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Libri Sibyllini
the Sibylline Books
also: Sibyl, Sibylla, Sibyllae, Sibylline Books, Sibylline oracle, the Sibylline Books
The collection of oracular verses kept by the quindecimviri at Rome and consulted in crises. In 56 BC a verse forbidding the senate to restore an Egyptian king 'with a multitude' (i.e. an army) was produced to block an armed restoration of Ptolemy Auletes, the 'religious scruple' Cicero reports.
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 1.1 §1 the calumny taken from religious scruple
An oracle found in the Sibylline Books forbade restoring an Egyptian king 'with a multitude' (i.e. with an army); opponents of Lentulus exploited this religio to block him. Cicero charges that the scruple was raised in bad faith, out of envy and resentment rather than genuine piety.
- Ad Familiares 1.5b §1 by the same religious scruple
The religio raised by a verse of the Sibylline Books, which forbade restoring the Egyptian king with an army; it blocked entrusting the command to anyone for an armed restoration, and so kept Lentulus's claim formally intact.
- Ad Familiares 1.7 §4 pleasing to the Sibyl
A verse of the Sibylline Books was read as forbidding the king's restoration 'with a multitude' (an army). Restoring him 'without a multitude' --- the king brought back personally rather than at the head of a host --- was the device for respecting the oracle's religio.
- On Divination §1.4 the Sibylline verses
A collection of Greek oracular verses kept under guard at Rome and consulted, by decree of the Senate, at moments of crisis. Ten (later fifteen) officials, the decemviri, were charged with interpreting them.
- On Divination §2.110 the verses of the Sibyl
The Sibylline Books, prophetic verses kept under guard and consulted by order of the Senate. Cicero argues their acrostic construction proves them the work of art, not frenzy, and warns against their misuse.