You might have thought that with so many different prognosticatory tools at their disposal, augurers and emperors would come up with a surefire prediction, if only by a system of cross reference. But did the bird’s guts agree with your dream, your burning heart, and what the sibyl in the cave said while wreathing her truths in doublespeak? There was also a built-in catch to divination. As Cicero wrote: “The gods give us signs of future events. If we go wrong about them it is not the divinity but men’s interpretation that is at fault.” So we are continually reminded of their infallibility, and
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