separated by a solemn formula from the rest of the land, and was likewise called _templum_ or _tescum_. He then proceeded to pitch a tent in it (_tabernaculum capere_), and this tent again was also called _templum_, or, more accurately, _templum minus_. [TEMPLUM.] Within the walls of Rome, or, more properly speaking, within the pomoerium, there was no occasion to select a spot and pitch a tent on it, as there was a place on the Arx on the summit of the Capitoline hill, called _Auguraculum_, which had been consecrated once for all for this purpose. In like manner there was in every Roman camp a place called _augurale_, which answered the same purpose; but on all other occasions a place had to be consecrated, and a tent to be pitched, as, for instance, in the Campus Martius, when the comitia centuriata were to be held. The person who was then taking the auspices waited for the favourable signs to appear; but it was necessary during this time that there should be no interruption of any kind whatsoever (_silentium_), and hence the word _silentium_ was used in a more extended sense to signify the absence of every thing that was faulty. Every thing, on the contrary, that rendered the auspices invalid was called _vitium_; and hence we constantly read in Livy and other writers of _vitio magistratus creati_, _vitio lex lata_, &c. The watching for the auspices was called _spectio_ or _servare de coelo_, the declaration of what was observed _nuntiatio_, or, if they were unfavourable, _obnuntiatio_. In the latter case, the person who took the auspices seems usually to have said _alio die_, by which the business in hand, whether the holding of the _comitia_ or any thing else, was entirely stopped.--In ancient times no one but a patrician could take the auspices. Hence the possession of the auspices (_habere auspicia_) is one of the most distinguished prerogatives of the patricians; they are said to be _penes patrum_, and are called _auspicia patrum_. It would further appear that every patrician might take the auspices; but here a distinction is to be observed between the _auspicia privata_ and _auspicia publica_. One of the most frequent occasions on which the _auspicia privata_ were taken, was in case of a marriage: and this was one great argument used by the patricians against _connubium_ between themselves and the plebeians, as it would occasion, they urged, _perturbationem auspiciorum publicorum privatorumque_. In taking these private auspices, it would appear that any patrician was employed who knew how to form _templa_ and