Sibylline Books

Roman A collection of prophecies written by the Sibyl of Cumae, perhaps brought with her from Greece, which contained advice for fortune-telling, predictions of the future of Rome, and a set of instructions that influenced Roman religion for centuries. In the mid-500s b.c., this sibyl offered the original nine volumes of her predictions to the last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus, but he refused twice to buy them, not knowing their worth. With each refusal, the sibyl burned three books. Then the king, having learned of her reputation as a prophetess, bought the three remaining books at the same price as the original nine. The sibyl vanished and Tarquinius had the manuscripts preserved in a lower chamber of a temple of Jupiter. Special priests guarded the books. In times of strife and conflict, Roman leaders consulted these prophecies. Often they instructed the people of Rome to bring a new cult or worship of a specific Greek god to Rome. In 83 b.c., the temple in which the books were kept burned and they were destroyed. The Roman leaders sent for copies of the verses from across the empire, which included all of Italy and Greece, stretched from Spain to Turkey, and included portions of northern Africa. The last known time Rome consulted the Sibylline Books was in a.d. 363.