place
Delphi
Delphi, the great Apolline sanctuary in Phocis (central Greece), seat of the most authoritative oracle in the Greek world; the standing symbol throughout the literature of the religious sanctities a civilised people respects (Pro Font. 30 — contrasted with the impieties of the Gauls). It had been sacked by the Gallic invasion of 279 BC.
Reading notes
- On Divination §2.115 the fixed navel of the lands
Delphi, seat of Apollo's oracle, was held to be the omphalos or navel of the earth. Cicero turns to the Delphic oracle to argue that its responses were false, ambiguous, or twisted.
- On Duties §2.77 the oracle that Apollo at Pytho delivered
The oracle of Apollo at Delphi (Pytho), the most authoritative in the Greek world. Cicero reports its prophecy that Sparta would perish through greed alone.
- For Marcus Fonteius §30 Delphi
Cicero invokes the Gallic sack of Delphi (279 BC) and the Gallic siege of the Capitol (the Brennus raid of 390 BC) to brand the Gauls as enemies of the gods, hence not to be trusted under oath.
- Tusculan Disputations §5.70 that self-knowledge enjoined by the god at Delphi
The maxim "Know thyself" (gnothi seauton), inscribed at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Cicero interprets it as the mind's recognition of its kinship with the divine intelligence.