Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/96

82 were eminently skilled also in the civil law, and above all had charge of the calendar, or list of days on which the popular assemblies could meet, courts be in session, and so forth. Consequently they exercised a considerable influence on the administration of justice, on the popular assemblies, and on politics in general.

The augurs were versed in the science of interpreting the omens of birds, the significance of lightning, and the like (divinatio). They might be consulted on the question whether the omens had been duly observed, — for example, before or during an election or the passage of a law. If they responded in the negative, the person elected was morally, but not legally, bound to resign, and the law was regularly annulled by another law or a decree of the senate. The college of augurs might act even when not consulted, and in this manner it practically canceled acts of the magistrates and decrees of the people.

The Ogulnian Law. — The plebeians could no longer leave these two colleges in the exclusive possession of the patricians. They no doubt claimed admission on the general Roman principle that the men who controlled or formed the government should also possess the power in religious affairs; and they prevailed. The Ogulnian plebiscite of the year 300 increased the number in each college from six to nine, and decreed that henceforth four pontiffs and five augurs should be plebeians. The struggle was now at an end in the religious sphere. In the course of the third century B.C., a plebeian became chief pontiff (pontifex maximus) and general director of the curies (curio maximus). The plebeians were excluded only from politically unimportant priesthoods, such as those of the flamens of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, and of the king of sacrifices (rex sacrificulus or sacrorum).