§4.62.1λέγεται δέ τι καὶ ἕτερον ἐπὶ τῆς Ταρκυνίου δυναστείας πάνυ θαυμαστὸν εὐτύχημα τῇ Ῥωμαίων ὑπάρξαι πόλει εἴτε θεῶν τινος εἴτε δαιμόνων εὐνοίᾳ δωρηθέν· ὅπερ οὐ πρὸς ὀλίγον καιρόν, ἀλλʼ εἰς ἅπαντα τὸν βίον πολλάκις αὐτὴν ἔσωσεν ἐκ μεγάλων κακῶν.
It is said that another very remarkable piece of good fortune also accrued to the city of the Romans during the reign of Tarquinius, bestowed by the goodwill either of some god or of some divinity; which saved it from great calamities many times, not for a short period, but for all its existence.
§4.62.2γυνή τις ἀφίκετο πρὸς τὸν τύραννον οὐκ ἐπιχωρία βύβλους ἐννέα μεστὰς Σιβυλλείων χρησμῶν ἀπεμπολῆσαι θέλουσα.
A certain woman, not a native, came to the tyrant desiring to sell nine books full of Sibylline oracles.
οὐκ ἀξιοῦντος δὲ τοῦ Ταρκυνίου τῆς αἰτηθείσης τιμῆς πρίασθαι τὰς βύβλους ἀπελθοῦσα τρεῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν κατέκαυσε· καὶ μετʼ οὐ πολὺν χρόνον τὰς λοιπὰς ἓξ ἐνέγκασα τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπώλει τιμῆς.
When Tarquinius did not think it fit to buy the books at the price asked, she went away and burned three of them; and not long after, bringing the remaining six, she offered them for sale at the same price.
δόξασα δʼ ἄφρων τις εἶναι καὶ γελασθεῖσα ἐπὶ τῷ τὴν αὐτὴν τιμὴν αἰτεῖν περὶ τῶν ἐλαττόνων, ἣν οὐδὲ περὶ τῶν πλειόνων ἐδυνήθη λαβεῖν, ἀπελθοῦσα πάλιν τὰς ἡμισείας τῶν ἀπολειπομένων κατέκαυσε καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς §4.62.3τρεῖς ἐνέγκασα τὸ ἴσον ᾔτει χρυσίον.
Being thought to be out of her mind and laughed at for asking the same price for the fewer which she had not been able to obtain for the greater number, she went away again and burned half of those that were left, and bringing the remaining three, she asked the same amount of gold.
θαυμάσας δὴ τὸ βούλημα τῆς γυναικὸς ὁ Ταρκύνιος τοὺς οἰωνοσκόπους μετεπέμψατο καὶ διηγησάμενος αὐτοῖς τὸ πρᾶγμα, τί χρὴ πράττειν, ἤρετο.
Tarquinius, wondering at the purpose of the woman, sent for the augurs, and having related the matter to them, asked what he ought to do.
κἀκεῖνοι διὰ σημείων τινῶν μαθόντες, ὅτι θεόπεμπτον ἀγαθὸν ἀπεστράφη, καὶ μεγάλην συμφορὰν ἀποφαίνοντες τὸ μὴ πάσας αὐτὸν τὰς βύβλους πρίασθαι, ἐκέλευσαν ἀπαριθμῆσαι τῇ γυναικὶ τὸ χρυσίον, ὅσον ᾔτει καὶ τοὺς περιόντας τῶν χρησμῶν λαβεῖν.
And they, having learned through certain signs that a god-sent good had been rejected, and declaring it to be a great misfortune that he had not bought all the books, urged him to pay the woman as much gold as she asked and to receive the remaining oracles.
§4.62.4ἡ μὲν οὖν γυνὴ τὰς βύβλους δοῦσα καὶ φράσασα τηρεῖν ἐπιμελῶς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἠφανίσθη, Ταρκύνιος δὲ τῶν ἀστῶν ἄνδρας ἐπιφανεῖς δύο προχειρισάμενος καὶ δημοσίους αὐτοῖς θεράποντας δύο παραζεύξας ἐκείνοις ἀπέδωκε τὴν τῶν βιβλίων φυλακήν, ὧν τὸν ἕτερον Μάρκον Ἀτίλιον ἀδικεῖν τι δόξαντα περὶ τὴν πύστιν καταμηνυθέντα ὑφʼ ἑνὸς τῶν δημοσίων, ὡς πατροκτόνον εἰς ἀσκὸν ἐνράψας βόειον ἔρριψεν εἰς τὸ πέλαγος.
The woman, therefore, having delivered the books and told them to guard them carefully, vanished from among men; and Tarquinius, choosing two distinguished men from among the citizens and joining two public servants with them, entrusted to them the custody of the books; one of whom, Marcus Atilius, having been thought to act dishonestly in some way regarding the secret trust and being denounced by one of the public servants, he sewed into an ox-hide sack as a parricide and threw into the sea.
§4.62.5μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκβολὴν τῶν βασιλέων ἡ πόλις ἀναλαβοῦσα τὴν τῶν χρησμῶν προστασίαν ἄνδρας τε τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους ἀποδείκνυσιν αὐτῶν φύλακας, οἳ διὰ βίου ταύτην ἔχουσι τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν στρατειῶν ἀφειμένοι καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν κατὰ πόλιν πραγματειῶν, καὶ δημοσίους αὐτοῖς παρακαθίστησιν, ὧν χωρὶς οὐκ ἐπιτρέπει τὰς ἐπισκέψεις τῶν χρησμῶν τοῖς ἀνδράσι ποιεῖσθαι.
After the expulsion of the kings, the city, having taken upon itself the care of the oracles, appointed the most distinguished men as their guardians, who hold this office for life, being exempt from military service and other duties in the city; and it assigns public servants to them, without whom it does not permit the men to inspect the oracles.
συνελόντι δʼ εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν οὕτω Ῥωμαῖοι φυλάττουσιν οὔθʼ ὅσιον κτῆμα οὔθʼ ἱερὸν ὡς τὰ Σιβύλλεια θέσφατα.
In a word, there is nothing the Romans guard so carefully, neither sacred possession nor holy thing, as the Sibylline decrees.
χρῶνται δʼ αὐτοῖς, ὅταν ἡ βουλὴ ψηφίσηται, στάσεως καταλαβούσης τὴν πόλιν ἢ δυστυχίας τινὸς μεγάλης συμπεσούσης κατὰ πόλεμον ἢ τεράτων τινῶν καὶ φαντασμάτων μεγάλων καὶ δυσευρέτων αὐτοῖς φανέντων, οἷα πολλάκις συνέβη.
They make use of them, whenever the senate decrees, when sedition has seized the city, or some great misfortune has befallen them in war, or some great and difficult prodigies and apparitions have appeared to them, as has often happened.
οὗτοι διέμειναν οἱ χρησμοὶ μέχρι τοῦ Μαρσικοῦ κληθέντος πολέμου κείμενοι κατὰ γῆς ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ Καπιτωλίνου Διὸς ἐν λιθίνῃ λάρνακι, ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν δέκα φυλαττόμενοι.
These oracles remained until the war called Marsic, lying underground in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter in a stone chest, guarded by ten men.
§4.62.6μετὰ δὲ τὴν τρίτην ἐπὶ ταῖς ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν ὀλυμπιάσιν ἐμπρησθέντος τοῦ ναοῦ, εἴτʼ ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς, ὡς οἴονταί τινες, εἴτʼ ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου, σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀναθήμασι τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ οὗτοι διεφθάρησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρός.
But when the temple was burned after the hundred and seventy-third Olympiad, whether by design, as some think, or by accident, these also were destroyed by the fire together with the other offerings of the god.
οἱ δὲ νῦν ὄντες ἐκ πολλῶν εἰσι συμφορητοὶ τόπων, οἱ μὲν ἐκ τῶν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ πόλεων κομισθέντες, οἱ δʼ ἐξ Ἐρυθρῶν τῶν ἐν Ἀσίᾳ, κατὰ δόγμα βουλῆς τριῶν ἀποσταλέντων πρεσβευτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀντιγραφήν· οἱ δʼ ἐξ ἄλλων πόλεων καὶ παρʼ ἀνδρῶν ἰδιωτῶν μεταγραφέντες·
Those which exist now are compiled from many places, some having been brought from the cities in Italy, others from Erythrae in Asia, by three envoys sent by decree of the senate to make a copy; and others were transcribed from other cities and from private individuals.
ἐν οἷς εὑρίσκονταί τινες ἐμπεποιημένοι τοῖς Σιβυλλείοις, ἐλέγχονται δὲ ταῖς καλουμέναις ἀκροστιχίσι· λέγω δʼ ἃ Τερέντιος Οὐάρρων ἱστόρηκεν ἐν τῇ θεολογικῇ πραγματείᾳ.
Among these some are found to have been inserted as interpolations into the Sibylline books, and are detected by the so-called acrostics; I mean what Terentius Varro has recorded in his theological work.