In the year 83 B.C. the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitol, was burnt, and the Sibylline Books were consumed by the flames. In order to restore the books, the senate sent ambassadors to various towns of Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, to collect Sibylline oracles, both from public and private sources. These ambassadors collected about one thousand verses, which were again kept in the temple of Jupiter, after it had been restored. (Dionys., iv., p. 260.) Augustus ordered that all pretended Sibylline books in the possession of private persons should be delivered up to the prwtor urbanus, and burnt. On this occasion more than two thousand such books were delivered to tho flames; and those oracles which were in the keeping of the state, and were considered to be genuine, were now deposited in two gilt chests in the temple of Apollo, in the basis of his statue, and entrusted, as before, to the quindecimviri. (Suet., Aug.,' 31 ; Tacit., vi. 12.) Some years afterwards, Tiberius found it necessary to institute a fresh examination of the Sibylline oracles, and to strike out many which were considered to be spurious. (Dion Cass., Ivii, p. 705, Steph.) In the reign of Nero the Sibylline Books were burnt a second time, but were again restored, and used as before. In the year 270 a.n. several members of the senate advised to consult them respecting the issue of the war against the 3Iareomanni. (Fl. Vopisc., Aurel.,'
18.) About this time the Christians, in their zeal to convert the heathens, began to refer to the Sibylline oracles as containing prophe cies respecting the Messiah. The collection which was in the keeping of the state was burnt a third time in the reign of Julian (a.n. 363); and a fourth time in the reign of Honorius, by Stilicho, A.D. 395. (Rut.,' !tin.; ii. 51.) But it was restored each time; and notwith standing all the forgeries which must have crept into it, the collection continued to be held in great esteem, as it was a useful instrument in the hands of the various parties, political as well as religious. Hence we find the Sibylline Books consulted even as late as the middle of the 6th century of our era.
A complete collection of Sibylline verses was compiled and edited by Gall:cue, Amsterdam, 1689, 4to. ; but it contains a great many spurious verses, and such as were made by the early Christians who pretended to be inspired. In 1817, A. Mai published a collection of fragments from the Sibylline Books, which he discovered in a manu script of the library at Milan. Another collection of fragments was published by C. L. Struve, under the title Sibyllinorum Librorum Fragmenta,' Regiomonts, 1818, 8vo.