Sibylline Books
The Sibylline books were a collection of oracular utterances in Greek hexameters, taken during the entire history of the Roman Empire in crisis situations to rate.
Origin of the prophecies
The oldest collection of Sibylline oracles seems to have been created in Gergis on Mount Ida in the time of Solon and Cyrus; it was the Sibyl of Marpessos assigned and was kept in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. From Gergis the collection came to Erythrai ( Attica ) and according to Cumae Cumaean Sibyl, the respondent after Virgil Aeneas before his descent into the underworld ( Aeneid VI, 10).
Recording of the books in the state cult of Rome
The semi-legendary last Roman king Tarquinius Superbus said to have bought the Sibylline books a fortune teller ( Sibylle ).
The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline books through this last king of Rome is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history. A (old ) woman offered the Etruscan Tarquinius nine books of these prophecies to buy, what the king refused based on the required exorbitant price; then she burned three of the books and offered the rest for the same price again. Tarquinius rejected a second time on, she burned three more books, and repeated her offer. Now Tarquinius drew one, acquired the last three books at full price and then brought them in a vault of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol under. The fortune teller it is said to have traded to the Sibyl of Cumae, a Sibyl, after Virgil ( Aeneid VI, 10) already Aeneas, the mythical ancestor of the Romans, after his landing in Italy from Rome had prophesied the future. But even if the books are attributed to her, but they go on the origins above Sibylline Oracles back.
The acquisition of the Sibylline books from Cumae to represent a reaction against the cultural influence of Etruria and the beginning of self- government policy on religion in Rome.
The knowledge of the three remaining books of the Sibyl is quoted even after 317 AD by Lactantius and of Origen.
Administrative and survey of books
The Sibylline books were entrusted to the care of two patricians ( duumviri ), after 376 BC, then ten guards were appointed, five patricians and five plebeians ( Decemviri ), finally, was probably in the time of Sulla, their number to fifteen ( Quindecimviri ) increased. These Decemviri Sacris Faciundis are usually former consuls or praetors to which their whole life long their office and were released from all other public duties. Their task was to keep the books in secret and security. They consulted the books on the instructions of the Senate (where they, as the books were written in Greek and in hexameters, were supported by two Greek translators ), not in order to obtain accurate future predictions in the form of prophecies, but to define the religious measures that were necessary to avoid extraordinary accidents or to provide assistance ominous sign ( comets, earthquakes, epidemics and the like ) atonement, whereby only the atonement rite of the public described in the Sibylline books was announced, not the oracle itself - which of abuse and gate was opened.
Even the guardians of the Sibylline books had, whose cult was introduced by the books the ultimate supervision of the worship of Apollo, the Magna Mater Cybele and Ceres. Thus was one of the major effects of the Sibylline books their influence on the introduction of Greek cults and the Greek gods in the original Roman religion, as far as this was not already done by the Etruscan religion. When the Sibylline books in Anatolia, have been compiled in the neighborhood of Troy, they were aware of the gods and goddesses and their rites on the spot, which were thus introduced into the cults of the Roman state, a syncretic amalgamation of national deities with the corresponding Greek deities, and a general modification of the Roman religion.
Replacement of the original collection
When the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol burned down in the year 83 BC, the books were lost - the indigenous understanding of religion of the Romans and were, accordingly, BC replaced by the Senate in 76 years with a new collection of similar sayings that of Ilium ( Troy), Erythrae, Samos, Sicily and Africa were compiled. This new Sibylline collection was deposited in the rebuilt temple, together with sayings of indigenous origin, for example those of the Sibyl of Tibur, the brothers Marcius and others. From the Capitol they were BC by Augustus in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus 12 - transferred into the temple of Apollo on the Palatine Patrous, where they remained until the year 405 - according to a review and the making of a copy.
Loss of books and handed fragments
The Heermeister Flavius Stilicho († 408) is suspected to have burned the books in the year 405.
Some original verses from the Sibylline books have been preserved in the Book of Miracles of Phlegon of Tralles (2nd century).
The Sibylline books should not be confused with the so-called Sibylline oracles, a compiled in the 6th century collection of supposedly prophetic writings, which goes back to Jewish, Christian and pagan sources from 150 BC to 300 AD.