nd, under
the name of Sibylline oracles. P. Gabinius, M. Ottacilius, and L.
Valerius brought back a large collection, of which the greater part
was rejected, and the rest committed to the care of the
Quindecimvirs. Augustus ordered a second revision of them; and,
after a severe scrutiny, those which were deemed to be genuine, were
deposited in a box, under a statue of Apollo Palatinus. Tiberius
again had them examined, and some portion of them was then rejected.
Finally, about the year A.D. 399, Stilcho, according to Rutilius
Numatianus, or rather, the Emperor Honorius himself, ordered them to
be burnt.

The so-called collection of Sibylline verses which now exists is
generally looked upon as spurious; or if any part is genuine, it
bears so small a proportion to the fictitious portion, that it has
shared in the condemnation. Indeed, their very distinctness stamps
them as forgeries; for they speak of the mysteries of Christianity
in undisguised language, and the names of our Saviour and the Virgin
Mary occur as openly as they do in the Holy Scriptures.

It is a singular assertion of St. Jerome, that the gift of prophecy
was a reward to the Sibyls for their chastity. If such was the
condition, we have a right to consider that the Deities were very
partial in the distribution of their rewards, and in withholding
them from the multitudes who, we are bound in charity to believe,
were as deserving as the Sibyls themselves of the gift of
vaticination.

FABLE IV. [XIV.154-247]

AEneas arrives at Caieta, in Italy. Achaemenides, an Ithacan, who is
on board his ship, meets his former companion Macareus there; and
relates to him his escape from being devoured by Polyphemus.
Macareus afterwards tells him how Ulysses had received winds from
AEolus in a hide, and by that means had a prosperous voyage; till,
on the bag being opened by the sailors in their curiosity, the winds
rushed out, and raised a storm that drove them back to AEolia, and
afterwards upon the coast of the Laestrygons.

While the Sibyl was relating such things as these, during the steep
ascent, the Trojan AEneas emerged from the Stygian abodes to the Euboean
city,[15] and the sacrifice being performed, after the usual manner, he
approached the shores that not yet bore the name of his nurse;[16] here,
too, Macareus of Neritos, the companion of the experienced Ulysses, had
rested, after the prolong