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Often appears with: religious persecution and toleration · strategy and the aims of war · omens, portents, and signs · fate, destiny, and necessity · tiber flood and fire in the temple of vesta · siege and fortification · secular games renewed · roman public unrest · religious vows and sacrifices · providence and divine governance · prophecy and revelation · processions of priests and virgins
Usually: narrative (4) · wonder (3) · skepticism (2) · letter or document (1) · reflection (1) · confronting death (1) · the test or trial (1) · censure (1) · curiosity (1) · detachment (1)
“Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
“The senate left it to the consul to settle these matters, as he should deem consistent with the interest of the state and his own honour.” Livy, The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 · precept
A Roman consular letter reports sickness in the army, prompting the senate to authorize a dictator for elections while the Sibylline prophecy about bringing the Idaean Mother from Pessinus guides religious policy.
lust and rapacity, which he had before perpetrated upon his allies, he now multiplied from resentment; thus bringing infamy and odium, not only upon himself, but upon the general also. 10. The time of the elections was now drawing near, when a letter from the consul Publius Licinius arrived at Rome, stating that "he himself and his army were afflicted with a severe sickness, nor could they have stood their ground ha…
After Flaminius is killed at the battle near Lake Trasimene, Romans assemble and appoint Fabius dictator; he orders the horse commander to obey, consults religion and the Sibylline Books, then vows sacrifices and pursues cautious war.
destroyed several towns, altered the course of rivers, and carried off parts of high cliffs, yet such was the eagerness of the combatants, that they were entirely insensible of it. In this battle Flaminius fell, after many proofs of his strength and courage, and round about him all the bravest of the army, in the whole, fifteen thousand were killed, and as many made prisoners. Hannibal, desirous to bestow funeral h…
After the first Punic War, Rome prepares for the Gallic threat: the Gauls (including the Insubrians and Gaesatae) threaten near the Po, prompting Roman religious fears and preparations for war.
any people, as is apparent from the enactment which from that time forth provided, that the high-priests should enjoy an exemption from all military duty, except only in Gallic insurrections. The great preparations, also, made by the Romans for war, (for it is not reported that the people of Rome ever had at one time so many legions in arms, either before or since,) and their extraordinary sacrifices, were plain arg…
Fearing imminent barbarian attack on Rome, the senate consults the Sibylline books, using rituals and processions rather than human sacrifices, and Romans also begin substantial fortifications for the city.
37 (return) [ It is recorded by an inscription found at Pesaro. See Gruter cclxxvi. 3.] Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic was in the valor and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected…
Gibbon portrays Maxentius as indulging pleasure and underestimating Constantine, until Roman unrest forces him to act; he consults the Sibylline books, whose reply is framed as adaptable to victory.
and they conjured him for the future to pay more regard to the preservation of a life in which the safety of Rome and of the empire was involved. 59 57 (return) [ The Marquis Maffei has examined the siege and battle of Verona with that degree of attention and accuracy which was due to a memorable action that happened in his native country. The fortifications of that city, constructed by Galli…
In the Punic Wars, Augustine says Roman prosperity was not protected by gods: he describes renewal of secular games from Sibylline books, infernal games, Roman defeats like Regulus’s capture, and disasters within the city from flood and fire.
18. _The disasters suffered by the Romans in the Punic wars, which were not mitigated by the protection of the gods._ In the Punic wars, again, when victory hung so long in the balance between the two kingdoms, when two powerful nations were straining every nerve and using all their resources against one another, how many smaller kingdoms were crushed, how many large and flourishing cities were demolished, how many …