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The oldest collection of Sibylline oracles appears to have been made about the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida in the Troad; it was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. From Gergis the collection passed to Erythrae, where it became famous as the oracles of the Erythraean Sibyl. It seems to have been this very collection, or so it would appear, which found its way to Cumae (see the Cumaean Sibyl) and from Cumae to Rome.

The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by the semi-legendary last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus is one of the famous mythic elements of Roman history. At Cumae, Vergil has Aeneas consult the Cumaean Sibyl before his descent to the lower world ( Aeneid VI, 10). The Cumaean Sibyl offered to Tarquin nine books of these prophecies; and as the king declined to purchase them, owing to the exorbitant price she demanded, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquin at the same stiff price, which he again refused, whereupon she burned three more and repeated her offer. Tarquin then relented and purchased the last three at the full original price and had them preserved in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. The story is alluded to in Varro's lost books quoted in Lactantius Institutiones Divinae (I: 6) and by Origen.

The Sibylline Books were entrusted to the care of two patricianThis is an article about the privileged class in ancient Rome. For the fictional character in the Discworld books, see Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Patricians Patricii were the uppermost elite class of ancient Rome. They were largely consisting of familiess; after 367 BCCenturies: 5th century BC 4th century BC 3rd century BC Decades: 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 372 BC 371 BC 370 BC 369 BC 368 BC 367 BC 366 BC 365 BC 364 BC 363 BC 362 BC Events The temple to Conc ten custodians were appointed, five patricians and five plebeians; subsequently (probably in the time of SullaThis page is about the Roman dictator Sulla, for the Brythonic goddess sometimes called Sulla, see Sul. Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix ( Latin: L·CORNELIVS·L·F·P·N·SVLLA·FELIX) (ca. 138 BC 78 BC) was usually known simply as Sulla . His cognomen Felix — the) their number was increased to fifteen. They were usually ex-consuls or ex-praetors. They held office for life, and were exempt from all other public duties. They had the responsibility of keeping the books in safety and secrecy. These officials, at the command of the Senate, consulted the Sibylline books in order to discover, not exact predictions of definite future events in the form of prophecyFor other uses of the term, see prophecy (disambiguation . Prophecy in its most general sense is the communication of some revelation of divine will. However, the term is most commonly used to refer to the prediction of future events by supernatural means, but the religious observances necessary to avert extraordinary calamities and to expiate ominous prodigies (comets and earthquakes, plague and the like). It was only the rites of expiation prescribed by the Sibylline Books, according to the interpretation of the oracle that were communicated to the public, and not the oracles themselves. A skeptic will see the opportunities for abuse in this conventional arrangement.

In particular the keepers of the Sibylline Books had the superintendence of the worship of ApolloApollo ( Greek: , Apollon is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt). In later times he became in part confused or equated with Helios, god of the sun, and his sister similarly equated wi, of the "Great Mother" CybeleOriginally a Phrygian goddess, Cybele (sometimes given the etymology "she of the hair" if her name is Greek, not Phrygian) ( Roman equivalent: Magna Mater or 'Great Mother') was the Earth Mother goddess who was worshipped in Anatolia from Neolithic times. or Magna Mater, and of Ceres, which had been introduced by the Sibylline Books. Thus one important effect of the Sibylline Books was the ir influence on applying Greek cult practice and Greek conceptions of deities to indigenous Roman religion,which was already indirectly influenced through Etruscan religion. As the Sibylline books had been collected in Anatolia, in the neighborhood of Troy, they recognized the goddesses and gods and the rites observed there and helped introduce them into Roman State worship, a syncretic amalgamation of national deities with the corresponding deities of Greece, and a general modification of the Roman religion.

Since they were written in hexameter verse and in Greek, the college of curators was always assisted by two Greek interpreters. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and when the temple burned in 83 BC, they were lost. With the down-to-earth Roman approach to religion, the Senate simply sent envoys in 76 BC to replace them with a collection of similar oracular sayings, in particular collected from Ilium (Troy), Erythrae, and Samos, Sicily and Africa. This new Sibylline collection was deposited in the restored temple, together with similar sayings of native origin, e.g. those of the Sibyl at Tibur, (the ' Tiburtine Sibyl') of the brothers Marcius, and others. From the Capitol they were transferred by Augustus as pontifex maximus, in 12 BC, to the temple of Apollo Patrous on the Palatine, after they had been examined and copied; there they remained until about AD 405. They are said to have been burned by Flavius Stilicho (died AD 408), who though an Arian, shared the Christian enthusiasm for burning troublesome pagan literature.

Some genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in the Book of Marvels of Phlegon of Tralles ( 2nd century AD).