From the Eighth Century BCE in the Etrusco-Italic territories, the set of ritual practices employed to ensure the concrete aspects of the foundation of a city originated in the Etruscan sacred traditions and were subsequently assimilated and codified by Romans. In the mythology surrounding the birth of Rome, the ritual performed by Romulus on the Palatine Hill is an accurate application of the precepts of the etrusca disciplina – the term used to describe the divinatory rituals and practices as a whole.
After selecting a vantage point overlooking the surrounding territory, the augural templum – or auguraculum – used for scrutinising the sky was marked out using stones in the ground. As he stood facing east, the augur divided the sky into sectors which were used as a guide for interpreting the manifestation of divine signs (such as birds in flight or meteorological phenomena). Depending on the alignment of the sunrise (such rituals were conducted between night and dawn) the main axis of the urban layout, together with its symbolic heart (umbilicum urbis), were drawn out. The area was then traced using a plough (sulcus primigenius) which corresponded to the future city walls and marked the city’s sacred boundary (pomerium) – a generous area either side of the walls left devoid of any human activity.
Rectangular auguracula and sacred boundary stones date from the foundation by the Etruscans of Marzabotto, as well as in the Latin colony of Cosa (273 BCE) and in the refounded Roman municipality of Bantia, in Basilicata (81 BCE), attesting to the long-lasting endurance of such rituals.