Sortes (ancient Rome)

Sortes (Latin singular: "sors") were a frequent method of divination among the ancient Romans.Citation | last = Smith | first = William | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | contribution = Sortes | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities | volume = 1 | pages = 1051-1052 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1870 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-dgra/1058.html ] The method involved the drawing of lots ("sortes") to obtain knowledge of future events: in many of the ancient Italian temples the will of the gods was consulted in this way, as at Praeneste, Caere, &c. [Regarding the meaning of "sors" see Cicero, "De Divinatione" ii. 41]

These sortes or lots were usually little tablets or counters, made of wood or other materials, and were commonly thrown into a sitella or urn, filled with water. The lots were sometimes thrown like dice. [Suetonius, "Tiberius" 14] The name of "sortes" was in fact given to any­thing used to determine chances, [compare Cicero, "De Divinatione" i. 34] and was also applied to any verbal re­sponse of an oracle. [Cicero, "De Divinatione" ii. 56] [Virgil, "Aeneid" iv. 346, 377] Various things were written upon the lots according to circumstances, as for instance the names of the persons using them, &c.: it seems to have been a favorite practice in later times to write the verses of illustrious poets upon little tab­lets, and to draw them out of the urn like other lots, the verses which a person thus obtained being sup­posed to be applicable to him: hence we read of "Sortes Homerica" and "Sortes Virgilianae" (the lots of Homer and Virgil, respectively), &c. [Lamprid. "Alex. Sever." 14] [Spartianus, "Hadr." 2] It was also the practice to consult the poets in the same way as Muslims do the Koran and Hafiz, and many Christians the Bible, namely, by opening the book at random and applying the first passage that struck the eye to a person's own immediate circumstances. [Augustine, "Confessions" iv. 3] This practice was very common among the early Christians, who substi­tuted the Bible and the Psalter for Homer and Virgil: many councils repeatedly condemned these "Sortes Sanctorum" (sacred lots), as they were called. [Edward Gibbon, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", c. xxxviii. note 51] The Sibylline books were probably also consulted in this way. Those who foretold future events by lots were called "Sortilegi". [Lucan, ix. 581]

The "Sortes Connviales" were sealed tablets, which were sold at entertainments, and upon being opened or unsealed entitled the purchaser to things of very unequal value; they were therefore a kind of lottery. [Suetonius, "Octav." 75] [Lampridius, "Heliogab." 22]

ee also

*"Sortes Astrampsychi"
*Cleromancy
*Bibliomancy
*Rhapsodomancy

References