Myomancy was a method of theriomantic divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

 by rats or mice, which may be alluded to in Isaiah

Isaiah

Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...

 66:17. Their particular cries or some marked devastation committed by them was taken for a prognostication of evil.

Ælain relates that Fabius Maximus

Fabius Maximus

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator was a Roman politician and general, born in Rome around 280 BC and died in Rome in 203 BC. He was Roman Consul five times and was twice Dictator in 221 and again in 217 BC. He reached the office of Roman Censor in 230 BC...

 resigned the dictatorship in consequence of a warning from these creatures; and Cassius Flaminius, according to Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus.-Biography:...

, retired from the command of the cavalry for the same reason. According to Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

, when Sennacherib

Sennacherib

Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...

 invaded Egypt his army was infested by mice in the night, and their quivers and bows gnawed in pieces; in the morning, therefore, being without arms, they fled in confusion, and many of them were slain. Such a foreboding of evil could not very well be questioned, or its consequences averted, by the commander. The outcome was rather different when one of Cato's soldiers told him in fright that the rats had gnawed one of his shoes. Cato replied that the prodigy would have been much greater if the shoe had gnawed a rat.

Horapollo

Horapollo

Horapollo is supposed author of a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation by one Philippus, titled Hieroglyphica, dating to about the 5th century.-Horapollo:...

 describes the rat as a symbol of destruction. The Hebrew name of this animal is from a root which signifies to separate, divide, or judge; and it had been remarked by one of the commentators on Horapollo that the mouse has a finely discriminating taste.

An Egyptian manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 in Paris contains the representation of a soul going to judgement in which one of the figures is depicted with the head of a rat and the well-known wig. The Libyan rats and the mouse of the Old Testament are the same as the Arabian Jerboa

Jerboa

The jerboa form the bulk of the membership of the family Dipodidae. Jerboas are hopping desert rodents found throughout Asia and Northern Africa. They tend to be found in hot deserts....

, which is characterized by a long tail, bushy at the end, and short forelegs.