Sibyls

SIBYLS. The Scripture no where mentions the Sibyls; and all that is said of ‘em is of so little Certainty, that we think we ought not to spend much Time in treating of them. The Word Sibyl is Greek, a according to most Etymologists, and signifies the Counsel of God. The Sibyls among the Pagans were, as they say, what the Prophets and Prophetesses were among the Hebrews. They foretold future Events, and reveal’d important Truths to the People. There are generally reckon’d ten of them: The Cumæan, the Cumanian, the Persian, the Hellespontiacan, the Lybian, the Samian, the Delphian, the Phrygian, the Tiburtine, and the Erythrean.

Cle. Alex. Strom. l.6.Clemens Alexandrinus quotes these Words as from St. Paul; Take the Greek Books in your Hands, read the Sibyls, and see what they say of the Unity of God, and how they foretel what is to come, and you will there clearly find the Son of God. Several of the antient Fathers have cited the Verses ascribed to the Sibyls, and have drawn Arguments from them in favour of the Christian Religion. But the wiser and more skilful Criticks of our Days are persuaded, that these Verses were composed afterwards, and were never known to the Sibyls. See in this Matter Blondel on the Sibyls, Casaubon against Baron. Exercit. 1. sec. 10. c. 11. Erasm. Schmith. Dissert. de Sibyllis. M. du Pin. Proleg. to the Bible. Servat. Gallæus, Sibyllina Oracula. Amstelod. 1689. Item Dissertationes in Sibyllis of the same Amstelod. 1688.

Plato, Aristotle, Varro, Dionysius Halycarnassæus, Cicero, Livy, all speak of the Plato in Phædro. Aristot. de admirandis.Sibyls with Honour. Virgil without doubt took out of the Sibylline Verses, what he says concerning the Birth of the Messiah; for one can hardly apply to any other these Verses of his fourth Eclogue.

‘Twas from the same Source that Suetonius derived what he says, “That in the Sueton. in Vespasiano. Joseph. Antiq. l. 1. c. 5.Time of Vespasian there was a constant and general Opinion propagated through the whole East, that Fate had decreed, that about that Time should come forth out of Judæa, those who should obtain the Empire of the World”. Josephus the Historian, who is known to have lived in the Time of Vespasian, quotes in his History a Passage from the Sibyls, that mention’d the Deluge. Clemens Alexandrinus assures us, that St. Paul in his Preaching sometimes cited the Sibylline Books, and referr’d the Gentiles to them. The antient Fathers of the Church, such as Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian, Lactantius, Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. Austin, and others, made good Use of them against the Pagans; and the frequent Use they made of them, occasion’d the Name of Sibyllists to be applied to them.

Vide Orig. l. 7. contra Celsum.Here is more than enough to justify us, for producing here this short Account of these famous and antient Prophetesses. Their Lives, and the Times in which they lived, are Circumstances not very well known. She that was the most famous of them all, was that to whom the Greeks gave the Name of Erythrea, because she was born at Erythra in Ionia; and because she left her Country, and came to settle at Cumæ in Italy, the Latins gave her the Justin. Martyr, cohortatio ad Græcos.Name of Cumana. Justin Martyr says, “that it was pretended she was by Extraction of Babylonia, and Daughter to Berosus the Chaldean Historian; who coming, ‘tis not known how, into Campania, there she gave forth her Oracles, at a City call’d Cumæ, about six Miles from Baiæ. I have seen the Place (adds he) which is a large Oratory cut out of a Rock, which must have cost much Labour to make; for it is very well work’d, and very capacious. There this Sibyl gave out her Responses, as I was inform’d by the Inhabitants of the¹ “ Place, who preserve the Tradition from Father to Son. In the middle of the Grotto they shew’d me three hollow Places, which were also cut out of the Rock, where they said she us’d to bathe herself when fill’d with Water. After she had dress’d herself, she withdrew into the most remote Apartment of the Grotto, which was a kind of Cell cut also out of the Rock, and there placing herself upon an elevated Seat, which jutted out into the middle of the Cell, she there pronounced her Oracles. ”

This is what Justin Martyr says of the Sibyl’s Cave at Cumæ. We are assured², that it was seen in the same Condition till the Year 1539, at which Time there was a great Earthquake that shaked the whole Country of Campania, and at Puteoli threw out from the bottom of the Sea great Mountains of Sand, Gravel, and bituminous Matter, which quite overwhelmed this Cave of the Sibyl. If this of whom we are speaking was Daughter to Berosus the Babylonian, she must have lived after the Reign of Alexander the Great. Virgil places her at the Time of the Siege of Troy, since he makes Æneas to consult her at his coming into Italy. Others place her in the Reign of Tarquinius Superbus, the last King of Rome.

Dionysius Halycarnassensis, Aulus Gellius, Lactantius,³ and some others relate, that under the Reign of this last Prince, there came a strange Woman to Rome, who offer’d to the King nine Volumes of the Sibylline Oracles, for which she asked three hundred Pieces of Gold. Tarquin refused to give her this Sum, upon which she presently burnt three of the nine Volumes, and for the remaining six she asked the same Sum. Tarquin continuing to refuse her with great Derision, she burnt three more of ‘em in his Presence, and still insisted upon having the three hundred Pieces of Gold for the three Volumes that remain’d. A Proceeding so extraordinary as this made Tarquin suspect, that there must be some Mystery in it. He therefore sent to inquire of the Augurs, to know their Opinion about it. They answer’d him, that they found by certain Signs, that what he had so despised was a Present sent him by the Gods; that it was great pity he had not bought the whole nine Volumes, and urged him to give the Woman what she asked for the remaining three. He did so, the Woman deliver’d him the Books, and advised that they might be carefully preserved, as containing the future Destiny of Rome. After these Words she withdrew, and it was not known what became of her. Tarquin caus’d these three Books to be shut up in a kind of Stone Chest, and to be put into a subterraneous Vault in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and committed the Care of it to two Persons of the first Quality in Rome; with a Charge to let no body read them, or to take a Copy of them, without express Orders from the King. After the Abolition of kingly Government at Rome, they continued to have the same Regard for these Books as before, and the Romans made of ‘em one of their greatest Secrets of Policy, making the People believe, that whatever they judg’d proper to do, was taken out of these Books, which were never consulted or opened but by an express Order of the Senate.

While the Civil War raged between Marius and Sylla,⁴ the Fire by chance took hold of the Capitol, and the Sibylline Books were consumed by the Flames. After some Years, when the Capitol was rebuilt, Scribonius Curio, the Consul, proposed to the Senate to restore the Verses of the Sibyls. They were informed that there were some Verses of the Erythrean Sibyl remaining in the City of Erythra, the Place of her Nativity. Three Senators were deputed to go thither, who there made a Collection of about a thousand Greek Verses, which pass’d for the Prophecies of this Sibyl. They brought them to Rome, and at the same Time made several other Collections from several other Places⁵. The whole was laid up in the Capitol instead of those which the Fire had consumed.

But there being several Copies of these Verses to be found, and as every private Person made such Additions to his own Copy as he thought fit; to preserve the Credit of these Books, the Romans forbid all private Persons, upon pain of Death, to keep any Copies of them at all. These Orders were but ill observed, and Augustus, at the Commencement of his Office of Pontifex maximus⁶ renew’d the former Prohibitions, and having made a diligent Search after those Copies, and examin’d them strictly, he caus’d all those to be burnt which appeared to have been corrupted, and deposited the others in the Capitol, with those that were there before. Afterwards Tiberius⁷ made a new Review of them, and condemned several Volumes to the Flames. And these Sibylline Oracles were still in Vogue till about the Year 399, when they were intirely destroyed.

This is what gave occasion to this Event. Some time before this a Prophecy was handed about in Rome,⁸ taken, as they pretended, out of the Books of the Sibyls, in which it was foretold, that the Christian Religion being founded on the magical Sorceries of Peter, should not continue above three hundred and sixty-five Years, after which Time it should sink intirely. This Period fell upon the Year 398, which is the 368 Year from the Ascension of Jesus Christ. Yet the Christian Religion continued then to be as prosperous as ever. The Emperor Honorius therefore, taking Occasion from this Piece of Pagan Malice, gave Orders to Stilico the Year following, to cause all the Books of the Sibyls to be burnt, which was executed in 399. And they pull’d down the Temple of Apollo to its very Foundations, wherein these pretended Prophecies were us’d to be kept.

Yet this has not prevented the appearing of a Collection of Greek Verses in eight Books, which is now to be seen under the Title of the Oracles of the Sibyls. But this is neither the old Book of the Sibyls, known at Rome from the Time of Tarquin, nor the Collection made a little after the Civil Wars of Marius and Sylla, nor that reform’d and purify’d by Augustus. That which we have at present, includes a Part of the Sibylline Oracles, as in the Time of Augustus and afterwards; but the rest is a Rhapsody put together by some Christian, who had a mind to impose upon the Publick by the Name of the antient Sibyls. But he has perform’d it with so little Wit and Discretion, that the Imposture stares one in the Face every Moment. He makes the Sibyl say, for Example, that she was Wife to one of the three Sons of Noah, and that she had lived with him in the Ark during Lib. Sibyl. l. 3. in fine. Ibid. l. 8.the whole Time of the Deluge. The Author declares himself to be a Christian, in a Passage which begins with these Words; Nos igitur Christi de stirpe creati. He speaks of the Incarnation, of the Birth, of the Circumcision, of the Resurrection, of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, with as much Accuracy as the Evangelists. He describes the Reign of Jesus Christ upon Earth, according Ibid.l. 2, 3. Ibid.l. 5.to the Notions of the Millinaries. He gives a Succession of the Roman Emperors, according to their Order, from Julius Cæsar down to Antoninus Pius, and to the Adoption of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. All which prove, that these Books, in the State in which we now have them, were composed about the Middle of the second Age of the Church.

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