Haven't tried to track down claims in a while but a couple popped up this weekend to distract me long enough ... first there is this claim from the some thing different blog:
Aside from the anachronism in the first sentence, and the spurious claim of the second, is there any evidence of this sort of 'divinatio' by coin? It is mentioned on scattered sites throughout the interweb (and some books in Googlebooks, none of which seem 'scholarly'), none of which have any authority.
The second item of distraction was the opening bit from a piece on superstitions in the Olympian:
Again, this is found all over the interweb, and the seven-year limit on the luck does strike me as a 'Roman' number. Outside of that, a tantalizing excerpt from a tome called Mirror by Design connects this somehow with 'scrying' (and connects the latter to ancient Greece), but there do not appear to be any references available. Any refs anyone?
The Lydians minted the first coins in 10 BC but it wasn’t until nine hundred years later that the coin toss became a decision-maker. Julius Caesar’s head appeared on one side of every Roman coin of his time,and such was the reverence for the emperor that in his absence often serious litigation was decided by the flip of a coin. If Caesar’s head landed upright, it meant that through the guidance of the gods, he agreed in absentia with the decision in question.
Aside from the anachronism in the first sentence, and the spurious claim of the second, is there any evidence of this sort of 'divinatio' by coin? It is mentioned on scattered sites throughout the interweb (and some books in Googlebooks, none of which seem 'scholarly'), none of which have any authority.
The second item of distraction was the opening bit from a piece on superstitions in the Olympian:
If you delve deep enough into any culture, you will find a repertoire of superstitions. These beliefs and practices pass through time and space -- from one generation to the next, from one culture to another -- with ageless continuity. Take, for example, breaking a mirror. Ancient Romans believed that a broken mirror presages seven years of bad luck. This superstition is now found in North and Latin American folklore.
Again, this is found all over the interweb, and the seven-year limit on the luck does strike me as a 'Roman' number. Outside of that, a tantalizing excerpt from a tome called Mirror by Design connects this somehow with 'scrying' (and connects the latter to ancient Greece), but there do not appear to be any references available. Any refs anyone?