During the last centuries of the republic the auspices ex caelo and ex tripudiis supplanted other types, as the other forms could be easily used in a fraudulent way, i.e. bent to suit the desire of the asking person.Cicero, De Divinatione, 2.72–73 Cicero condemned the fraudulent use and denounced the decline in the level of knowledge of the doctrine by the augurs of his time,Cicero, De Divinatione, 1.25; Leg. Agr., 2.32 and 2.34 but in fact the abuse developed from the evasion of negative signs, described in the next subsection.
During the last centuries of the republic the auspices ex caelo and ex tripudiis supplanted other types, as the other forms could be easily used in a fraudulent way, i.e. bent to suit the desire of the asking person.Cicero, De Divinatione 2.72–73 Cicero condemned the fraudulent use and denounced the decline in the level of knowledge of the doctrine by the augurs of his time,Cicero, De Divinatione, 1.25; Leg. Agr., 2.32 and 2.34 but in fact th,e abuse developed from the evasion of negative signs, described in the next subsection.