History of Rome

​In that year, the colony of Graviscae was established in the Etruscan territory which had formerly been taken from the Tarquinians. Five iugera of land were given to each.

​The triumvirs who led the colony were Gaius Calpurnius Piso, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Gaius Terentius Istra. The year was notable for drought and scarcity of crops. It is recorded that for six months it never rained. In the same year, on the land of the scribe Lucius Petilius below the Janiculum, ​while the husbandmen were digging the earth deeper, two stone chests were found, about eight feet long and four feet wide each, with their lids secured with lead.

​Each chest was inscribed with Latin and Greek letters, stating in the one that Numa Pompilius, son of Pompo, king of the Romans, was buried there, and in the other that the books of Numa Pompilius were inside.

​When the owner, in accordance with the advice of his friends, opened these chests, the one which had borne the inscription of the buried king was found empty, without any trace of a human body or of anything else, everything having been consumed by the decay of so many years.

​In the other chest, two bundles wrapped in waxed cords contained seven books each, which were not only intact but also of an extremely fresh appearance. The seven Latin books were on the pontifical law, ​and the seven Greek books were on the philosophy such as could have existed in that age. Valerius Antias adds that they were Pythagorean, ​adapting credit by a plausible lie to the common opinion in which Numa is believed to have been a pupil of Pythagoras.

​At first the books were read by the friends who had been present at the discovery; soon, as they became widely known through being read by more people, Quintus Petilius, the city praetor, who was eager for reading, took these books from Lucius Petilius.

​Indeed, they were on familiar terms, because Quintus Petilius, when quaestor, had chosen that scribe into his decury.

​Having read the main points, when he noticed that most of them tended toward the dissolution of religious rites, he told Lucius Petilius that he would cast those books into the fire; before doing so, however, he would permit him to try if he thought he had any right or legal aid to reclaim those books, and that he might do this without any prejudice to their friendship.

​The scribe approached the tribunes of the plebs, by whom the matter was referred to the senate. The praetor declared that he was ready to take an oath that those books ought not to be read or preserved.

​The senate decreed that the praetor’s offer of an oath should be held sufficient; that the books should be burned in the comitium at the earliest possible moment; and that for the books, such a price as should seem fair to the praetor Quintus Petilius and the majority of the tribunes of the plebs should be paid to the owner.

​The scribe would not accept the money. The books were burned in the comitium in the sight of the people, with a fire made by the assistants at the sacrifices.