The Sibylline Books

[M. Porcius Cato]

Wikipedia lists the following consultations of the Sibylline Books:

 

238 BCE

: The Ludi Florales, or "Flower Games", were instituted in 238 or 240 BCE after consulting the books.

216 BCE

: 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.

204 BCE

: During the Second Punic War, upon interpreting the oracles in the Sibylline Books, Scipio Africanus brought an image of Cybele from Pessinos and established her cult in Rome.

63 BCE

: 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)

44 BCE

: According to Suetonius, a sibylline prediction that only a king could triumph over Parthia fueled rumors that Caesar was aspiring to kingship. {Caesar, 79)

??

: When the Tiber river flooded the lower parts of Rome, one of the priests suggested consulting the books, but Emperor Tiberius refused, preferring to keep the divine things secret, according to Tacitus (Annales I, 72)

271

: The books were consulted following the Roman defeat at Placentia by the Alamanni.

312

: Maxentius consulted the Sibylline Books in preparation for combat with Constantine, who had recently switched his allegiance from Apollo to Christus. Maxentius lost famously.

363

: Julian the Apostate consulted the books in preparation for marching against the Parthians. The response mailed from Rome "manifestly supported crossing the border this year." (Ammianus Marcellinus, History of Rome, XIII, 7)

405

: Stilicho ordered the destruction of the Sibylline Books, possibly because Sibylline prophesies were being used to attack his government in the face of the attack of Alaric I.

 

Can anyone add to this list?

[Nephele]

What an interesting topic! You've inspired me, MPC, to do a bit of research. And so I dug up a couple of old academic articles (from 1950) by Cornelia C. Coulter, that were published in The Classical Journal.

 

Professor Coulter's thesis was that, over time, the Roman consultation of the Sibylline Books had become somewhat of a racket, for whenever government officials desired to pass some new measure that required public support. You can read more about it in Coulter's "Transfiguration of the Sibyl", The Classical Journal, Vol 46, Nos. 2 and 3 (Nov. and Dec. 1950). But for now I'll just post the Sibylline consultations noted by Professor Coulter which don't appear in that Wikipedia article:

 

Citing Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Professor Coulter states that the first recorded consultation of the Sibylline Books (after the expulsion of the Tarquins) was due to a serious shortage of food preceding a war against King Porsenna of Clusium and his allies. The dictator Postumius, before setting out to war, ordered the consultation, and it was decided that the deities Demeter, Dionysus, and Kore first had to be propitiated. After vowing to dedicate a temple to them along with yearly sacrifices, the famine was averted and Postumius was victorious in his war. "The temple was dedicated in 493 [bCE] to the three gods, under the names of the native deities with whom they were equated (Ceres, Liber, and Libera), and a Greek-speaking priestess was brought to Rome from Southern Italy to take charge of their worship."

 

The next time the Books were consulted was in 461 BCE, following a number of ill omens that in turn followed the introduction of a bill by one of the tribunes to curtail the tyranny of the consuls. "The duumviri opened the Sacred Books, and found there a prophecy of danger 'from the gathering together of people of foreign birth,' which might lead to 'an attack on the highest places of the city and consequent bloodshed.' Various warnings were issued to the people, among others, 'that they should refrain from seditious agitation.'" Livy reported that the tribunes charged that this consultation and interpretation of the Sibylline Books was done so as to prevent the passage of the law they had proposed.

 

Also reported by Livy... Another early consultation of the Sibylline Books was in 399 BCE, in response to a pestilence, which resulted in the institution of the lectisternium, a Greek rite which was new to Rome. (Since the article I linked is in Wikipedia, I'm surprised that this isn't cross-referenced in the Wikipedia article which lists the consultations of the Sibylline Books).

 

In 144 BCE, as reported by Frontinus, the Sibylline Books were apparently used to block the efforts of Quintus Marcius Rex, the praetor urbanus at the time, from improving the city of Rome's water supply. Two aqueducts were in need of repair, which Marcius not only saw to, but he also planned a new aqueduct to be named after himself -- the Aqua Marcia. The decemviri consulted the Books and "discovered" that "it was not right (fas) that the Aqua Marcia...should be brought to the Capitoline."

 

Other Sibylline Book consultations reported by Professor Coulter in her article appear to coincide with the Wikipedia list, so I won't bother to list them here.

 

-- Nephele

[Pantagathus]

Awesome Nephele,

 

It is a great topic and knew I had come across others instances not listed by Wiki but didn't have the time to go back and pour through Livy, Dionysius etc to find them.

 

Thanks

[M. Porcius Cato]

Great find Nephele. Was there a comprehensive list in your source?

[Nephele]

Thanks, Pan and MPC.

 

Great find Nephele. Was there a comprehensive list in your source?

 

The articles were pretty comprehensive, but Professor Coulter doesn't provide a list, per se. You have to read through the articles to pick out the dates of each Sibylline Book consultation.

 

With nearly each citation of an instance in which the Sibylline Books were consulted, Professor Coulter (of Mt. Holyoke College and past president of the American Philological Association) shows how the Sibylline Books were not only used to introduce innovations in Roman religious practice, but were also used as a "kind of racket" (her description) for manipulating public opinion and political action, and especially for obstructing certain action (as in the case of Q. Marcius Rex and his plans for building the Aqua Marcia).

 

-- Nephele

[Gaius Octavius]

This is the kind of thing I was hoping would get into 'Academia', be edited, and entered into UNRV's resources.

 

Nice work.