Sibylline Oracles

Historical printed page 396

THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book IV, LinEs 130-190 (30) But when a firebrand starting from a deep cavern in the land of Italy GY) shall reach the broad heaven, (32) and burn many a city and consume its men, (33) and clouds of sooty ashes beset the great heaven, (34) and grains fall from the sky like red earth, (35) then recognize the wrath of the God of heaven, (36) because they shall destroy the guiltless race of godly men. (37) And to the west shall come the strife of gathering war, (38) and the exile from Rome, brandishing a mighty sword, (39) crossing the Euphrates with many myriads. (40) Ill-starred Antioch, they shall call thee no longer a city, (41) when in thy folly thou fallest under Italian spears. (42) And Cyrrhus shall be consumed by pestilence and dreadful strife. (43) Woe to thee, wretched Cyprus, the level sea-wave (44) shall envelop thee tossed up and down with wintry blasts. (45) There shall come to Asia great wealth which Rome once (46) stole for herself and stored in her rich treasure-house. (47) And twofold and more shall she restore (48) to Asia, and then there shall be a surfeit of war. (49) The cities of the Carians by the waters of the Maeander, (50) with all their battlements exceeding fair, shall be destroyed by pinching (51) famine, when Maeander buries her black water. (52) But when faith in godliness shall perish from men, (53) and justice is hidden away in the world, (54) fand men, becoming renegades} and living on unholy enterprises, (55) commit deeds of shame and acts dastardly and evil, (56) and no man takes account of the godly, but even (57) in their senselessness, fond fools, destroy them all, (58) rejoicing in acts of violence and turning their hands to deeds of bloodshed ; (59) then be sure that God is no more of tender mercy, (60) but gnashing His teeth in wrath and destroying at once (61) the whole race of men by means of a mighty conflagration. (62) O ill-starred mortals, let not these things be, and (63) drive not the great God to divers deeds of wrath ; but have done with (64) swords and moanings and killing of men, and deeds of violence, (65) and wash your whole bodies in ever-running rivers, (66) and, stretching your hands to heaven, seek forgiveness for your former deeds, (67) and with praises ask pardon for your bitter ungodliness. (68) God will grant repentance (69) and will not slay: He will stay his wrath once more if with one accord (70) ye practise precious godliness in your hearts. (71) But if with evil mind ye obey me not, but delighting in ungodliness (72) ye receive all these words with ill-affected ears, (73) then fire shall come upon the whole world, and a mighty sign (74) with sword and trumpet at the rising of the sun. (75) The whole world shall hear a rumbling anda mighty roar. (76) And he shall burn the whole earth, and consume the whole race of men, (77) and all thecitiesand rivers and the sea. (78) He shall burn everything out, and there shall be sooty dust. (79) But when at last everything shall have been reduced to dust and ashes (80) and God shall quench the giant fire, even as he kindled it, (81) then God Himself shall fashion again the bones and ashes of men, (82) and shall raise up mortals once more as they were before. (83) And then the judgement shall come wherein God himself shall give sentence, (84) judging the world again. And all who have sinned with deeds of impiety (85) a heap of earth shall cover again, (86) and murky Tartarus and the black recesses of hell. (87) But all who are godly shall live again on earth (89) when God gives breath and life and grace to them, (90) the godly. +And then all shall 130-6. The great eruption of Vesuvius which overwhelmed Pompeii, August 23, 24, A.D. 79. Cf. Pliny, 52. vi. 16. 20. 130. starting from. For ἀποστραφθείς it is tempting to read (with Alexandre) ἀπαστραφθείς ‘ shot out like lightning’. 139. It was expected that Nero would return from Parthia. 140. Probably the Syrian Antioch is meant, which revolted several times against Rome. 141. folly ... Italian spears. The text renders ἀφροσύνης ᾿Ιτάλοις. So dy. Geffcken reads ἀφροσύνῃσι reais with Q. 142. Cyrrhus a conjecture. MSS. have ‘Scyros’ or ‘Cyprus’. Alexandre suggests Συρίην. 143. Cf. supra, 120. 145-8. A Roman defeat. Probably the defeat of Paetus at Randeia in A. Ὁ. 62. 148. The line is omitted in ᾧ y. 153-4. The text has become corrupt. 154 is omitted in some MSS. and in others 153-4 are joined. 159-61. Quoted by Lact. De Jra Dei 23. 5. 160. gnashing his teeth, βρύχοντα. Lact. has ‘heavy with wrath’, βρίθοντα. 165. The stress on complete lustration seems Essene. Cf. iii. 592. 168. God will grant. Θεὸς dace. So Volkmann from Ὡ which reads Θεὸς δὲ δώσει. W has Θεὸς δ᾽ ἕξει. laa reading gives ‘ fire shall be throughout the world wherein this sign is wrought’, ἐν ᾧ τόδε σῆμα τέτυκται. So gy. 179-92. The Judgement following on the destruction of the world. The passage up to 190 is quoted in 4/. Const. ν. 7 aS a testimony of the Sibyl to the Resurrection, the New Life, the Judgement. 181. Cf, Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10, 183 ff. Cf. supra 40-6. 185. The text in AZ. Const. /.c. runs ‘ those mortals, who have sinned with deeds of impiety, the earth shall cover’. 187. After this there is a weak line inserted only in Q and rejected by Rzach and Geffcken. igo. then. .. shall behold themselves, rir’ εἰσόψονται ἑαυτούς. The text comes from Ap. Const. Q has κόψονται, ‘bewail’, Φ εἴσονται χάριν αὐτοῖς (or αὑτοῖς) perhaps ‘shall have themselves to thank’. Possibly the true reading is τότ᾽ ὄψονται θεὸν αὐτόν. 396 +