ALECTOROMANTIA, in antiquity, a species of divination performed by means of a cock. This is otherwise called Alectryomancy; of which there appear to have been different species. But that most spoken of by authors was in the following manner: A circle being described on the ground, and divided into twenty-four equal portions, in each of these spaces was written one of the letters of the alphabet, and on each of the letters was laid a grain of wheat; after which, a cock being turned loose in the circle, particular notice was taken of the grains picked up by the cock, because the letters under them, being formed into a word, made the answer desired. It was thus, according to Zonaras, that Libanius and Jamblicus fought who should succeed the emperor Valens; and the cock eating the grains answering to the spaces ΘΕΟΔ, several whose names began with those letters, as Theodotus, Theodifus, Theodulus, &c. were put to death; which did not hinder, but promote, Theodotus to the succession. But the story, however current, is but ill supported: It has been called in question by some, and refuted by others, from the silence of Marcellinus,
Socrates, and other historians of that time.