Sibylline Books
Religion in ancient Rome |
---|
Practices and beliefs |
Priesthoods |
Deities |
Deified leaders: |
Related topics |
|
The Sibylline Books (
Only fragments have survived, the rest being lost or deliberately destroyed. The Sibylline Books are not the same as the Sibylline Oracles, twelve books of prophecies thought to be of Judaeo-Christian origin.
History
According to the Roman tradition, the oldest collection of Sibylline books appears to have been made about the time of
The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by the seventh and last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquinius", ruled 534 to 509 B.C., d. 495 B.C.), is one of the famous legendary elements of Roman history. An old woman, possibly a Cumaean Sibyl, offered to Tarquinius nine books of these prophecies at an exorbitant price; when the king declined to purchase them, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquinius at the same price, which he again refused. Thereupon, she burned three more and repeated her offer, maintaining the same price. Tarquinius then consulted the Augurs whose importance in Roman history is averred by Livy. The Augurs deplored the loss of the six books and urged purchase of the remaining three. Tarquinius then purchased the last three at the full original price, and had them preserved in a sacred vault beneath the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. The story is alluded to in Varro's lost books quoted in Lactantius Institutiones Divinae (I: 6) and by Origen, and told by Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 1, 19).[1]
The
In particular, the keepers of the Sibylline Books had the superintendence of the worship of
Since they were written in
From the Capitol they were transferred by Augustus as pontifex maximus in 12 BC, to the
Some supposedly genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the Book of Marvels or Memorabilia of Phlegon of Tralles (2nd century AD). These represent an oracle, or a combination of two oracles, of seventy hexameters in all. They report the birth of an androgyne, and prescribe a long list of rituals and offerings to the gods.[citation needed] Their authenticity has been questioned.[7]
Relationship with the "Sibylline Oracles"
The
Consultations of the Books cited in history
An incomplete list of consultations of the Sibylline Books recorded by historians:
- 399 BC: The books were consulted following a pestilence, resulting in the institution of the lectisternium ceremony. (Livy 5, 13)
- 348 BC: A plague struck Rome after a brief skirmish with the Gauls and Greeks. Another lectisternium was ordered. (Livy 7, 27)
- 345 BC: The books were consulted when a "shower of stones rained down and darkness filled the sky during daylight". Publius Valerius Publicola was appointed dictator to arrange a public holiday for religious observances. (Livy 7, 28)
- 295 BC: They were consulted again following a pestilence, and reports that large numbers of Appius Claudius' army had been struck by lightning. A Temple was built to Venus near the Circus Maximus. (Livy 10, 31)
- 293 BC: After yet another plague, the books were consulted, with the prescription being 'that Samnite wars, took no steps beyond performing one day of public prayers to Aesculapius. (Livy 10, 47)
- 240/238 BC: The Ludi Florales, or "Flower Games", were instituted after consulting the books.
- 216 BC: When Hannibal annihilated the Roman Legions at Cannae, the books were consulted, and on their recommendation, two Gauls and two Greeks were buried alive in the city's marketplace. [9]
- 205–204 BC: During the Magna Mater in 191 BC when the temple was dedicated by Marcus Junius Brutus in the consulship of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica.[11] A fragment of Valerius Antias from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita 36.36.4 records that Megalesia were again held in 191 BC and that "[they] were the first to be held with dramatic performances".[12]
- 143 BC: Frontinus relates a story in which the Decemvirs consulted the books on another matter and found that a proposed project for the Aqua Marcia was improper, along with the Anio. After a debate in the Senate the project was resumed, presumably the necessity for water outweighed the oracle. Sextus Julius Frontinus, Aqueducts of Rome, Book I, Ch 7.
- 63 BC: Believing in a prediction of the books that 'three Cornelii' would dominate Rome, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura took part in the conspiracy of Catiline (Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XVII)
- 55 BC: As Romans deliberated sending a force to restore Dio CassiusHistory of Rome 39:15)
- 44 BC: According to Suetonius, a sibylline prediction that only a king could triumph over Parthia fueled rumors that Caesar, leader of the then republic, was aspiring to kingship. (Caesar, 79)
- 15 AD: When the Tiber river flooded the lower parts of Rome, one of the priests suggested consulting the books, but Emperor Tiberiusrefused, preferring to keep the divine things secret. (Tacitus, Annales I, 76)
- 64 AD: The Emperor Nero consulted them following the Great Fire of Rome. (Tacitus, Annales XV, 44)
- 271 AD: The books were consulted following the Roman defeat at Alamanni.
- 312 AD: Constantine, who had just taken all of Maxentius' northern Italian cities and was marching on Rome.
- 363 AD: Sassanids. The response mailed from Rome "in plain terms warned him not to quit his own territories that year". (Ammianus Marcellinus, History of Rome, XXIII 1, 7)
- 405 AD: Stilicho ordered the destruction of the Sibylline Books, possibly because Sibylline prophecies were being used to attack his government in the face of the attack of Alaric I.
References
- ^ Gell. I 19 [1]
- ^ Orlin 2002;97.
- ^ See Orlin 2002:97f.
- ^ "after the burning of the Capitol during the Social War... the verses of the Sibyl, or Sibyls, as the case may be, were collected from Samos, Ilium, and Erythrae, and even in Africa, Sicily, and the Graeco-Italian colonies; the priests being entrusted with the task of sifting out the genuine specimens, so far as should have been possible by human means. " (Tacitus, Annals, VI.12.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals, eo. loc.
- ^ Warrior, Valerie. Roman Religion. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Keskiaho, Jesse (January 2013). "Re-visiting the libri Sibyllini: Some remarks on their nature in Roman legend and experience". Mika Kajava Ed., Studies in Ancient Oracles and Divination, Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 40.
- ^ Terry, 1899.
- ^ Beard, p. 158.
- ^ For attestations see: Cicero De Haruspicum Responsis 24–28; Varro Lingua Latina 6.15; Diodorus Siculus 34.33.1–6; Livy 29.10.4–11.8, 29.14.1–14; [Verrius Flaccus] Fasti Praenestini April 4; Strabo Geography 12.5.3; Ovid Fasti 4.180–372; Valerius Maximus 8.15.3; Pliny Natural History 7.120; Silius Italicus Punica 17.1–45; Appian The Hannibalic War 56; Festus De verborum significatu S. 51–52 M, P. 237 M; Dio Cassius 17.61; Herodian 1.11.1–5; Arnobius Adversus Nationes 7.49–50; Lactantius Divinae institutiones 2.7.12; Julian Hymn to the Mother of the Gods (Oration V) 159c–161b; Ammianus Marcellinus 22.9.5; Augustine De civitate Dei 2.5, 10.16. Other minor sources exist but these are the major attestations.
- ^ For attestations see: Livy 36.36.3; Tacitus Annales 4.65; Valerius Maximus 1.8.11.
- ^ Livy 36.36.3, trans. Sage, E. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1935)
Bibliography
- Mary Beard (1980). Religions of Rome: Volume 2, A Sourcebook
- Hermann Diels (1980). Sibyllinische Blätter
- Jens Fischer (2020). Q. Fabius Pictor, das Orakel von Delphi und die sibyllinischen Bücher Roms – Zur Rolle von Orakeln in Rom und Griechenland, Gymnasium 127 (2020) 535–567
- Jens Fischer (2022). Folia ventis turbata – Sibyllinische Orakel und der Gott Apollon zwischen später Republik und augusteischem Principat (Studien zur Alten Geschichte 33), Göttingen 2022
- Eric M. Orlin (2002). Temples, Religion, and Politics in the Roman Republic ch. 3 "The Sibylline Books". [ISBN missing]
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 19. .
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Sibyl". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- George, Alexandra L. "Oracles/Sibyls: 700 BC – AD 300", King's College: History Department, Nov. 2005. Oracles.