an ancient kind of divination performed by pitching on a passage of a poet at hazard, and reckoning on it as a prediction of what was to come to pass. There were various ways of practising this rhapsodomancy. Sometimes they wrote several papers or sentences of a poet on so many pieces of wood, paper, or the like, shook them together in an urn, and drew out one which was accounted the lot: sometimes they cast dice on a table whereon verses were written, and that wherein the die lodged contained the prediction. A third manner was by opening a book, and pitching on some verse at first sight. This method they particularly called the fortis praefinitae; and afterwards, according to the poet made use of, fortis Homericus, fortis Virgilianus, &c. See SORTES.