The Sibylline Oracles 14

1O MEN, why do ye vainly think on things

2Too lofty, as if ye immortal were?

3And ye are ruling but a little time,

4And over mortals all desire to reign,

5Not understanding that God himself hates

6The lust of rule, and most of all things hates

7Insatiate kings fearful in wickedness,

8And over them he stirs up what is dark;

9Wherefore, instead of good works and just thoughts,

10Ye all choose for your garments purple robes,

11Desiring wretched fights and homicides

12Them God imperishable who dwells in heaven

13Shall make short-lived, destroy them utterly,

14And overthrow one here, another there.

15But when there shall a bull-destroyer come

16Trusting in his own might, thick-haired and grim,

17And shall destroy all, he shall also tear

18Shepherds in pieces, and no victory

19Shall be theirs unless soon, with speed of feet

20Pursuing eagerly through wooded glens,

21Young dogs shall meet in conflict; for a dog

22Pursued the lion which destroys the shepherds.

23And then there shall be a lord confident

24In his might, and named with four syllables,

25And shown forth clearly from the number one;

26But him shall brazen Ares quickly slay

27Because of conflict with insatiate men.

28Then shall two other princely men bear rule,

29Both of the number forty; and with them

30Shall great peace be in the world and to all

31The people law and right; but them in turn

32Shall men with gleaming helmet, needing gold

33And silver, impiously put to death

34For these things, catching them by their deft plans.

35And then again a dreadful lord shall rule,

36Young, fighting hand to hand, whose name shall show

37The number seventy, life-destroying, fierce,

38Who to the army basely shall betray

39The people of Rome, slain by wickedness

40Because of wrath of kings, and he shall hurl

41Down every city and hut of the Latins.

42And Rome is no more to be seen or heard,

43Such as of late another traveler saw;

44For all these things shall in the ashes lie,

45Nor shall there be a sparing of her works;

46For hurtful he himself shall come from heaven,

47God the immortal from the sky shall send

48Lightnings and thunderbolts upon mankind;

49And some he will destroy by lightnings burned,

50And others with his mighty thunderbolts.

51And Rome's strong children and the famous Latins

52Shall then the shameless dreadful ruler slay.

53Around him dead the dust shall not lie light,

54But he shall be a sport for dogs and birds

55And wolves, for he a martial people spoiled.

56After him, numbering forty, there shall rule

57Another, famous Parthian-destroyer,

58German-destroyer, putting down dread beasts

59That kill men, which upon the ocean's streams

60And the Euphrates press continuous on.

61And then shall Rome again be as before.

62But when there comes a great wolf in thy plains,

63A ruler marching onward from the West,

64Then shall he under powerful Ares die

65Being cleft asunder by the piercing brass.

66And o'er the very mighty Romans then

67Shall there rule yet again another man

68Of great heart, from. Assyria brought to light,

69Of the first letter, and he shall himself

70By means of wars put all things under him,

71(31-54.)

72And by his armies at once power display

73And lay down laws; but him shall brazen Ares

74Quickly destroy by treacherous armies falling.

75After him three of haughty heart shall rule,

76One having the first number, one three tens,

77And the other with three hundred shall partake,

78Cruel, who gold and silver in much fire

79Shall melt in statues of gods made with hands,

80And to the armies they, equipped for war,

81Will, for the sake of victory, moneys give,

82Dividing many costly things and goods;

83And in like manner, striving eagerly

84After power, they shall barm disastrously

85The arrow-shooting Parthians of the deep

86And swift Euphrates, and the hostile Medes,

87And the soft-haired warlike Massagetae

88And Persians also, quiver-bearing men.

89But when the king shall his own fate unloose

90Leaving unto his sons more fit for arms

91The royal scepter and entreating right,

92Then they, forgetful of their father's words

93And having their hands all prepared for war,

94Shall rush in conflict for the royal power.

95And then another lord, of the third number,

96Shall rule alone, and smitten by a sword

97Shall quickly see his fate. Then after him

98Shall many perish at each other's hands,

99Being very valiant for the royal power.

100Moreover a great-hearted one shall rule

101(55-78.)

102The very mighty Romans, an old lord,

103Of the number four, and manage all things well.

104And then upon Phœnicia shall come war

105And conflict, when there shall come nations near

106Of arrow-shooting Persians; ah, how many

107Shall before men of barbarous speech fall down!

108Sidon and Tripolis and Berytus

109The loudly-boasting shall behold each other

110Amid the blood and bodies of the dead.

111Wretched Laodicea, round thyself

112Thou shalt a great and unsuccessful war

113Stir up through the impiety of men,

114Ah, hapless Tyrians, ye shall gather in

115An evil harvest; when in the day-time

116The sun that lighteth mortals shall withdraw,

117And his disk not appear, and drops of blood

118Thick and abundant shall flow down from heaven

119Upon the earth. And then the king shall die,

120Betrayed by his companions. After him

121Shall many shameless leaders still promote

122The wicked strife and one another kill.

123And then shall there a reverend ruler be,

124Of much skill, with a name that numbers five,

125Confiding in great armies, whom mankind

126Will fondly love because of royal power;

127And having the good name he shall thereto

128Add by good deeds. But while he reigns there shall

129'Twixt Taurus and snow-clad Amanus be

130A fearful sign. From the Cilician land

131A city new and beautiful and strong

132Shall by the deep strong rivers be destroyed.

133And in Propontis and in Phrygia

134Shall there be many earthquakes. And the king

135Of great renown shall under his own lot

136By wasting deadly sickness lose his life.

137And after him shall rule two lordly kings,

138One numbering three hundred, and one three;

139And many shall he utterly destroy

140In defense of the seven-hill city Rome,

141And for the sake of powerful sovereignty.

142And then shall evil to the senate come,

143Nor shall it from the angry king escape

144While he holds wrath against it. And a sign

145Shall then appear to all men upon earth;

146And fuller shall the rains be, snow and hail

147Shall ruin field-fruits o'er the boundless earth.

148But they shall fall in wars, slain by strong Ares

149In behalf of the war for the Italians.

150And then again another king shall rule,

151Full of devices, gathering all the army,

152And for the sake of war distributing

153Money to those with brazen breastplate clad;

154But thereupon shall Nilus, rich in corn,

155Beyond the Libyan mainland irrigate

156For two years the dark soil and fruitful land

157Of Egypt; but all things shall famine seize

158And war and robbers, murders, homicides.

159And many cities shall by warlike men

160Be thrown down headlong by the army's hands;

161And he, betrayed, shall fall by gleaming iron.

162After him one whose number is three hundred

163Shall rule the Romans, very mighty men;

164He shall stretch forth a life-destroying spear

165Against the Armenians and the Parthians,

166The Assyrians and the Persians firm in war.

167And then anew shall a creation be

168Of splendidly built Rome with gold and amber

169And silver and ivory in order raised;

170And in her many people shall abide

171From all the East and from the prosperous West;

172And the king shall make other laws for her;

173But then shall death destructive and strong fate

174In turn receive him in a boundless isle.

175And there shall rule another, of ten triads,

176A man like a wild beast, fair-haired and grim,

177Who shall be a descendant of the Greeks.

178And then a city of Molossian Phthia

179Feeding much, and Larissa shall be bent

180Down on Peneus's overhanging brows;

181And then too in horse-feeding Scythia

182Shall be an insurrection. And dire war

183Shall be hard by the waters of the lake

184Maeotis at streams by the utmost mouth

185Of the fount of watery Phasis on the mead

186Of asphodel; and there shall many fall

187By powerful warriors. Ah, how many men

188Shall Ares with strong brass receive! And then,

189Having destroyed a Scythian race, the king

190Shall die in his own lot unloosing life.

191And yet another of the number four

192Shall rule thereafter, openly made known

193A dreadful man, whom all Armenians,

194Who drink the best ice of the flowing stream

195Araxes, and the Persians of great soul

196Shall fear in wars. And between Colchians

197And very strong Pelasgi there shall be

198Wars, fights, and homicides. And those who hold

199The cities of the land of Phrygia

200And those of the Propontis, and make bare

201From out their scabbards the two-edged swords,

202Shall smite each other through sore impiousness.

203And then shall God to mortal men display

204From heaven a great sign with the rolling years,

205A bat, the portent of bad war to come.

206And then the king shall not escape stern fate,

207But die by hand, slain by the gleaming iron.

208After him, numbering fifty, there shall rule

209Again another coming out of Asia,

210A dreadful terror, fighting hand to hand;

211And he shall set war on Rome's stately walls,

212And among Colchians, and Heniochi,

213And the milk-drinking Agathyrsians

214By Euxine sea, at Thracia's sandy bay.

215And then the king shall not escape stern fate,

216And they will tear in pieces his dead corpse.

217And then, the king slain, man-ennobling Rome

218Shall be a desert, and much people perish.

219And then again one terrible and dread

220From mighty Egypt shall rule, and destroy

221Great hearted Parthians and Medes and Germans,

222And Agathyrsians of the Bosporus,

223Iernians, Britons, and Iberians

224That bear the quiver, bent Massagetae,

225And Persians thinking themselves more than men.

226And then a famous man shall look upon

227All Hellas, acting as an enemy

228To Scythia and windy Caucasas.

229And there shall be a dread sign while he rules:

230Crowns altogether like the shining stars

231Shall from heaven in the south and north appear.

232And then shall he bequeath the royal power

233To his son whose initial letter heads

234The alphabet, when in the halls of Hades

235The manly king in his own lot shall go.

236But when the son of this man in the land

237Of Rome shall rule, shown by the number one,

238There shall be over all the earth great peace

239Much longed for, and the Latins will love him

240As king because of his own father's worth;

241Him, eager to go both to East and West,

242The Roman people shall against his will

243Retain at home and in command of Rome,

244For among all there is a friendly heart

245Felt for their royal and illustrious lord.

246But baneful death shall snatch him out of life,

247Short-lived, abandoned to his destiny.

248But others afterwards again shall smite

249Each other, powerful warriors, carrying on

250An evil strife, not holding kingly power,

251But being tyrants. And in all the world

252Shall they bring many evil things to pass,

253But chiefly for the Romans till the time

254Of the third Dionysus, until armed

255With helmet Ares shall from Egypt come,

256Whom they shall surname Dionysus lord.

257But when the famous royal purple cloak

258A murderous lion and murderous lioness

259Shall rend, together they shall grasp the lungs

260Of the changed kingdom; then a holy king,

261Whose name has the first letter, pressing hard

262For victory, shall cast down hostile chiefs

263To be the food of dogs and birds of prey.

264Alas for thee, O city burned with fire,

265O powerful Rome! How many things must thou

266Needs suffer when all these things come to pass!

267But the great far-famed king shall afterward

268Raise thee all up again with gold and amber

269And silver and ivory, and in the world

270Thou shalt in thy possessions foremost be,

271Also in temples, market-places, wealth,

272And race-grounds; and then shalt thou be again

273A light for all, even as thou wast before.

274Ah, wretched Cecropes and Cadmeans

275And the Laconians, who are situate

276Around Peneus and Molossian stream

277Thick grown with rushes, Tricca and Dodona,

278And high-built Ithome, Pierian ridge

279Around the summit of Olympian mount,

280Ossa, Larissa, and high-gate Calydon.

281But when God shall for mortals bring to pass

282A great sign, day dark twilight round the world,

283Even then to thee, O king, the end shall come,

284Nor is it possible that thou escape

285A brother's piercing dart against thee hurled.

286And then again shall rule a life-destroyer,

287A fiery eagle from the royal race,

288Who shall of Egypt's offspring take fast hold,

289Younger, but than his brother much more strong,

290Who has for his first sign the number eighty.

291And then the whole world shall for honor's sake

292Bear in its lap the soul-distressing wrath

293Of the immortal God; and there shall come

294On mortal men, the creatures of a day,

295Famines and plagues and wars and homicides,

296And an incessant darkness o'er the earth,

297Mother of peoples, and relentless wrath

298From heaven, and disorder of the times,

299And earthquake shocks, and flaming thunderbolts,

300And stones and storms of rain and squalid drops.

301And the high summits of the Phrygian land

302Feel the shock, bases of the Scythian hills

303Feel the shock, cities tremble, and all earth

304Trembles at the cliffs of the land of Greece.

305And many cities, God being very wroth,

306Shall fall prone under burning thunderbolts

307And with bewailings, and to shun the wrath

308And make escape is not even possible.

309And then the king shall by a strong hand fall,

310Struck as if he were no one by his men.

311After him of the Latins many men

312Wearing the purple mantle on their shoulders

313Shall be again raised up, who shall by lot

314Desire to lay hold on the royal power.

315And then upon the stately walls of Rome

316Shall be three kings, two having the first number,

317And one the eponym of victory

318Bearing as no one else. They shall love Rome

319And all the world, concerned for mortal men;

320But they shall not accomplish anything;

321For God has not been gracious to the world

322Neither will he be gentle with mankind,

323Because they have done many evil things.

324Therefore to kings shall he a mean soul bring

325Still worse than that of leopards and of wolves;

326For harshly seizing them with their own hands,

327Like feeble women who are idly slain,

328Shall men in brazen breastplate utterly

329Destroy the kings together with their scepters.

330Ah, wretched lofty men of glorious Rome,

331Trusting in false oaths ye shall be destroyed.

332And then shall many masters with the spear,

333Men rushing not in order furious on,

334Take away offspring of the first-born men

335In their blood. . . . Therefore thrice

336Shall the Most High then bring on dreadful doom,

337And all men with their works shall he destroy.

338But into judgment yet again shall God

339Cause them to come that have a shameless soul,

340As many as determined evil things;

341And they themselves are fenced in, falling one

342Upon another, and given over there

343Into that condemnation of wickedness.

344All one by one, yet a brilliant comet

345Of much to come, of war and battle strife,

346But at the time when one about the isles

347Shall gather many oracles that speak

348To strangers of fight and of battle strife,

349And grievous harm of temples, he shall bid

350One in great haste to gather in Rome's halls

351For twelve months wheat and barley in abundance,

352And this most quickly. And in wretched plight

353The city shall be those days, and straightway

354Shall it again be prosperous not a little;

355And rest shall be when that rule is destroyed.

356And then the last race of the Latin kings

357Shall be, and after it again shall grow

358Dominion, children and the children's race

359Shall be unshaken; for it shall be known,

360Since of a surety God himself is king.

361There is a land dear, nourisher of men,

362Situate in a plain, and round it Nile

363Marks off the boundary and separates

364All Libya and Ethiopia.

365And Syrians short-lived, one from one place,

366Another from another, from that land

367Shall snatch away all movable effects;

368A great and careful lord shall be their king,

369Training up youth and sending off for men,

370And planning something fearful about those

371Most fearful, above all he shall send forth

372A powerful helper of all Italy

373The lofty-minded. And when he shall come

374Unto the dark sea of Assyria

375He shall despoil Phœnicians in their homes,

376And fastening evil war and battle dire

377Shall be one lord of the two lords of earth.

378And now will I for Alexandrians sing

379Their grievous end; alas, barbarians

380Shall possess sacred Egypt, land unharmed,

381Unshaken, when wrath from the gods shall come.

382. . . making winter summer,

383Then shall the oracles be all fulfilled.

384But when three youths in the Olympian games

385Shall conquer, and thou shalt bid them that know

386The oracles that call on God to cleanse

387First by the blood of sucking quadruped,

388Thrice therefore shall the Most High then bring on

389A fearful lot, and be shall over all

390Brandish the mournful long spear; then much blood

391Barbarian shall be poured out in the dust

392When the city shall be plundered utterly

393By inhospitable strangers. Happy he

394Who is dead, also happy any one

395Who is without a child; for he who once

396Was leader surnamed for them that are free,

397Far-famed in song, no longer in his mind

398Revolving earlier plans, shall place their neck

399Under a servile yoke; such slavery,

400Cause of much weeping, shall a lord impose.

401And then straightway an army of Sicilians

402Ill-fated shall come, carrying dismay,

403When a barbarian nation shall again

404Come suddenly; and the fruit, when it grows,

405They from the field shall sever. Upon them

406Shall God the lofty Thunderer bestow

407Evil instead of good; continually

408Shall stranger pluck from stranger hateful gold.

409But now when all shall look upon the blood

410Of the flesh-eating lion and there comes

411Upon the body a murderous lioness,

412Down from his head will be the scepter cast

413Away from him. And as in friendly feast

414In Egypt when the people all partake,

415They perform valiant deeds, and one restrains

416Another, and among them there is much

417Shouting aloud; so also shall there be

418Upon mankind the fear of furious strife,

419And many shall be utterly destroyed

420And others kill each other by hard fights.

421And then one, covered with dark scales shall come;

422Two others shall come acting in concert

423With one another, and with them a third

424A great ram from Cyrene, whom before

425I spoke of as a fugitive in war

426Beside the streams of Nile; but in no wise

427An unsuccessful way do all complete.

428And then the lengths of the revolving years

429Shall be exceeding quiet; yet again

430Thereafter shall a second war for them

431In Egypt be stirred up, and there shall be

432A battle on the sea, but victory

433Shall not be theirs. Ah, wretched ones, there shall

434A conquest of the famous city be,

435And it shall be a spoil of war not long.

436And then men having common boundaries

437Of much land shall flee wretched, and shall lead

438Their wretched parents. And they shall again

439Having great victory light on a land,

440And shall destroy the Jews, men staunch in war,

441Wasting by wars far as the hoary deep,

442On both sides, fighting in the foremost ranks

443For father-land and parents. And a race

444Of trophy-bearing men shall for the dead

445Be reckoned. Ah, how many men shall swim

446About the waves! For on the sandy beach

447Many shall lie; and heads of golden hair

448Shall fall beneath Egyptian winged fowls.

449And then for the Arabians mortal blood

450Shall go in quest. But when wolves shall with dogs

451Pledge in a sea-girt island solemn oaths,

452Then shall there be the raising of a tower,

453And the city that suffered very many things

454Men shall inhabit. For deceitful gold

455Shall no more be nor silver, nor acquiring

456Of the earth, nor much-laboring servitude;

457But one fast friendship and one mode of life

458With cheerful soul; and all things shall be common

459And equal light among the means of life.

460And wickedness shall sink down from the earth

461Into the vast sea. And then near at hand

462Is come the harvest-time of mortal men.

463There is imposed a strong necessity

464That these things be fulfilled. And at that time

465There shall not any other traveler say,

466In this conjecturing, that the race of men

467Though perishable shall ever cease to be.

468And then a holy nation shall prevail

469And hold the sovereignty of all the earth

470Unto all ages with their mighty sons.