[595] Cic. Leg. iii. 3. 9; Livy vi. 41. 6; viii. 23. 15 f.
[596] Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 96 ff.
[597] Messala, De auspiciis, i, in Gell. xiii. 15. 4; Bouché-Leclerq, ibid. ii. 581.
[598] Messala, ibid.
[599] As when for instance the consul forbids the minor magistrate to “watch the sky” on an appointed comitial day; Gell. xiii. 15. 1: “In edicto consulum, quo edicunt, quis dies comitiis centuriatis futurus sit, scribitur ex vetere forma perpetua: ne quis magistratus minor de caelo servasse velit.”
[600] Commentarium Anquisitionis of a quaestor, in Varro, L. L. vi. 91: “Auspicio operam des et in templo auspices, dum aut ad praetorem aut ad consulem mittas auspicium petitum.” This passage shows that the quaestor, though asking permission, himself holds the auspices.
[601] The first alternative is held by Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. i. 89, whereas Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. ii. 2584, is inclined to the latter.
[602] Gell. xiv. 7. 4, 8, quoting Varro.
[603] Leg. iii. 3. 10: “Omnes magistratus auspicium iudiciumque habento.” The previous paragraph is concerned with the tribunes, and in this citation the use of iudicium instead of imperium points to the tribunes. It is hardly possible that Cicero in his Laws would give the tribunes a right they did not possess.
[604] In Gell. xiii. 15. 4. Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encycl. ii. 2583, seems therefore to be incorrect in excluding the tribunes from the right.