Already on the mighty deep . . .and when, a little later, she exclaimed,
1
Alas! behold! ...
2
[112]
And in the Sibylline books, throughout the entire
work, each prophecy is embellished with an acrostic,
so that the initial letters of each of the lines give the
subject of that particular prophecy. Such a work
comes from a writer who is not frenzied, who is painstaking, not crazy. Therefore let us keep the Sibyl
under lock and key so that in accordance with the
ordinances of our forefathers her books may not even
be read without permission of the Senate and may be
more effective in banishing rather than encouraging
superstitious ideas. And let us plead with the priests
to bring forth from those books anything rather than
a king, whom henceforth neither gods nor men will
suffer to exist in Rome.
55. "But many persons in a frenzy often utter
true prophecies, as Cassandra did when she said.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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