1 Earliest Rome

7- D I V I N A T I O N A N D D I V I N E R S
for the fulfilment of the threats of the Great God, then shall a flaming power rise up from
the sea upon the earth and. ir shall consume Beliar and all the arrogant ones who have
placed their faith in him.
(75) Then shall the earth be ruled by the hands of a woman' and they shall obey her in
all things.
1. Egypt was brought under Roman control ai the battle of Actium, 31 B.C.
2. A reference to the coming; of a Messiah.
3. This may refer to the Second Triumvirate (42-32 B.C.).
4. Beliar represents the Antichrist. Sebaste probably refers to the town, otherwise known as
Samaria, in the Roman province of Judaea. It has also been suggested that Sebaste is to
be read as Scbastoi (i.e. the title in Creek of the Roman emperors); if that is correct,
Beliar could refer to the emperor Nero.
5. Perhaps a reference to Cleopatra.
7.5c The Mercian Songs (212 B.C.)
Livy, HistoryXXVA2.2-13
There are occasional surviving traces of a prophetic tradition in Roman Italy
wider than just the Sibylline Oracles and the legends of the prophetic gilts of
early priests (7.1). This story of the prophecies of Marcius is one such trace.
These prophecies played a very important role in Rome at a critical moment in
the war against the Carthaginians; they led to the creation of a new set of games
(the ludi Apollinares), and were eventually included, alongside the Sibylline
Oracles, among the official collection of the decemviri sacrisfaciundis, although
that consisted normally of Greek texts. The earlier history of the Marcian songs
is much less clear. They had apparently been current in Italy before 212 B.C.;
but we do not know whether they were ancient or newly invented texts.
See further: Vol. 1, 79-84 (for the general context); Gagé (1955) 270-9:
Herrmann (I960); Dumézil (1970) 512-15.
A new religious crisis occurred as a result of the songs of Marcius. This Marcius was a
famous seer, 1
whose works had come into the hands of the praetor, M. Aemilius, in the
course of the previous year's enquiry into such prophetic books, set up by senatorial
decree.- He had handed them over to Sulla, his successor. There were two of these
prophecies by Marcius, the first of which gained authority because the events predicted
had already happened; this brought credence to the second one, whose time of fulfilment
had not yet arrived. The first one foretold the disaster at Cannae, 3
more or less in these
words: 'Flee the River of Canna, Trojan-born, lest the foreigner force you to join battle in
the plain of Diomedes. But you will not believe me: not until you have filled the plain
with your blood, and the river has borne many thousands of your dead, from the fruitful
earth down to the great sea. Your flesh will be food for the fishes, birds and wild beasts
that live in those lands. For it is thus that Jupiter has spoken to me.' And the plain of
Diomedes the Argive and the river Canna were recognized by those who had fought there
as being close to the scene of rhe disaster/'
182