The Haruspex

The Haruspex was a diviner or soothsayer of a class originally Etruscan,but early introduced into Rome, though not as official priests of the state religion. The divinations of the haruspex comprised interpretation of lightning and natural prodigies, and especially extispicium, or inspection of the entrails of sacrificial victims.

The Latin name for a diviner, originally derived from the Etruscan method of divination which involved the foretelling of future events from an examination of the entrails of slaughtered animals (haruspicy). The word may have been derived from the Sanskrit root hira ('entrails'). A synonymous term is extispicy.