HARUSPICES (literally entrail-observers, cf. Skt. hila, Gr. χopδτ)), a class of soothsayers in Rome. Their art consisted especially in deducing from the appearance presented by the entrails of the slain victim the will of the gods. They also interpreted all portents or unusual phenomena of nature, especially thunder and lightning, and prescribed the expiatory ceremonies after such events. To please the god, the victim must be without spot or blemish, and the practice of observing whether the entrails presented any abnormal appearance, and thence deducing the will of heaven, was also very important in Greek religion. This art, however, appears not to have been, as some other modes of ascertaining the will of the gods undoubtedly were, of genuine Aryan growth. It is foreign to the Homeric poems, and must have been introduced into Greece after their composition. In like manner, as the Romans themselves believed, the ait was not indigenous in Rome, but derived from Etruria. The Etruscans were said to have learned it from a being named Tages, grandson of Jupiter, who had suddenly sprung from the ground near Tarquiuii. The art was practised in Rome chiefly by Etruscans, seldom by native-born Romans who had studied in the priestly schools of Etruria. Though it was of great importance under the early republic, it never became a part of the state religion. In this respect the haruspices ranked lower than the augurs; the latter were a more ancient and purely Roman institution, and were a most important element in the political organization of the city. In later times the art fell into disrepute, and the saying of Cato the censor is well known, that he wondered one haruspex could look another in the face without laughing (Cic., De Div., ii. 24). Under the empire, however, we ...