As in Rome… up the hill
In the highest point of the hill, so-called “arce”, there
was a sacred enclosure with a high podium, located in the
white rock of the hill. There, one could find a priest
called “augure” because he knew to interpret the will of
the gods by observing the signs and the flight of the
birds.
The “augure“ would go up in the enclosure with a
wooden stick and from there he would invoke the gods, while
looking at the city and the countryside around.
He
would divide the sky in two parts, from east to west,
calling south the right part and north the left part.
After performing the above rites, he would look at the
farthest point in front of him and ask for a sign of the
divine will.
The magistrates built the “augure” because they wanted a resemblance with Rome, whose king was chosen with the same ritual. For this reason, they decided to build a structure in the rock with high walls that supported a colonnade , which was called in Roman the “auguraculum” that would allow the “augure” to read the future of the city in the sky.