Eggs
2009 April 13
I was wondering if there’d be a claim trying to connect Easter eggs to the Romans … the closest seems to be a piece on the mystery of Easter eggs which mentions (but doesn’t make a specific connection):
pregnant young Roman women carried an egg on their persons to foretell the sex of their unborn children
… anyone have a source for this? It appears semi-frequently on the web with the exact same wording. Not sure how it would work … The only pregnancy-bird egg connection I can recall from Roman sources is Pliny’s suggestion that pregnant women avoid ravens’ eggs because they might cause ‘oral miscarriage’ (NH 30.130) (that one has stuck in my mind for quite a while!).
It took some time and several different searches, but a source could be the book “Lives of the Ceasars” by Suetonius.
It is described in a section about Tiberius and Livia.
This link should bring you to the page in a translation of that book.
This link was hinted on this page (look for Egg Divination).
Regards,
Jacob Eikelenboom
The Netherlands
Ahh … the omens of Tiberius’ imperial greatness … Suetonius, Tib. 14. Thanks …