its proper sense, the art of foretelling future events by observations on birds; though it is used by some writers in a more general signification, as comprising all the different kinds of divination.

Augury was a very ancient superstition. We know from Hesiod that husbandry was in part regulated by the coming or going of birds; and most probably it had been in use long before his time, as astronomy was then in its infancy. In process of time these animals seem to have attained a greater and more wonderful authority, till at last no affair of consequence, either of public or private concern, was undertaken without consulting them. They were looked upon as the interpreters of the gods; and those who were qualified to understand their oracles were held among the chief men in the Greek and Roman states, and became the assessors of kings, and even of Jupiter himself.

August (augustus), in a general sense, something majestic, venerable, or sacred. The appellation was first conferred by the Roman senate upon Octavius, after he had been confirmed by them in the sovereign power.