Among the religious treasures of Rome, none was guarded with as much care as the Sibylline Books. They were a collection of oracles in Greek that no private person could read and that were opened only by order of the senate, at moments when the city seemed threatened by forces beyond human control. For centuries those scrolls were a kind of sacred reserve from which Rome drew to restore its harmony with the gods.
The legend of the purchase
The origin of the books was told in a famous story, reported by authors such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Aulus Gellius. An old, unknown woman came before King Tarquin and offered him nine books of prophecies at a very high price. The king refused, finding the demand absurd.
The woman then burned three books and offered the remaining six at the same price. The king refused again. She burned three more and offered the last three, still at the original price. Struck by such persistence, Tarquin consulted the augurs, who advised him to buy them. The woman, identified with a Sibyl, vanished immediately afterwards.
The story expresses a profound idea: sacred knowledge is not haggled over, and whoever refuses it ends up receiving less of it.
Where they were kept
The books were placed in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the religious heart of the city, in an underground chamber, locked in a stone chest. Their custody was entrusted to a special priestly college, whose membership grew over time:
| Phase | College |
|---|---|
| Origins | Duoviri sacris faciundis, two members |
| Fourth century BC | Decemviri, ten members, half of them plebeian |
| Age of Sulla | Quindecemviri, fifteen members |
The college's name, "those in charge of performing sacred rites", indicates their task: not only to guard the books, but to translate the responses into concrete ritual actions.
How they were consulted
The books were not read to learn the future. They were opened when disturbing prodigies occurred: plagues, earthquakes, monstrous births, lightning striking the Capitol, serious military defeats. The prodigy was interpreted as a sign that the pax deorum, the peace between the city and the gods, had been broken.
The procedure was strict:
- the senate decreed the consultation;
- the priestly keepers searched the books for the relevant passage;
- they reported to the senate the remedy indicated, usually a rite, a sacrifice or the introduction of a new cult;
- the senate decided whether and how to carry it out.
The exact content of the passages remained secret: the people were told only what was to be done.
New gods from the books
The most remarkable aspect of the Sibylline Books is that they often prescribed the reception of foreign deities. In this way some cults destined for great success were introduced to Rome:
- the cult of Aesculapius, brought from Epidaurus at the beginning of the third century BC, with a sanctuary on the Tiber Island;
- the cult of the Magna Mater, the Phrygian Great Mother, whose sacred stone was brought from Pessinus in the last years of the war against Hannibal;
- rites of Greek origin such as the banquets offered to statues of the gods, called lectisternia.
In this sense the books were an instrument of religious openness, controlled by the state.
Verses and acrostics
Cicero, in On Divination, observes that the Sibylline verses were carefully composed, to the point of containing acrostics, phrases formed by the first letters of the lines. For him this proved that they were a deliberate work of art, not the raving of a prophetess. It is one of the few pieces of information we have about the form of the texts.
The fire and the reconstruction
In 83 BC the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus burned down and the Sibylline Books were destroyed. The senate then sent embassies to various cities of the Greek world, in particular to Erythrae in Asia Minor, to collect Sibylline oracles to replace the lost ones.
Later Augustus had this new collection examined, discarded the texts deemed spurious and placed those considered authentic in gilded cases beneath the base of the statue of Apollo, in the god's temple on the Palatine.
The end
The books survived until the early fifth century. According to the poet Rutilius Namatianus, it was the general Stilicho who had them burned, an act that the poet, faithful to the traditional religion, regarded as a sacrilege against the very destiny of Rome.
They should not be confused with the Sibylline Oracles that have come down to us, a collection of prophetic texts of Jewish and Christian origin, composed in a different context.
In short
- The Sibylline Books were Greek oracles bought, according to legend, by Tarquin from a Sibyl.
- They were kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus by a college that became the quindecemviri.
- They were consulted only by decree of the senate, after prodigies, to find the restoring rite.
- On their instructions Rome welcomed cults such as those of Aesculapius and the Magna Mater.
- Destroyed in 83 BC, they were reassembled, moved by Augustus to the Palatine and finally burned by Stilicho.
