On Why The Thousands of Dead Starlings on New Year's in Rome is a harbinger of imminent Doom for the Eternal City

"We call them starlings. The Italians call them storni or, for fun, stormi di storni, clouds of starlings. They are the starlings of Rome, that have come in the hundreds of thousands to make their spectacular swirling dances over the city since the times of the Early Christians.

Each winter, upwards of five million starlings stream into Rome at dusk. Before they roost in the trees of the city for the night, they make a spectacular show for those who turn their eyes upward. It is a marvelous performance, hundreds of thousands of starlings weaving and interweaving, cascading and folding, in awe-inspiring patterns called 'murmurations' with the Roman sunset as backdrop.

A dance of sheer joy made daily by creatures whose only purpose seems to be to glorify the Almighty God who made them.

In Ancient Rome, the pagan oracles observed the formations to interpret the wishes of the gods for the Emperors and generals. With Christian times, the omens of the pagan augurers lost their import. But the starlings still came, and the early Christians considered them to be a blessing from Heaven on Rome.

And so it has continued until the New Year’s Eve that brought in the year 2021.

New Year’s Eve in Rome usually means one huge street festival with food, drink, concerts and massive fireworks displays.

Since 2016 the city administration has actually been trying to ban fireworks. The Italians ignore the decree. Each year the fireworks in the city became more grandiose and impressive (2018, 2019, 2020), drawing tourists by the thousands.

Until New Year’s Eve 2021. This year, due to the coronavirus panic that has unnaturally swept across the world, Rome imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for New Year’s Eve and forbade private fireworks displays. Concerts and spectacles were video-streamed for online viewing.

Despite the ban, Rome remains Rome and there were still private fireworks displays across the city, but nothing so stupendous as in previous years.

This year, however, something very strange happened. Rome woke up to find its streets littered with thousands of dead starlings.

'It was like a Hitchcock film, there was a lot of blood and the smell became horrible,' said Paolo Peroso, head of the Porta Pia Residents’ Association. 'Incredible! Incredible!' cried one man in sad disbelief who was filming the streets even as the birds fell.

The reason for the starlings’ strange and sudden death is not certain. Most of the media blamed the sudden deaths on the fireworks and firecrackers, which supposedly caused the starlings distress and even heart attacks.

It is strange that this is the first year the birds suffered such panic attacks, since every New Year’s in Rome there are dazzling massive displays. This year there were less than normal..." [link to traditioninaction.org (secure)]

Now, here's the interesting part:

"According to Cicero, divination is central to Stoic philosophy: if there are gods, they care for humans; if they care for humans, they must present signs of their will (De Legibus, II.13). Following this logic, communication from the gods has a long tradition of manifesting through unusual appearances in nature. Some of this tradition is older than the Romans; Etruscan religion used haruspicy, the examination of the entrails of sacrificed animals, to see the future and, according to Plato’s Phaedrus (244C), this future-telling was more prestigious than augury with birds. Roman augury, or the taking of auspices, may or may not be derived from Etruscan tradition, and it differs from haruspicy because it does not show the future, but simply states whether the gods approve or disapprove of a certain action. The process was similar to a consultation of a Magic 8-Ball — only yes or no questions could be answered.

Every important event in Rome, public and private, was preceded by taking the auspices. No public act, no election, no new law, no declaration of war, not even a marriage, could occur without a prior consultation.

And while Rome is currently trying to decrease the number of starlings, a higher count of birds was key to the successful foundation of the city, so the story goes. Ovid writes that when brothers Romulus and Remus were scouting a location for their new city:

'It is agreed for each of the two to assemble the rustics and put up walls; it’s doubtful which one may put up the walls. "There’s no need for any combat, said Romulus." “Great confidence comes from birds: let’s test out the birds!” It is agreed. One enters the rocks of the grovey Palatine; the other comes upon the Aventine peak in the morning. Remus sees six birds, but this one sees two times that in a row. It’s fixed by the pact, and Romulus has power over the city.' (Fasti 4.811–8)

Thus, through augury, Rome was founded on the Palatine by Romulus rather than a Reme on the Aventine by Remus because the augurium of the higher rank wins out, and if the signs are of equal rank, than the sign with the greater number dominates. Seems a bit fishy, but Romulus not only founded the city with an auspice, as Cicero writes, it is said that he was the best augur: 'principio huius urbis parens Romulus non solum auspicato urbem condidisse, sed ipse etiam optumus augur fuisse traditur'(De Divimatione I.2).

Both brothers chose hills to 'test out the birds' because those lofty locations are ideal for setting up temples. It should be noted that while aedes means a religious building, a dwelling of a god or gods, a templum, before being transferred to mean a sacred place, meant a space marked out, specifically, a space for observation marked out by an augur with his staff.

The Capitoline had a permanent temple called the Auguraculum, now below the Ara Caelis. These temples were built facing south, with the other three sides closed off. The enclosure, along with the droning of flute-players, helped the augur focus on the sky, where he established a rectangle in which to spot a proposed sign. From a temple (i.e. an observation point) on the ground, a temple in the air was inspected, and it is from this process that the etymology of 'contemplation' is derived. One such contemplative man was Cicero; he too was an augur, and much of what we know about augury comes from his De Divinatione. He saw auspices as the best restraint of democracy. However, the science of augury had declined around his time, and he also speaks of its neglect..." [link to medium.com (secure)]

To summarize: the very birds that led to the founding of Rome have mysteriously, massively died-off on the very first day of 2021 in Rome. To me, this portends some serious Doom headed our way. Rome is, after all, the capitol of the 'Western' world.