of the tribes, _i.e._ seventeen out of thirty-five chosen by lot. The Domitian law was repealed by Sulla B.C. 81, but again restored B.C. 63, during the consulship of Cicero, by the tribune T. Annius Labienus, with the support of Caesar. It was a second time abrogated by Antony B.C. 44; whether again restored by Hirtius and Pansa in their general annulment of the acts of Antony, seems uncertain. The emperors possessed the right of electing augurs at pleasure. The augurs were elected for life, and even if capitally convicted, never lost their sacred character. When a vacancy occurred, the candidate was nominated by two of the elder members of the college, the electors were sworn, and the new member was then solemnly inaugurated. On such occasion there was always a splendid banquet given, at which all the augurs were expected to be present. The only distinction in the college was one of age; an elder augur always voted before a younger, even if the latter filled one of the higher offices in the state. The head of the college was called _magister collegii_. As insignia of their office the augurs wore the _trabea_, or public dress, and carried in their hand the _lituus_ or curved wand. [LITUUS.] On the coins of the Romans, who filled the office of augur, we constantly find the _lituus_, and along with it, not unfrequently, the _capis_, an earthen vessel which was used by them in sacrifices. The science of the augurs was called _jus augurum_ and _jus augurium_, and was preserved in books (_libri augurales_), which are frequently mentioned in the ancient writers. The expression for consulting the augurs was _referre ad augures_, and their answers were called _decreta_ or _responsa augurum_. The science of augury had greatly declined in the time of Cicero; and although he frequently deplores its neglect in his _De Divinatione_, yet neither he nor any of the educated classes appears to have had any faith in it. [Illustration: Coin representing the lituus and capis on the reverse.] AŪGŬRĀCŬLUM. [ARX; AUGUR, p. 50, b.] AUGŬRĀLE. [AUGUR, p. 50, b.] AUGŬRIUM. [AUGUR.]