Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/107

Rh the Romans quite against his will. A woman whom they called Sibyl, gifted with divine inspiration, came to Rome bringing three or nine books, and offered these to Tarquin for purchase, stating the price of the books. As he paid no attention to her, she burned one or three of the books. When again Tarquin scorned her, she destroyed part of the rest in a similar way. And she was about to burn up the others also when the augurs compelled him to purchase the few that were intact anyhow. He bought these for the price for which he might have secured them all, and delivered them to two senators to keep. Since they did not entirely understand the contents, they sent to Greece and hired two men to come from there to read and interpret these books. The people of the neighbourhood, desiring to learn just what it was that was revealed by the books, bribed Marcus Acilius, one of the custodians, and had some parts copied out. When this affair became known, Marcus was thrust between two hides sewn together and

was the Cumaean, who died in the time of Tarquin the Proud, leaving behind three or nine of her prophetic books. Of these the Romans bought either one or three, since her servant had destroyed the rest by fire because they would not give her as much gold as she asked. This they later did, and bought either one that was left, or else three, and gave them to Marcus Acilius to keep. But because he lent them to be copied, they put him to death by enclosing him alive in the skin of an ox;