Rome's own sibyl: The Sibylline Books in the Roman Republic and early Empire

My dissertation, entitled Rome's Own Sibyl: The Sibylline Books in the Roman Republic and Early Empire, examines the role of the Sibylline Books in Roman society and politics. It explores thereby key issues in Roman republican history, such as the complex relationship between religion and politics, the interaction between Roman and non-Roman, and the nature of Roman republican religion itself.;The Sibylline Books, composed in Greek hexameter, provided ritual instructions for appeasing the gods after a prodigy -- a sign conveying their anger -- had occurred. In the Republic, prodigies were a matter of official concern, discussed not only among whispering flocks of superstitious old women, but also on the floor of the Roman Senate itself. This body solicited and enforced the advice of the duumviri sacris faciundis (later the decemviri, then the quindecimviri), elite Roman priests who had the exclusive right and duty to interpret the Sibylline Books, whose content was a "state secret.";The text of the Books themselves is, except for one oracle preserved by Phlegon, and another by Phlegon and Zosimus, entirely lost. My dissertation focuses not on the content of the oracles, but on their context: prodigy reporting and expiation as we see it at work in the lists compiled by antiquarians and historians, in particular Livy. By recording prodigies and ritual responses in a specific historical context, these reports allow us to see the Books "in action," as they reflected and effected changes in Roman society and politics.;My dissertation comprises an introduction and six chapters. The introduction lays out the most important sources, both ancient and modern, for my dissertation. The first chapter examines the Roman context of the Sibylline Books, looking at the location of the Books, the composition of the priesthood that read them, and the timing of expiation in Rome. The goal of this chapter is to show that the Sibylline Books, though written in Greek, operated in a very Roman world.;The second chapter examines the Books as text, and the ways in which this text was applied in Roman expiation. This chapter demystifies the Books' nature and origins. It shows that they were not a fixed collection dating back to the late regal period, but an assembly of oracles gathered and revised over time. Priestly reinterpretation and the timely addition of new oracles granted the Books a flexibility that enabled them to adapt to a changing world. In addition, this chapter examines the secrecy that surrounded the texts, and questions whether the oracles offered prophetic or ritual responses. Finally, it looks at the ways in which these oracles were applied, with rituals being repeated, discarded, and modified over time.;The third chapter explores the foreign nature of the Sibylline Books and the expiatory rituals that they advised. It investigates the alleged origins of the Books, recorded in Roman tradition. It also explores the character of the rituals advised by the Books, and asks to what extent the ceremonies recommended by these Greek oracles were truly Greek.;The last three chapters explore the political and social applications of the Sibylline Books as they evolved over time. In Chapter 4, I look at the application of the Sibylline Books to issues of Roman politics and community until the destruction of the Books in the Capitoline fire of 83 BC. The next chapter examines the use of the Sibylline oracles in the late Republic, after the assembly of a new collection in 76 BC. The crisis of the republican system of government produced great changes in the expiation of prodigies and the use of the Sibylline Books. My study of this crisis shows that Sibylline expiation was an integral part of the republican system of government and could not survive unaltered when that system came under threat from "big men" who overshadowed their contemporaries. In the final chapter, I will explore Augustus' treatment of the Sibylline Books. He edited the texts, moved them to the Palatine Temple of Apollo, and used them to enact one of his most dramatic religious performances, the Ludi Saeculares of 17 BC. This chapter examines how Augustus adapted the Sibylline Books to his own broader religious program of "restoration.";I am writing under the direction of Professor Harriet Flower, Princeton University; Professor Denis Feeney, Princeton University; and Professor Andreas Bendlin, University of Toronto at Mississauga.