ABSTRACT
In the beginning was the test. The fear of the unknown, the need to reduce ambiguity, and
the desire to predict the future are as old as humanity. For the Romans the preferred
medium for divination was bird entrails. The haruspex, the entrails reader, in the ritual of
auspicium would examine the innards of a fowl to see what the Fates had in store.1 The
haruspex relied considerably on form and color, as with inkblots, though the material
examined was liver rather than cardboard cards. Skill in liver reading was so important
that Cicero wrote a treatise, “De Divinatione,” on the subject. Before risking their armies
to danger, the Greeks consulted the oracle to decide where and when it was safe to wage war.
