The Sortes Homericae was the practice of drawing a random sentence or line

Bibliomancy

Bibliomancy is the use of books in divination. The method of employing sacred books for 'magical medicine', for removing negative entities, or for divination is widespread in many religions of the world:-Terminology:...

 from the works of Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

 (usually the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

) to answer a question or predict the future. Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

 is recorded as doing so in prison to determine the day of his execution, and the practice even occurred in the Renaissance era. In the Roman world it co-existed with the various forms of the sortes

Sortes (ancient Rome)

Sortes were a frequent method of divination among the ancient Romans. The method involved the drawing of lots to obtain knowledge of future events: in many of the ancient Italian temples the will of the gods was consulted in this way, as at Praeneste and Caere.These sortes or lots were usually...

, such as the Sortes Virgilianae

Sortes virgilianae

The Sortes Virgilianae or Sortes Vergilianae is a form of divination by bibliomancy in which advice or predictions of the future are sought by randomly selecting a passage from Virgil's Aeneid. It was most widely practiced in the later Roman Empire and in medieval times...

and their Christian successor the Sortes Sanctorum

Sortes Sanctorum

Drawing the Sortes Sanctorum or Sortes Sacrae was a type of divination or cleromancy practiced in early Christianity, derived and adapted from the ancient Roman sortes, as seen in the pagan Sortes Homerica and Sortes Virgilianae.Some early Christians went to church and listened for the words of...

.

Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus , often referred to as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic. After being adopted by his uncle he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, but eventually returned to using his original name...

 used this practice, which informed him Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

 would lose the battle of Pharsalus

Battle of Pharsalus

The Battle of Pharsalus was a decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War. On 9 August 48 BC at Pharsalus in central Greece, Gaius Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus...

. The emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus

Macrinus

Macrinus , was Roman Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus was of "Moorish" descent and the first emperor to become so without membership in the senatorial class.-Background and career:...

 is also known to have used it, drawing Iliad 8, 102-3, informing him he would not last long on the imperial throne.

Sources

• Gargantua and Pantagruel
  Gargantua and Pantagruel
  The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...
  
  , Book 3, from "The Complete Works of Francois Rabelais", p285