User:1brianm7/sandbox/Spurinna (seer)

Spurinna was a Roman haruspex who warned Julius Caesar on 14 or 15 February 44 BC that his life would be in danger until the Ides of March (15 March). Caesar was assassinated on the Ides. He probably met with Caesar moments before he was assassinated; the Roman dictator taunted Spurinna and said his prediction was wrong as he had not faced danger, with Spurinna responding that the Ides had not ended.

Little else is known about Spurinna's life. There is scholarly debate about various aspects of his life, especially the date, wording, and rationale of his warning to Caesar and the veracity of his meeting with Caesar on the Ides. In Plutarch's biography of Caesar, Spurinna's warning is recorded as having only applied to the Ides; while scholars find this dubious, William Shakespeare adapted it in his play Julius Caesar, creating the iconic phrase "Beware the Ides of March".

Life

Family and career

Spurinna was a Roman citizen of Etruscan descent born in the region Etruria, maybe in the city Tarquinia where his family name was prominent. His family name was old and extremely aristocratic, though Elizabeth Rawson allowed that he may have had poor relations or been the descendant of freedmen; Mario Torelli argued that Spurinna was almost certainly not a direct descendant of that family and was instead a descendant of freedmen. Spurinna had a daughter, Spurinnia, and she married a domi nobilus Vestricus who lived from the mid-1st century BC to the reign of Augustus. They had a son, Vestricus Spurinna who lived in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius and who probably commissioned the elogia of the Spurinna family. Through him, Spurinna had a great- or great-great-grandson, Titus Vestricius Spurinna, a friend of Pliny the Younger who served multiple terms as consul in the 1st century AD.

Spurinna was a haruspex. Haruspices examine the entrails of sacrificed animals to make predictions about the future and they were strongly associated with Etruria. Spurinna may have been a member of an order of haruspices that may have existed during the republican era. An order is known to have existed in the imperial era and Torelli argued that is also existed in the republican era, with Rawson being undecided. Spurinna may have been summus haruspex, who was one of or the preeminent haruspex in Rome. Summus haruspex may have been the head or eldest member of the order, if it existed. Carl Olof Thulin argued that Spurinna was a haruspex on Caesar's personal staff, though Rawson doubted it because of how grand Spurinna was.

In 43 BC, probably in January, Cicero jokingly related to his friend Lucius Papirius Paetus that Spurinna had pronounced Rome would face great danger if Paetus did not begin to attend dinner parties by 8 February. Since Cicero's joke only makes sense if Paetus knew Cicero could easily receive his counsel, Spurinna probably lived in the city of Rome. Since Cicero would joke about Spurinna predicting danger in the distant-future, it was probably a type of prediction he was known to make

In 47 BC, during Caesar's civil war, Cicero recalls that Caesar consulted with a summus haruspex about crossing the Mediterranean and invading Roman Africa to wipe out the remaining Pompeians. The summus haruspex cautioned Caesar to not invade before the winter solstice. He may have done so to give the Pompeians a stronger chance at defeating Caesar or maybe because the waters before the solstice are dangerous. Caesar invaded soon after the day the solstice should have fallen on the Roman calendar, but he had not yet instituted his calendar reforms and it was well-known that he had invaded months before the actual solstice. Thulin argued that this summus haruspex not Spurinna and Rawson said it may have been him.

In 45 BC, Cicero notes that Caesar had appointed a haruspex to the Roman Senate while helping his friend Quintus Lepta navigate employment law. The identity of this haruspex is not known, though Spurinna is the likeliest candidate. If it was Spurinna, he was likely a Caesarian partisan. Given that senators did not work, if Spurinna was him and he was in the order that may have existed, then that order could not have offered a salary. A person with such an aristocratic name being appointed to the senate would not have been shocking.

Warning to Caesar

Caesar as portrayed by the Tusculum portrait

The date of the warning is not exactly known. Ancient sources provide various dates. Cicero, writing as his brother Quintus in De Divinatione, dates the warning to the first occasion where Caesar wore his monarchical purple robes and sat on his golden throne. This dates the warning to no later than the Feast of Lupercalia on 15 February, when Caesar is known to have worn his robes and sat on his throne. Maximus Valerius dates the warning to thirty days prior to the Ides of March. It is not known when this was, as it is not known if 44 BC was a leap year. If it was a leap year, the warning is dated to 15 February, when Caesar is known to have worn the robes. If it was not a leap year, then it is dated to 14 February, which is sometimes put forward as the date Caesar became dictator perpetuo, a fitting occasion to wear his monarchical affects.

The nature of the warning is also not exactly known. Cicero's silence on

If Spurinna was the summus haruspex who urged Caesar to delay his African campaign, then the fact that Caesar would seek his counsel again suggests Spurinna may have been too prominent to ignore.

Spurinna's noble antimonarchical name may have inspired

Spurinna may have been inspired by his noble heritage, with its tradition of opposing monarchy, to oppose Caesar; Brutus, from a similarly noble family, had come to oppose Caesar.

The Ides of March

The Death of Julius Caesar, an 1806 painting by Vincenzo Camuccini

Maximus Valerius and Appian both report that Spurinna met Caesar at the home of Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus during the traditional morning greeting. This has sometimes been rejected as Caesar is held to have not left his house on the Ides until 11 AM

Valerius Maximus, writing in the 1st century AD, records that Spurinna told Caesar thirty days before the Ides of March that the next thirty days would be fateful. Early on the Ides, he records that Caesar and Spurinna were both at the house of Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, Caesar's designated-next master of the horse. Caesar is said to have told Spurinna that the thirty days had passed and he is said to have no fear of the prophecy; Spurinna is said to have countered that the thirtieth day had not yet passed.

Plutarch records Spurinna meeting Caesar on the Ides as Caesar was walking to the Theater of Pompey, though he does not name Spurinna:

A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "Well, the Ides of March are come," and the seer said to him softly: "Ay, they are come, but they are not gone."

Legacy

Spurinna is remembered for his warning to Caesar. William Shakespeare based his play Julius Caesar on Plutarch. Shakespeare's play features a soothsayer based on Spurinna who tells Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March". Caesar dismisses the soothsayer's warning and is killed on the Ides. "Beware the Ides of March" became an iconic and widely repeated quote, making popular the idea that the warning was specific to the Ides.

Method of divination

Some have argued that Spurinna's prediction was made using astrology and not haruspicy. This is argued in favor by saying that the horoscopes on the Ides were ominous and that it was unorthodox for a haruspex to name a specific date in the future. Astrology had only gained relevance in Rome

This has been challenged by the fact that Suetonius explicitly and Valerius implicitly place the warning as occurring during a sacrifice, the perfect opportunity for a haruspex to make a prediction, that the horoscope, while ominous on the Ides, is also ominous long-after the Ides, leaving no reason for the prediction to end on the Ides, and that it was much less ominous on the days preceding the Ides, while Spurinna probably said that they have equal danger and probably didn't signal out the Ides, that a 30-day long prediction is common,, that haruspices were rarely astrologers and that it was obvious any would-be assassins of Caesar, of which it was obvious there were many, would lose the ability to make an attempt on his life around the Ides.

References

Citations

Ancient sources

• Appian (1913) [2nd century AD]. The Civil Wars. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by White, Horace. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-1503114296 – via LaciusCurtius. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Cicero (1923) [44 BC]. De Divinatione. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Falconer, W. A. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674991705. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Cicero (30 July 2001) [62–43 BC]. Letters to friends. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Shackleton Bailey, D. R. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674995888.
• Plutarch (1919) [2nd century AD]. "Life of Caesar". Parallel Lives. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 7. Translated by Perrin, Bernadotte. OCLC 40115288 – via LacusCurtius.
• Suetonius (1913–1914) [121 AD]. "Life of Caesar". Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rolfe, J C. Cambridge – via LacusCurtius.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Valerius Maximus (15 September 2000) [1st century AD]. Memorable Doings and Sayings. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Shackleton Bailey, D. R. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674995413.
• Velleius Paterculus (11 February 2025) [30 AD]. The Roman History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Woodman, A. J. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674997639.

Modern sources

• Torelli, Mario (25 September 2017). "The Estruscan Legacy". In Naso, Alessandro (ed.). Etruscology. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1614519102.
• Ramsey, John T. (2000). "'Beware the Ides of March!': An Astrological Prediction?". The Classical Quarterly. 50 (2) – via JSTOR.
• Rawson, Elizabeth (1978). "Caesar, Etruria and the Disciplina Etrusca". The Journal of Roman Studies. 68 – via JSTOR.
• Strauss, Barry S. (3 March 2015). The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1451668797.