The Sibylline Oracles 13

1GREAT word divine he bids me sing again--

2The immortal holy God imperishable,

3Who gives to kings their power and takes away,

4And who determined for them time both ways,

5Both that of life and that of baneful death.

6And these the heavenly God enjoins on me

7Unwilling to bring tidings unto kings

8Concerning royal power. . . .

9And spear impetuous Ares; and by him

10All perish, child and the old man who gives

11To the assemblies laws; and many wars

12And battles there shall be, and homicides,

13Famines and pestilences, earthquake-shocks

14And mighty thunderbolts, and many ways

15Of the Assyrians over all the world,

16And pillaging and robbery of temples.

17And then an insurrection there shall be

18Of the industrious Persians, and with them

19Indians, Armenians, and Arabians;

20And unto these again a Roman king

21Insatiate in war and leading on

22His spearmen against the Assyrians

23Shall draw near, a young Ares, and as far

24As the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates

25Shall warlike Ares stretch his deadly spear

26Because of . . .

27For by his friend betrayed he shall fall down

28In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron.

29And straightway coming out of Syria

30There shall a purple-loving warrior rule,

31Terror of Ares, and also his son,

32A Caesar, shall even all the earth oppress;

33And the one name is unto both of them:

34On first and twentieth there are to be placed

35Five hundred. But when these in wars shall rule,

36And laws shall be enacted, there shall be

37A little rest from war, not for long time;

38But when a wolf shall to a flock of sheep

39Pledge solemn oaths against the white-toothed dogs,

40Then, having misled, he will tear in pieces

41The woolly sheep, and cast his oaths aside;

42And then shall there be an unlawful strife

43Of haughty kings in wars, and Syrians

44Shall perish terribly, and Indians

45And the Armenians and Arabians,

46The Persians and the Babylonians

47Shall one another by hard fights destroy.

48But when a Roman Ares shall destroy

49A German Ares ruinous of life

50Triumphing on the ocean, then is war

51Of many years for haughty Persian men,

52But for them there shall not be victory;

53For as a fish swims not upon the point

54Of a high many-ridged and windy rock

55Precipitant, nor does a tortoise fly,

56Nor does an eagle into water come,

57So also are the Persians in that day

58Far off from victory, while the fond nurse

59Of the Italians, in the plain of Nile

60Reposing by the sacred water's side,

61Sends forth the appointed lot to seven-hilled Rome.

62Now these things are; and while the name of Rome

63Shall hold in numbers of revolving time,

64So many years shall the great noble city

65Of Macedon's lord, willing, deal out corn.

66Another much-distressing pain I'll sing

67For Alexandrians who are destroyed

68By reason of the strife of shameful men.

69Strong men who were aforetime terrible

70Being then impotent shall pray for peace

71By reason of the wickedness of chiefs.

72And there shall come wrath of the mighty God

73On the Assyrians and a mountain stream

74Shall utterly destroy them, which shall come

75To Caesar's city and harm Canaanites.

76The Pyramus shall irrigate the city

77Of Mopsus; then shall the AEgaeans fall

78Because of strife of very mighty men.

79Thee, wretched Antioch, shall Ares strong

80Leave not while round thee an Assyrian war

81Is pressing, for a chief of men shall dwell

82Within thy houses who shall fight with all

83The arrow-hurling Persians, he himself

84Having obtained of Romans royal power.

85Now, cities of Arabians, deck yourselves

86With temples and with places for the race,

87And with broad markets and with splendid wealth,

88With images, gold, silver, ivory;

89And thou who art of all most fond of learning,

90Bostra and Philippopolis, that thou may'st come

91Into great sorrow; and the laughing spheres

92Of the zodiacal vault, Aries,

93Taurus, and Gemini, and as many stars

94Ruling hours as with them in heaven appear

95Shall benefit thee not; thou, wretched one,

96Hast trusted many, when that very man

97Shall afterwards bring near that which is thine.

98And now for Alexandrians loving war

99Will I sing wars most dreadful; and much people

100Shall perish while their cities are destroyed

101By citizens against each other matched

102And fighting for the sake of hateful strife,

103And round them horrid Ares, rushing on,

104Shall cease from war. And then one of great soul

105Along with his own mighty son shall fall

106By treachery on the older king's account.

107And after him there shall rule powerfully

108O'er fertile Rome another great-souled lord

109Versed in war, coming from the Dacians

110And numbering three hundred; he shall have

111Also the letter of the number four,

112And many shall be slay, and then the king

113Shall all his brothers and his friends destroy

114Even while the kings are cut off, and straightway

115Shall there be fights and pillagings and murders

116Suddenly on the older king's account.

117Then, when a wily man shall summoned come,

118A robber and a Roman not well known

119From Syria appearing, he by guile

120Into a race of Cappadocian men

121Shall drive through and, besieging, shall press hard,

122Insatiate of war. And then for thee,

123Tyana and Mazaka, there shall be

124A capture; thou shalt be enslaved and put

125Upon thy neck again a fearful yoke.

126Arid Syria shall mourn for men destroyed

127And then Selenian goddess shall not guard

128Her holy city. But when he by flight

129From Syria shall before the Romans come,

130And shall pass over the Euphrates' streams,

131No longer like the Romans, but like fierce

132Dart-shooting Persians, then, fulfilling fate,

133Down shall the ruler of the Italians fall

134In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron;

135And close upon him shall his children perish.

136But when another king of Rome shall reign,

137Then also to the Romans there shall come

138Unstable nations, on the walls of Rome

139Destructive Ares with his bastard son;

140Then also shall be famines, pestilence,

141And mighty thunderbolts, and dreadful wars,

142And anarchy in cities suddenly;

143And the Syrians shall perish fearfully;

144For there shall come upon them the great wrath

145Of the Most High and straightway an uprising

146of the industrious Persians, and mixed up

147With Persians shall the Syrians destroy

148The Romans, but by the divine decree

149They shall not make a conquest of their laws.

150Alas, how many with their goods shall flee

151Front the East unto men of other tongues

152Alas, the dark blood of how many men

153The land shall drink! For that shall be a time

154In which the living uttering o'er the dead

155A blessing shall by word of mouth pronounce

156Death beautiful and death shall flee from them.

157And now for thee, O wretched Syria,

158I weep in sorrow; for to thee shall come

159A dreadful blow from arrow-shooting men,

160Which thou didst never think would come to thee.

161Also the fugitive of Rome shall come

162Bearing a great spear, Crossing on his way

163Euphrates with his many myriads,

164And he shall burn thee, and dispose all things

165In a bad way. O wretched Antioch,

166And thee a city they shall never call,

167When by thy lack of prudence thou shalt fall

168Under the spears; and stripping off all things

169And making naked he shall leave thee thus

170Coverless, houseless; and when anyone

171Sees he shall of a sudden weep for thee.

172And thou shalt be, O Hierapolis,

173A triumph, also thou, Berœa; weep

174At Chalcis over lately wounded sons.

175Alas, how many by the steep high mount

176Of Casius shall dwell and by Amanus

177How many, and how many Lycus laves,

178And Marsyas as many and Pyramus

179The silver-eddying; for even to the bounds

180Of Asia they shall treasure up their spoils,

181Make cities naked, and bear idols off

182And cast down temples on much-nourishing earth.

183And sometime to Gauls and Pannonians,

184To Mysians and Bithynians there shall be

185Great sorrow when a warrior shall have come.

186O Lycians, Lycians, there shall come a wolf

187To lick thy blood, when Sannians shall come

188With city-wasting Ares and the Carpians

189Shall draw near with Ausonians to fight.

190And then by his own shameless recklessness

191The bastard son shall put the king to death,

192And he himself for his impiety

193Shall straightway perish. And again shall rule

194After him yet another whose name shows

195First letter; but he too shall quickly fall

196By mighty Ares, struck by gleaming iron.

197And yet again the world shall be confused,

198Men perishing by pestilence and war.

199And the Persians maddened by the Ausonians

200Shall in the toil of Ares yet again

201Force their way. And then there shall be a flight

202Of Romans; and thereafter there shall come

203The priest heard of all round, sent by the sun,

204From Syria appearing and by guile

205Shall he accomplish all things. And then too

206The city of the sun shall offer prayer;

207And round about her shall the Persians dare

208The fearful threatenings of the Phœnicians.

209But when two chiefs, men swift in war, shall rule

210The very mighty Romans, one of whom

211Shall have the number seventy, and the other

212The number three, even then the stately bull,

213That digs the earth with his hoofs and stirs up

214The dust with his two horns, shall many ills

215Upon a dark-skinned reptile perpetrate--

216Which draws a trail with his scales; and besides,

217Himself shall perish. And yet after him

218Again shall come another fair-horned stag,

219Hungry upon the mountains, striving hard

220To feed upon the venom-shedding beasts

221Then shall a dread and fearful lion come,

222Sent from the sun, and breathing forth much flame.

223And then too by his shameless recklessness

224Shall he destroy the well-horned rapid stag,

225And the most mighty venom-shedding beast

226So dread, that sends forth many piping sounds,

227And the he-goat that sideways moves along,

228And after him fame follows; he himself

229Sound, unhurt, unapproachable, shall rule

230The Romans, and the Persians shall be weak.

231But, Lord, King of the world, O God, restrain

232The song of our words, and give charming song.