Referring to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Poland's Minister of Finance, Jacek Rostowski, said that the negotiations reminded him of the story of the purchase of the
Sibylline Books in ancient Rome.
Ancient Greeks settled boundary disputes by referring to the text of Homer, and the Romans, when they could not consult the
Sibylline Books, had recourse to the sortes Vergilianae, a method of divination that consisted of picking random passages out of the Aeneid.
She quoted from Roman Law, the
Sibylline books and her favourite writer, Plato.
After witnessing a frightening meteor shower, the Roman magistrates consulted the
Sibylline books, which prophesied that Hannibal could be defeated if the Idaean Mother was brought to Rome.
Beginning his career with a minor magistracy, in 88 he gained a praetorship (a post with legal jurisdiction) and became a member of the priestly college that kept the
Sibylline Books of prophecy and supervised foreign-cult practice.
The Fates are three, the Furies three, the Graces three, the harpies three, the
Sibylline Books three times three (of which only three survived); the fountain from which Hylas drew water was presided over by three nymphs; the Muses were three times three; the Pythia sat on a three - legged stool, or tripod; and in Scandinavian mythology we hear of the Mysterious Three: Har the Mighty, the Like - Mighty, and the Third Person, who sat on three thrones above the rainbow.
The legend of the
Sibylline Books has been attributed to both Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome (616 - 579 bc ), and the builder of the Circus Maximus, and to Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last Roman king (534 - 510 bc ), tyrannical despot who was expelled from the city.
A Greek collection in eight books of poetical utterances relating to Jesus, compiled in the 2nd century, is entitled Oracula Sibylina or the
Sibylline Books.