ABSTRACT
Haruspicy and augury are forms of divination practiced assiduously by the Etruscans.1 At its most basic, haruspicy may be defined as the art of divining the will of the gods, especially by examining the entrails of animals (Lat. extispicium). In Rome, the practitioner was called a haruspex (pl. haruspices), a word that was explained in Antiquity as one who inspects the entrails of a hariuga (sacrificed animal).2 In a bilingual Latin/Etruscan inscription from Pesaro (ET Um 1.7; CIL XI 6363; 1st century bce), the Etruscan word netśvis is found as a translation of haruspex. The –vis may also refer to “one who inspects” and thus netś may have the same meaning as hariuga. As will be noted below, the haruspices also interpreted a wide variety of other types of signs, but the emphasis in this article will be on extispicy, especially in regard to the liver.
