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In the religions of ancient Rome, an omen, plural ''omina'', was a sign intimating the future, considered less important to the community than a ''prodigium'' but of great importance to the person who heard or saw it.〔The etymology is debated. The older Latin form is ''osmen", which may have meant "an utterance"; see W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' sv omen New York 1963. It has also been connected to an ancient Hittite exclamation ''ha'' ("it's true"); see R. Bloch ''Les prodiges dans l'antiquite' - Rome'' Paris 1968; It. tr. Rome 1978 p. 74, and E. Benveniste "Hittite et Indo-Europeen. Etudes comparatives" in ''Bibl. arch. et hist. de l'Institut francais a,'Arch. de Stambul'' V, 1962, p.10.〕 Omina could be good or bad. Unlike prodigies, bad omina were never expiated by public rites but could be reinterpreted, redirected or otherwise averted. Some time around 282 BC, a diplomatic insult formally "accepted as omen" was turned against Tarentum and helped justify its conquest. A thunderclap cost Marcellus his very brief consulship (215 BC): thereafter he traveled in an enclosed litter when on important business, to avoided sight of possible bad omens that might affect his plans.〔See Veit Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p.298; citing Cicero, De Divinatione, 2.77.〕 Bad omens could be more actively dealt with, by countersigns or spoken formulae. Before his campaign against Perseus of Macedon, the consul L Aemilius Paullus was said to have heard of the death of Perseus, his daughter's puppy. He interpreted this as a favourable omen and defeated King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna (168 BC).〔Donald Lateiner, "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'', (2005), pp.51-55, 45, 49.(). Paullus is said to have accepted the omen with the words, ''"accipio, mea filia, omen."'' ("I accept the omen, my daughter").〕 Some evidently took omens very seriously. Others did not, or failed to avert bad omens and were thought to have paid the ultimate price. In 217 BC the consul Flaminius "disregarded his horse's collapse, the chickens, and yet other omens, before his disaster at Lake Trasimene".〔Donald Lateiner, "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'', (2005), 49.()〕 Licinius Crassus took ship for Syria despite the ominous call of a fig-seller – ''"Cauneas!"'' ("Caunean figs!"), which might be heard as ''"Cave ne eas!''" ("Beware, don't go!") – and was killed on campaign. Cicero saw these events as merely coincidental; only the credulous could think them ominous.〔"If we are going to accept chance utterances of this kind as omens, we had better look out when we stumble, or break a shoe-string, or sneeze!" Cicero ''De Divinatione'' 2.84: Loeb translation (1923) online at Bill Thayer's site (). In Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 15.83: ''ex hoc genere sunt, ut diximus, cottana et caricae quaeque conscendendi navem adversus Parthos omen fecere M. Crasso venales praedicantes voce, Cavneae.'' Teubner-Mahoff edn. transcribed at Bill Thayer's site ()〕 though by his time, politicians, military magnates and their supporters actively circulated tales of excellent omens that attended their births and careers. ==See also== * Augur * Auspice 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ) though by his time, politicians, military magnates and their supporters actively circulated tales of excellent omens that attended their births and careers. ==See also==* Augur* Auspice">ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■) though by his time, politicians, military magnates and their supporters actively circulated tales of excellent omens that attended their births and careers. ==See also==* Augur* Auspice">ウィキペディアで「In the religions of ancient Rome, an omen, plural ''omina'', was a sign intimating the future, considered less important to the community than a ''prodigium'' but of great importance to the person who heard or saw it.The etymology is debated. The older Latin form is ''osmen", which may have meant "an utterance"; see W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' sv omen New York 1963. It has also been connected to an ancient Hittite exclamation ''ha'' ("it's true"); see R. Bloch ''Les prodiges dans l'antiquite' - Rome'' Paris 1968; It. tr. Rome 1978 p. 74, and E. Benveniste "Hittite et Indo-Europeen. Etudes comparatives" in ''Bibl. arch. et hist. de l'Institut francais a,'Arch. de Stambul'' V, 1962, p.10.Omina could be good or bad. Unlike prodigies, bad omina were never expiated by public rites but could be reinterpreted, redirected or otherwise averted. Some time around 282 BC, a diplomatic insult formally "accepted as omen" was turned against Tarentum and helped justify its conquest. A thunderclap cost Marcellus his very brief consulship (215 BC): thereafter he traveled in an enclosed litter when on important business, to avoided sight of possible bad omens that might affect his plans.See Veit Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p.298; citing Cicero, De Divinatione, 2.77. Bad omens could be more actively dealt with, by countersigns or spoken formulae. Before his campaign against Perseus of Macedon, the consul L Aemilius Paullus was said to have heard of the death of Perseus, his daughter's puppy. He interpreted this as a favourable omen and defeated King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna (168 BC).Donald Lateiner, "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'', (2005), pp.51-55, 45, 49.(). Paullus is said to have accepted the omen with the words, ''"accipio, mea filia, omen."'' ("I accept the omen, my daughter"). Some evidently took omens very seriously. Others did not, or failed to avert bad omens and were thought to have paid the ultimate price. In 217 BC the consul Flaminius "disregarded his horse's collapse, the chickens, and yet other omens, before his disaster at Lake Trasimene".Donald Lateiner, "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography," ''Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies'', (2005), 49.() Licinius Crassus took ship for Syria despite the ominous call of a fig-seller – ''"Cauneas!"'' ("Caunean figs!"), which might be heard as ''"Cave ne eas!''" ("Beware, don't go!") – and was killed on campaign. Cicero saw these events as merely coincidental; only the credulous could think them ominous."If we are going to accept chance utterances of this kind as omens, we had better look out when we stumble, or break a shoe-string, or sneeze!" Cicero ''De Divinatione'' 2.84: Loeb translation (1923) online at Bill Thayer's site (). In Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 15.83: ''ex hoc genere sunt, ut diximus, cottana et caricae quaeque conscendendi navem adversus Parthos omen fecere M. Crasso venales praedicantes voce, Cavneae.'' Teubner-Mahoff edn. transcribed at Bill Thayer's site (*.html" TITLE="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/15*.html">) though by his time, politicians, military magnates and their supporters actively circulated tales of excellent omens that attended their births and careers. ==See also==* Augur* Auspice」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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