The Sibylline Oracles 12

1BUT come now, hear of me the mournful time

2Of sons of Latium; and first of all

3After the kings of Egypt were destroyed,

4And the like earth had downwards borne them all,

5And after Pella's townsman, under whom

6The whole East and the rich West were cast down,

7Whom Babylon dishonored, and stretched out

8For Philip a dead body (not of Zeus,

9Of Ammon not true things were prophesied),

10And after that one of the race and blood

11Of king Assaracus, who came from Troy,

12Even he who cleft the violence of fire,

13And after many lords, and after men

14To Ares dear, and after the young babes,

15The children of the beast that feeds on sheep,

16And after the passing of six hundred years

17And decades two of Rome's dictatorship,

18The very first lord, from the western sea,

19Shall be of Rome the ruler, very strong

20And warlike, the initial of whose name

21Begins the letters, and fast binding thee,

22O thou of goodly fruit, he shall be full

23Of man-destroying Ares; thou shalt pay

24The outrage which thou willing didst force on;

25For he, great soul, shall be the best in wars;

26Before him Thrace and Sicily shall crouch,

27With Memphis, Memphis cast headlong to earth

28By reason of the wickedness of rulers

29And of a woman unenslaved who falls

30Under the spear. And laws will he ordain

31For peoples and put all things under him;

32Having great fame he shall wield scepter long;

33For no short time shall he last nor shall ever

34Be other greater scepter-bearing king

35Than this one, o'er the Romans, not one hour,

36For God did lavish all things upon him,

37And also in the noble earth he showed

38Great marvelous seasons, and with them showed signs.

39But when a radiant star all like the sun

40Shall shine forth out of heaven in the mid days,

41Then shall the secret Word of the Most High

42Come clothed in flesh like mortals; but with him

43The might of Rome and of the illustrious Latins

44Shall increase. But the mighty king himself

45Shall under his appointed lot expire,

46Transmitting to another royal power.

47But after him a man, a warrior strong,

48Wearing the purple mantle on his shoulders,

49Shall bear rule, and with his initial be

50Numbers three hundred, and he shall destroy

51The Medes and arrow-hurling Parthians;

52And he himself by his power shall subvert

53The high-gate city; and again shall come

54Evil to Egypt and the Assyrians,

55And to the Colchian Heniochi,

56And to those by the waters of the Rhine,

57The Germans dwelling o'er the sandy shores.

58And he himself shall ravage afterwards

59The high-gate city near Eridanus

60Which is devising evils. And then he

61Shall forthwith fall down, struck by gleaming iron.

62And afterwards shall rule another man

63Weaving guile, and the initial of his name

64Will show the number three; and he much gold

65Shall gather; and with him there shall not be

66Satiety of wealth, but plundering more

67Recklessly he'll put all things in the earth.

68But peace shall come, and Ares shall desist

69From wars; and he shall make known many things

70In divination of the greatest things,

71Inquiring for the sake of means of life;

72Yet there shall be on him the greatest sign:

73From heaven down on the king while perishing

74There shall flow many little drops of blood.

75And many lawless things will he perform,

76And put around the neck of Romans pain

77Trusting in divination; and the heads

78Of the assembly he will also slay.

79And famine shall seize Cappadocians,

80And Thracians, Macedonians, and Italians.

81And Egypt shall alone feed numerous tribes;

82And the king himself beguiling secretly

83Shall craftily destroy the virgin maid;

84But her the citizens in tearful grief

85Shall bury; and against the king they all

86Holding wrath shall abuse him craftily.

87While strong Rome blossoms the strong man shall perish.

88And again there shall rule another lord

89Of the number of twice ten; and then shall come

90Unto the Sauromatians and to Thrace

91And the Triballi, famed for hurling darts,

92Wars and sad cares; and Roman Ares shall

93Tear all in pieces. And a fearful sign

94Shall there be when this man shall rule the land

95Of the Italians and Pannonians;

96And there shall be at the mid hour of day

97Dark night around them and then from the heaven

98A shower of stones; and thereupon the lord

99And vigorous judge of the Italians

100Shall go in Hades' halls by his own fate.

101Again another fearful man shall come

102And dreadful, numbering fifty; and from all

103The cities many noblest citizens

104Born to wealth he shall utterly destroy,

105A dreadful serpent breathing grievous war,

106Who sometime stretching forth his hands shall make

107An end of his own race and stir all things,

108Acting the athlete, driving chariots,

109Putting to death and daring countless things;

110And he shall cleave the mountain of two seas,

111And sprinkle it with gore. And out of sight

112Shall also vanish the destructive man;

113Then making himself equal unto God

114Shall he return, but God will prove him naught.

115And while he rules there shall be peace profound

116And not the fears of men; and from the ocean

117Flowing, and cleaving by Ausonia,

118Shall come untrodden water; and around

119Looking with anxious care he will appoint

120His very many contests for the people,

121And he himself an actor will contend

122With voice and cithara, and sing a song

123Along with harp-string; later he will flee

124And leave the royal power, and perishing

125Illy will he repay the harm he wrought.

126After him three shall rule and two of them

127Shall have the number seventy by their names,

128And in addition to these shall be one

129Of the third letter; and one here, one there,

130Shall perish by strong Ares' sturdy hands.

131Then shall a mighty ruler of men come,

132Destroyer of the pious, strong-minded man,

133Spear-wielding Ares, whom seven times the tenth

134Shall point out clearly; he shall overthrow

135Phœnicia and destroy Assyria.

136A sword shall come upon the sacred land

137Of Solyma even to the utmost bend

138Of the Tiberian sea. Alas, alas,

139Phœnicia, O how much shalt thou endure,

140Grief-laden with thy trophies tightly bound,

141And every nation shall upon thee tread.

142Alas, alas, to the Assyrians

143Shalt thou come and shalt see young children serve

144Among unfriendly men and with the wives,

145And every means of life and wealth shall perish;

146For on thee God's wrath causing grievous woe

147Shall come, because they did not keep his law,

148But served all idols with unseemly arts.

149And many wars and fights and homicides,

150Famines, and pestilences, and confusion

151Of cities shall be. But the reverend king

152Of mighty soul shall at the end of life

153Himself fall by a strong necessity.

154Then shall two other chief men, cherishing

155The memory of their father, great king, rule,

156And in contending warriors glory much.

157And (one) of these shall be a noble man

158And lordly, whose name shall three hundred hold;

159Yet he shall also fall by treachery,

160Not in the warring companies stretched out,

161But struck in Rome's plain by the two-edged brass.

162And after him a powerful warlike man

163Of the letter four shall rule the mighty realm,

164Whom all men on the boundless earth shall love,

165And then shall there be over all the world

166A rest from war. Yet all, from west to east,

167Shall serve him willingly, not by constraint,

168And cities shall be under his control

169And of themselves be subject. For to him

170Shall heavenly Sabaoth much glory bring,

171The imperishable God who dwells on high.

172And then shall famine waste Pannonia

173And all the Celtic land, and shall destroy

174One here, another there. And there shall be

175For the Assyrians, whom Orontes laves,

176Structures and ornament and what may seem

177Yet greater anywhere. And the great king

178Shall have a fondness for these and love them

179Above the others far (and there are many);

180But he himself shall in mid breast receive

181A great wound, and seized at the end of life

182Craftily, by a friend, in hallowed house

183Of the great royal hall shall he fall down

184Wounded; and after him shall be a ruler

185Numbering fifty, venerable man,

186Who above measure shall destroy from Rome

187Many inhabitants and citizens;

188But he shall rule few; for in Hades' halls

189For a former king's sake he shall wounded go.

190But then another king, a warrior strong,

191Who has three hundred for initial sign,

192Shall bear rule and lay waste the Thracians' land

193Which is much varied, and he shall destroy

194The powerful Germans dwelling by the Rhine

195And the Iberians that shoot the arrow.

196Moreover, there shall be unto the Jews

197Another greatest evil, and with them

198Bedewed with murder shall Phœnicia drink;

199And the walls of the Assyrians shall fall

200By many warriors. And again a man

201Destroying life shall waste them utterly.

202And then shall threatenings of the mighty God,

203Earthquakes, and great plagues be on every land,

204Untimely snow-storms, and strong thunderbolts.

205And then the great king, mountain-roaming Celt,

206Shall for the toil of Ares not escape

207A fate unseemly, hastening eagerly

208After the strife of battle, but worn out

209Shall he be; foreign dust shall hide his corpse,

210But dust that of Nemea's flower has name.

211And after him another shall arise,

212A silver-headed man, and of the sea

213Shall be his name, and of four syllables,

214Ares himself first of the alphabet

215Presenting. Temples he shall dedicate

216In all the cities, watching o'er the world

217By his own foot, and bringing gifts away,

218Both gold and amber much will he supply

219For many; and magicians' mysteries

220All will he from the sanctuaries keep;

221And what is much more excellent for men

222Will he place . . . ruling . . . thunderbolt;

223And great peace shall be when he shall be lord;

224And he shall be a minstrel of rich voice

225And a participant in lawful things,

226And a just minister of what is right;

227But he shall fall, unloosing his own fate.

228After him three shall rule, and the third late

229Shall rule, three decades keeping; yet again

230Of the first unit shall another king

231Bear the rule; and another after him

232Shall be commander, of tens numbering seven;

233And their names shall be honored; and they shall

234Themselves destroy men marked by many a spot,

235Britons and mighty Moors and Dacians

236And the Arabians. But when the last

237Of these shall perish, fearful Ares then,

238He that before was wounded, shall again

239Against the Parthians come, and utterly

240Shall he destroy them. And then shall the king

241Himself fall by a treacherous wild beast

242Training his hands--excuse itself of death.

243And after him another man shall rule,

244In many wise things skilled, and he shall have

245Himself the name of the first mighty king

246Of the first unit; and he shall be good

247And mighty; and for the illustrious Latins

248Shall this strong one accomplish many things

249In memory of his father; and forthwith

250Shall he adorn the walls of Rome with gold

251And silver and ivory; and he shall go

252Within the market places and the temples

253With a strong man. And sometime direst wound

254Shall shoot up like ears in the Roman wars;

255And he shall sack the whole land of the Germans,

256When a great sign of God shall be displayed

257From heaven, and shall for the king's piety

258Save men in brazen armor and distress;

259For God who is in heaven and hears all things

260Shall wet him with unseasonable rain

261When he prays. But when these things are fulfilled

262Of which I spoke, then with the rolling years

263Shall also the renowned dominion cease

264Of the great pious king; and at the end

265Of his life, having then proclaimed his son

266Succeeding to the kingdom, he shall die

267By his own lot and leave the royal power

268Unto the ruler with the golden hair,

269Who with two tens in his name, born a king

270From the race of his father, shall receive

271Dominion. This man with superior powers

272Of mind shall grasp all things; and he shall rival

273Great-hearted overweening Hercules,

274And be the best in mighty arms and have

275The greatest fame in chase and horsemanship;

276But he shall live in peril all alone.

277And while this man is ruler there shall be

278A fearful sign: there shall be a great mist

279Then in the plain of Rome, so that a man

280May not discern his neighbor. And then wars

281Shall come to pass along with mournful cares,

282When the king himself, exceeding mad with love,

283And weakly, shall come in the marriage-bed

284Shaming his youthful offspring, infamous

285For inconsiderate wedding-songs impure.

286And then, in helpless loneliness concealed,

287The mighty baneful man held under wrath

288Shall in a bath-room suffer evil plight,

289Man-slaying Ares bound by treacherous fate.

290Know then the fatal lot of Rome is near

291Because of zeal for power; and by the hands

292Of Ares many in Palladian halls

293Shall perish. And then Rome shall be bereft

294And shall repay all things, which she alone

295Before accomplished by her many wars.

296My heart laments, my heart within me mourns;

297For from the time when thy first king, proud Rome,

298Gave good law to thee and to men on earth,

299And the Word of the great immortal God

300Came to the earth, until the nineteenth reign

301Shall have been finished Cronos shall complete

302Two hundred years, twice twenty and twice two,

303With six months added; then the twentieth king,

304When smitten with sharp brass he with the sword

305Shall in thy houses pour out blood, shall make

306Thy race a widow, having in his name

307The letter which the number eighty shows,

308And burdened with old age; but he shall make

309A widow of thee in a little time,

310When many warriors, many overthrows,

311And murders, homicides, and deadly feuds

312And miseries of conquests there shall be,

313And in confusion many a horse and man

314Shall, cleft by force of hands, fall in the plain.

315And then another man shall rule, and have

316The sign of his name in the number ten;

317And many sorrows shall he bring to pass,

318And groans, and he shall plunder many men;

319But he himself shall be short-lived and fall

320By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.

321Another, numbering fifty, then shall come,

322A warrior roused up by the East for rule;

323A warlike Ares he shall come to Thrace;

324And he shall flee thereafter and shall come

325Into the land of the Bithynians

326And the Cilician plain; but brazen Ares

327The life-destroyer shall with speedy stroke

328Utterly spoil him in the Assyrian fields.

329And then again there shall rule craftily

330A man skilled in fraud, full of various wiles,

331Roused up by the West, and his name shall have

332The number of two hundred. And again

333Another sign: he shall contrive a war

334For royal power against Assyrian men,

335Raise a whole army and subject all things.

336And he shall rule the Romans with his might;

337But there is much contrivance in his heart,

338Impulse of baleful Ares; serpent dire,

339And violent in war, who shall destroy

340All high-born men upon the earth, and slay

341The noble for their wealth, and, robber like,

342Stripping all earth while men are perishing,

343He shall go to the East; and all deceit

344Shall be to him . . .

345Then shall a youthful Caesar with him reign

346Having the name of a puissant lord

347Of Macedon, by the first letter known;

348Bringing in broils around him he shall flee

349The hard deception of the coming king

350In the bosom of the army; but the one

351Who rules by his barbaric usages,

352A temple-guard, shall perish suddenly

353Slain by strong Ares with the gleaming iron;

354Him even dead shall people tear in pieces.

355And then the kings of Persia shall rise up;

356And . . . Roman Ares Roman lord.

357And Phrygia shall with earthquakes groan again

358Wretched. Alas, alas, Laodicea;

359Alas, alas, sad Hierapolis;

360For you first once the yawning earth received.

361Of Rome . . . immense Aus . . .

362All things as many . . .

363Shall wail . . . while men are perishing

364In the hands of Ares; and the lot of men

365Shall be bad; but then by the eastern way

366Hastening to look down upon Italy,

367Stripped naked he shall fall by gleaming iron,

368Acquiring hatred for his mother's sake.

369For seasons are of all sorts; each holds back

370The other . . . gleaming and this not at once all know;

371For all things shall not be (the lot) of all,

372But only those shall be for happiness

373Who honor God and shun idolatry.

374And now, Lord of the world, of every realm

375Unfeigned immortal King--for thou didst put

376Into my heart the oracle divine--

377Make thou the word cease; for I do not know

378What things I say; for thou art in me he

379That speaketh all these things. Now let me rest

380A little and put from my heart aside

381The charming song; for weary is my heart

382Foretelling with divine words royal power.