Roman Prophecies

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

I bring this up because the book, Constantine, that I'm reading has a section that offers evidence of how turbulent the 3-4 century(Constantinus time) was. It was so bad to the point that prophecies were spring up everywhere that talked about one day this someone would bring the Empire down. Here's an example

 

"A king of another race will arise in the West, master of a great force, godless, murdering, restless..., ruler of barbaric nations: and he will shed much blood...In every city and in every place will be pillage and the raid of brigands and the shedding of blood."

 

Another exempli gratia:

 

There arises a king toward the East with four peoples. He summons great numbers of tribes to himself in the city to bear aid, though he himself is the strongest. He crowds the seas with thousands of ships, and whoever encounters is slain by the sword... Hark to the hoarse sound from the heavens reasounding on all sides, terrifying the whole earth as it falls in ruins. The sun fleees pell-mell, the night appears straightway on its heels, and God speaks out: How long did you think I would be patient? His signal is given, the plague rushes down from all the sky. The charge of fire descends with thunderous noise, another and yet another thunderbolt is hurled from the stars now, and the roars of the destructive slaughter are heard, the earth trembles, nor can the whole human race make out where to run.

 

So does anyone else have any prophecies to share?

[Skarr]

As a rule, most prophecies in ancient times were not really specific but purposely vague and subject to a lot of interpretation, depending on who was asking the question.

 

I'm not really sure on the exact sources for the quotes in the book you are reading but I would imagine that there were a number of people who believed in prophesy and therefore, it is natural to assume that many of the so called 'druids' of that time would have taken advantage of this, as well as the bloody and violent times that passed for what is daily life.

 

Speaking about prophesy, in the older days, even in Celtic Europe, as well as the Greeks, women were thought to have the power of prophesy and many of them were linked to even older cults and religions - matrae, Cybele and some of the Eastern cults, all of which had common themes that linked them to a Great Mother or Earth Mother type of religion, which was peaceful before being replaced by the more patriarchal druids in Central Europe (all male) and subsequently, the Christian all male religious hierarchy.

 

Most prophesy occurred at specific places where the one predicting the future (as opposed to more formal haruspicy, an Egyptian custom of reading the entrails and other Roman methods of divination or what is termed as auspices) would either be in a trance (self induced or by using external substances) or temporarily possessed by the spirit. The words themselves would be meaningless and usually, the prophesy spoken by a woman would then be interpreted by the male priests, depending on the status of the person who asked the question. A classic example is the Pythia at the temple of Delphi, a priestess who would inhale the vapors emanating from a crack within the floor, gases that came from deep within the Earth.

 

The Romans, I think were more practical in their approach and all they would look for in the flight of birds or the reading of entrails (color being an important part in the examination of the liver) was a simple yes or no to whatever action was proposed. Before launching the final assault on an oppidium, Caesar would call his haruspices and ask them to sacrifice an animal and if there were no spots on the liver, the animal was healthy and clean and the blood was really red, it was considered auspicious. All he would do then is to stand before his army and say that Mars will be pleased and the signs are favorable for an attack and for victory.

[Gaius Octavius]

No prophecies to share but Hitler could be the answer to the first one. The Brits to the first part of the second and the U.S. to the second part. Since we are cousins, these last two make one.

[Philhellene]

The most famous collection of Roman prophecies are so called Sibylline books. The prophecies of Roman pagan Sibyl were preserved by some Roman and Greek writers and one of the most important among them is Phlegon of Tralles. In the 10th fragment of his "Incridible things" there are some excerpts from Sibylline prophecies. Then the 3rd fragment of the same work consists of the prophecies of roman commander Publius.

 

There are also Christian (or Judaic) Sibylline books. They have survived almost intact.