[180] The phrase bartu or bartu ina mâti ‘revolt’ or ‘revolt in the country’ occurs hundreds of times in the divination texts.
[181] See p. 29 and 31.
[182] See p. 31.
[183] See above p. 29 sq. Cicero also furnishes us (de Divinatione I 36) with a most striking parallel between a Babylonian-Assyrian animal omen and an Etruscan interpretation of the same omen. He tells us that the nurse of the young Roscius observed how a serpent came and wound itself around the sleeping child. On inquiry, the Haruspices declared that the occurrence was an omen indicating that the child would become famous and distinguished above his fellows. In the same way we find in the Babylonian-Assyrian texts that ‘if a serpent is found lying on a little child, the child whether male or female, will acquire renown and riches’. See Jastrow, Religion II 782 and 942, 3.
[184] Saturnalia III 7, 2 also quoted by Servius, though in a slightly modified form. See Thulin, Etruskische Disziplin III 76 and 102.
[185] The chief colors in Babylonia-Assyrian omen texts are white, black, yellow and dark red. See e. g., Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 32 (K. 3838 etc.), 4-9.
[186] Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 19 (K. 13443), 5.
[187] ḫud libbi, literally ‘joy of heart’.
[188] Cicero, De Divinatione I 41, who correctly explains the application of monstrum to a malformation. For the etymology of prodigium, see Walde, Lateinisch-Etymologisches Wörterbuch s. v.
[189] De Generatione Animalium IV, 54. See above p. 44.