Roman religious terms
AEDES (sg) (pl: aedes)
An aedes/aedes is a structure, and in Religious terms a shrine or temple building. Templum referred to the area marked off as sacred, while the actual structure housing the god's image was the aedes.
ARA (sg) (pl: arae)
An ara is an altar, the structure on which a sacrifice is made. Arae were often open-air structures, immediately accessible to the public, whether within in Rome or elsewhere.
AUGUR (sg) (pl: augures)
The augures were official diviners for Roman Republic. Their office was to interpret the will of the gods regarding one or another proposed action.
AUGURIUM (sg) (pl: auguria)
See augur. The augurium was a term for several functions related to the augurs of Rome - the augurs' rites, the augurs' laws, the augurs' compendium of known signs, and even the consecration of a man as an augur.
AUSPEX (sg) (pl: auspices)
Also a diviner, the auspex was one who read bird flight (avi-spex, more or less "bird-seer"). This was a divining function and an official duty, taking the readings of the gods' will based on bird flight for projects private or governmental. The related verb is auspico, auspicere - to take the auspices. The word "auspices" is used in contemporary to mean either supervision of a project or the likelihood of the project's success. See auspicium, below.
AUSPICIA (pl) (sg: auspicium)
An auspicium was a "reading of the birds", of their behavior in a marked portion of the sky (a templum of airy space). Magistrates took the auspicia publica to determine whether planned ceremonies, elections, undertakings of many kinds should be undertaken or not; if the Gods were averse, the undertaking would be postponed.
Auspicia appear to have been of five kinds: [to come]
"CAPITE VELATO"
"With the head covered" - the manner in which the Religious officiants of Rome offered libations, sacrifices, and prayers to the Gods. An officiant covered his head by a fold of the back of the toga, an act of piety necessary to the rites.
COLLEGIUM (sg collegium/ pl collegia)
A collegium (a "college") was a Roman association that had a legal authority, whether commercial, magisterial, or religious. Most significant were the College of Pontiffs; the College of Augurs; the Sibylline college called the Quindecimviri Sacris Faciundis and that called the Septemviri Epulonum, seven priests who oversaw public Religious banquets.
