A haruspex was a person trained to practise divination by the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry, a practice called haruspicy in the Ancient Roman religion.
Various ancient cultures of the Near East, such as the Babylonians, also read omens specifically from the liver, a practice also known by the Greek term hepatoscopy (also hepatomancy).
The Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the disciplina Etrusca.
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Diagram of the bronze liver of Piacenza.jpg
Diagram of the inscriptions of the bronze liver of Piacenza
Divinatory livers Louvre AO19837.jpg
Divinatory livers, clay models for the training of soothsayers. The one in the middle is interpreted...
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Piacenza Bronzeleber.jpg
Liver of Piacenza, Mantik.
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queue - people standing in line
Votive Relief of Haruspex Caius Fulvius Salvis.jpg
Roman relief depicting haruspicy
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Lupa Capitolina: she-wolf with Romulus and Remus. Bronze, 12th century AD[1], 5th century BC (the tw...