Narration: I've always been fascinated by the macabre rituals that really decided the destiny of Rome. So I asked Mark Bradley  to give me an insight into the work of a priestly group who were involved in one of the gorier aspects of Roman politics- they were known as the haruspices, diviners from the Etruscan communities of northern Italy, skilled in interpreting signs from the gods. And there's a reason we're meeting in a fresh food market.  Simon: So, Mark, what is this still-warm, almost  pulsating bloody organ that we have here on the platter in this butcher's shop?  Mark: Well,  this is a fresh liver taken from a newly sacrificed sheep. What the priests would do is they'd cut open the animal and they'd take out the liver while it was still pulsating and they'd examine it to see what the future has in store. So the first thing we need to do is orientate it correctly. What the haruspices did is they used a model of the liver to guide them, to remind them, to  prompt them about how to read it, so what we have here is a bronze model of a liver from about 100 BC and this is called the Piacenza Liver, and on this you can see the gall bladder, the caudal lobe, and  the liver was divided into 16 sections and these 16 sections corresponded to the 16 regions of heaven and each region was governed over by a particular god . So what we'll do is have a look at this liver and see what it tells us. So this area here, around where the gall bladder was, is an area governed by war gods and if you find a discolouration, a tumour, a blood clot, a bile pool or something like that in this area, that might mean that the war gods are not happy, this might not be a good time to go to war. Another area that's very interesting is all of this area which is associated with the Etruscan god Tin, who is the equivalent of Jupiter in Roman cult. If he's not happy, you need to make a sacrifice to him or you need to build a temple to him or something like that.  Simon: OK, so if I'm an emperor, my legions are massed and I now want to invade Germany today and destroy the German tribes, can I march today? Can you read the organ?  Mark: Well, this liver is remarkably clean. This is, yeah, absolutely unblemished, as far as I can see. This is a good time to do pretty much anything.  Simon: I'm happy, call in the centurions - we march today.  Mark: Absolutely. 


    


旁白：我总是被那些真的决定罗马的命运的骇人仪式所吸引，所以我问了Mark Bradly，让他向我介绍一个参与了这个罗马政治中较为血腥的部分的一个僧侣团队的工作 – 他们被叫做大祭司，来自意大利北部伊特拉斯坎的预言者，非常善于解读神迹。但我们今天在这个新鲜食品市场见面有一个特别的原因。 Simon：那么，Mark，这个屠宰店里放在大盘子上的余温尚存，几乎仍在搏动的血腥器官是什么呢？ Mark：恩，这是一个从刚奉上的贡品绵羊上取下来的新鲜肝脏。通常神父们会做的事就是切开动物的身体，然后趁肝脏仍在搏动的时候取出来，这之后他们检测肝脏来看未来会发生什么。所以我们要做的第一件事就是把它正确地摆放。大祭司们会用一个模型来引导、提醒、促进他们去解读它。我们这儿有一个公元一世纪被叫做皮亚琴察（Piacenza）肝脏的黄铜肝脏模型，你可以看到它上面有胆囊，尾叶。这个肝脏被分成了16个部分，这16个部分对应着天堂的16个区，每个区都为一位特定的神祇所管辖。我们看看这个肝脏告诉了我们什么。这块胆囊附近的地方是被战争之神所管辖的。所以如果你在这块发现了一个污点、肿瘤、血块、胆汁池或是类似的东西，这可能说明战争之神不太开心，所以现在不是发动战争的好时机。另一块很有意思的地方是这整一块，它跟伊特拉斯坎神丁有关系，丁就相当于罗马文化中的朱庇特。如果他不开心。那你可能要为他献上一些贡品，为他造座庙或者做些类似的事情。 Simon：好，如果我是一个皇帝，我的军团已经集结了，我今天想入侵德国摧毁他们的族部，我可以行军吗？你能读下这块肝脏（说了什么吗）？ Mark：这块肝脏显然很干净。它在我看来完全没有污点。对做任何事情来说都是个好时机。 Simon: 我很高兴，把百夫长叫来，我们今天就行军 Mark：没错。