Phillipps, Evelyn March: The frescoes in the Sixtine chapel (London: John Murray, 1901)

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THE ROOF

Capitol was burned in the Marsic War,
82 b.c., they perished in the flames. Am-
bassadors were sent to Greece and Asia
Minor to try to recover some of the oracles,
and in Erythrea and Samos a number of
mystic verses were found. These were
placed in the Temple of Apollo on the
Palatine, but were never venerated like the
old collection. The consultation of them
fell into disuse, and, at last, they were
publicly burned by Stilicho, the father of
the Emperor Honorias, about 400 a.d.
These oracles were the only authoritative
writings possessed by the Greeks, and
formed their sacred scriptures. They were
inscribed on palm leaves, and it is to this
that Virgil alludes, when he speaks of the
sayings of the Cumasan Sybil being written
on the leaves of the forest. When counsel
was needed, a leaf was drawn at random,
and the custom of the Sortes Sylnlline is
often alluded to by classic authors. The
earliest bronze statues in Rome were those
of the Sybils placed in the middle of the
Forum. One, whom Rome knew as the