(iv.) _General powers: the auspicia and the coercitio._—We have now to consider certain magisterial powers which cannot be regarded as forming a separate department, since they are coextensive with the whole sphere of official authority. The first that we shall treat, the taking of the auspices, was as much a duty as a right. The observance of the _auspicia publica_ is not merely an act that the magistrate may perform, but one that he must perform if his powers are to be duly exercised. The _imperium_ and the _auspicia_ are indissolubly connected;[673] they are the divine and human side of the same power, and every important act of human activity should be prefaced by an appeal for divine assistance. We have already explained that the only auspices which are properly connected with the magistracy were those known as _impetrativa_, and that the looking for these—the gift of _spectio_—was always a peculiar attribute of the patrician magistracy,[674] and was, therefore, not possessed by the tribunes and aediles of the Plebs. With respect to the other category of auspices—the _oblativa_—not only are all magistrates on a level with one another, but they are all below the level of the meanest citizen. The citizen, if he is a devout man, may suspend the business he has in hand, if an evil sign appears. The magistrate is bound to do so, if the sign is by common consent evil, or has been pronounced such by the college of pontiffs or by the Sibylline books. Roman theology recognised five categories of auspices; four of these belong to the class _impetrativa_, one to the class _oblativa_.[675] The latter, as being the simpler and the one common to all the magistrates, may be considered first.