Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

11051

Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.8.2

nan But then we may relate how favourable the rest of the gods were to our city. For when our city was visited with a three-year pestilence, and neither through divine compassion or human aid could any remedy be found for so long and lasting a calamity, the priests consulted the Sibylline Books and observed, that there was no other way to restore the city to its former health but by fetching the image of Aesculapius from Epidaurus. The city therefore sent ambassadors thither, hoping that by its authority, the greatest then in the world, they might prevail to obtain the only remedy against the fatal misery. Neither did hope deceive them. For their desire was granted with as much willingness, as it was requested with earnestness. For immediately the Epidaurians conducted the ambassadors to the temple of Aesculapius (distant from the city some five miles) and told them to take out of it whatever they thought appropriate for the preservation of Rome. Their liberal goodwill was imitated by the god himself in his celestial compliance, approving the kindness of mortals. For that snake, seldom or never seen except to their great benefit, which the Epidaurians worshipped equally to Aesculapius, began to glide with a mild aspect and gentle motion through the chief parts of the city; and being seen for three days to the religious admiration of all men, without doubt taking in good part the change to a more noble seat, it hastened to the Roman trireme, and while the mariners stood frightened by so unusual a sight, crept aboard the ship. It peaceably folded itself into several coils, and quietly remained in the cabin of Q. Ogulnius, one of the ambassadors. The envoys returned due thanks, and being instructed by those who were skilful in the due worship of the serpent, like men who had obtained their hearts' desire, joyfully departed. When after a prosperous voyage they put in at Antium, the snake, which had remained in the ship, glided to the porch of the temple of Aesculapius, adorned with myrtle and other boughs, and twisted itself around a palm-tree of a very great height, where it stayed for three days in the temple of Antium. The ambassadors with great care put out those things wherewith he used to be fed, for fear he should be unwilling to return to the ship: and then he patiently allowed himself to be transported to our city. When the ambassadors landed upon the shore of the Tiber, the snake swam to the island where the temple was dedicated, and by his coming dispelled the calamity, for which he had been sought as a remedy.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

7 results
1. Varro, On The Latin Language, 7.8 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
2. Dionysius of Halycarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 4.62 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) 4.62. 1.  It is said that during the reign of Tarquinius another very wonderful piece of good luck also came to the Roman state, conferred upon it by the favour of some god or other divinity; and this good fortune was not of short duration, but throughout the whole existence of the country it has often saved it from great calamities.,2.  A certain woman who was not a native of the country came to the tyrant wishing to sell him nine books filled with Sibylline oracles; but when Tarquinius refused to purchase the books at the price she asked, she went away and burned three of them. And not long afterwards, bringing the remaining six books, she offered to sell them for the same price. But when they thought her a fool and mocked at her for asking the same price for the smaller number of books that she had been unable to get for even the larger number, she again went away and burned half of those that were left; then, bringing the remaining books, she asked the same amount of money for these.,3.  Tarquinius, wondering at the woman's purpose, sent for the augurs and acquainting them with the matter, asked them what he should do. These, knowing by certain signs that he had rejected a god-sent blessing, and declaring it to be a great misfortune that he had not purchased all the books, directed him to pay the woman all the money she asked and to get the oracles that were left.,4.  The woman, after delivering the books and bidding him take great care of them, disappeared from among men. Tarquinius chose two men of distinction from among the citizens and appointing two public slaves to assist them, entrusted to them the guarding of the books; and when one of these men, named Marcus Atilius, seemed to have been faithless to his trust and was informed upon by one of the public slaves, he ordered him to be sewed up in a leather bag and thrown into the sea as a parricide.,5.  Since the expulsion of the kings, the commonwealth, taking upon itself the guarding of these oracles, entrusts the care of them to persons of the greatest distinction, who hold this office for life, being exempt from military service and from all civil employments, and it assigns public slaves to assist them, in whose absence the others are not permitted to inspect the oracles. In short, there is no possession of the Romans, sacred or profane, which they guard so carefully as they do the Sibylline oracles. They consult them, by order of the senate, when the state is in the grip of party strife or some great misfortune has happened to them in war, or some important prodigies and apparitions have been seen which are difficult of interpretation, as has often happened. These oracles till the time of the Marsian War, as it was called, were kept underground in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in a stone chest under the guard of ten men.,6.  But when the temple was burned after the close of the one hundred and seventy-third Olympiad, either purposely, as some think, or by accident, these oracles together with all the offerings consecrated to the god were destroyed by the fire. Those which are now extant have been scraped together from many places, some from the cities of Italy, others from Erythrae in Asia (whither three envoys were sent by vote of the senate to copy them), and others were brought from other cities, transcribed by private persons. Some of these are found to be interpolations among the genuine Sibylline oracles, being recognized as such by means of the so‑called acrostics. In all this I am following the account given by Terentius Varro in his work on religion.
3. Livy, History, 5.21-5.22, 5.22.6, 10.47.6-10.47.7, 22.9, 22.10.10, 23.30-23.31, 23.30.13, 23.31.9 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
4. Livy, Per., 11 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
5. Ovid, Fasti, 4.247-4.348 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) 4.247. ‘Guide of my work, I beg you, teach me also, where She 4.248. Was brought from. Was she always resident in our City? 4.249. ‘The Mother Goddess always loved Dindymus, Cybele 4.250. And Ida, with its pleasant streams, and the Trojan realm: 4.251. And when Aeneas brought Troy to Italian fields, the godde 4.252. Almost followed those ships that carried the sacred relics. 4.253. But she felt that fate didn’t require her powers in Latium 4.254. So she stayed behind in her long-accustomed place. 4.255. Later, when Rome was more than five centuries old 4.256. And had lifted its head above the conquered world 4.257. The priest consulted the fateful words of Euboean prophecy: 4.258. They say that what he found there was as follows: 4.259. ‘The Mother’s absent: Roman, I command you: seek the Mother. 4.260. When she arrives, she must be received in chaste hands.’ 4.261. The dark oracle’s ambiguity set the senators puzzling 4.262. As to who that parent might be, and where to seek her. 4.263. Apollo was consulted, and replied: ‘Fetch the Mother 4.264. of all the Gods, who you’ll find there on Mount Ida.’ 4.265. Noblemen were sent. Attalus at that time held 4.266. The Phrygian sceptre: he refused the Italian lords. 4.267. Marvellous to tell, the earth shook with long murmurs 4.268. And the goddess, from her shrine, spoke as follows: 4.269. ‘I myself wished them to seek me: don’t delay: send me 4.270. Willingly. Rome is a worthy place for all divinities.’ 4.271. Quaking with fear at her words, Attalus, said: ‘Go 4.272. You’ll still be ours: Rome claims Phrygian ancestry.’ 4.273. Immediately countless axes felled the pine-tree 4.274. Those trees pious Aeneas employed for his flight: 4.275. A thousand hands work, and the heavenly Mother 4.276. Soon has a hollow ship, painted in fiery colours. 4.277. She’s carried in perfect safety over her son’s waves 4.278. And reaches the long strait named for Phrixus’ sister 4.279. Passes fierce Rhoetum and the Sigean shore 4.280. And Tenedos and Eetion’s ancient kingdom. 4.281. Leaving Lesbos behind she then steered for the Cyclades 4.282. And the waves that break on Euboea’s Carystian shoals. 4.283. She passed the Icarian Sea, as well, where Icarus shed 4.284. His melting wings, giving his name to a vast tract of water. 4.285. Then leaving Crete to larboard, and the Pelopian wave 4.286. To starboard, she headed for Cythera, sacred to Venus. 4.287. From there to the Sicilian Sea, where Brontes, Sterope 4.288. And Aemonides forge their red-hot iron 4.289. Then, skirting African waters, she saw the Sardinian 4.290. Realm behind to larboard, and reached our Italy. 4.291. She’d arrived at the mouth (ostia) where the Tiber divide 4.292. To meet the deep, and flows with a wider sweep: 4.293. All the Knights, grave Senators, and commoners 4.294. Came to meet her at the mouth of the Tuscan river. 4.295. With them walked mothers, daughters, and brides 4.296. And all those virgins who tend the sacred fires. 4.297. The men wearied their arms hauling hard on the ropes: 4.298. The foreign vessel barely made way against the stream. 4.299. For a long time there’d been a drought: the grass was dry 4.300. And scorched: the boat stuck fast in the muddy shallows. 4.301. Every man, hauling, laboured beyond his strength 4.302. And encouraged their toiling hands with his cries. 4.303. Yet the ship lodged there, like an island fixed in mid-ocean: 4.304. And astonished at the portent, men stood and quaked. 4.305. Claudia Quinta traced her descent from noble Clausus 4.306. And her beauty was in no way unequal to her nobility: 4.307. She was chaste, but not believed so: hostile rumour 4.308. Had wounded her, false charges were levelled at her: 4.309. Her elegance, promenading around in various hairstyles 4.310. And her ready tongue, with stiff old men, counted against her. 4.311. Conscious of virtue, she laughed at the rumoured lies 4.312. But we’re always ready to credit others with faults. 4.313. Now, when she’d stepped from the line of chaste women 4.314. Taking pure river water in her hands, she wetted her head 4.315. Three times, three times lifted her palms to the sky 4.316. (Everyone watching her thought she’d lost her mind) 4.317. Then, kneeling, fixed her eyes on the goddess’s statue 4.318. And, with loosened hair, uttered these words: 4.319. “ Kind and fruitful Mother of the Gods, accept 4.320. A suppliant’s prayers, on this one condition: 4.321. They deny I’m chaste: let me be guilty if you condemn me: 4.322. Convicted by a goddess I’ll pay for it with my life. 4.323. But if I’m free of guilt, grant a pledge of my innocence 4.324. By your action: and, chaste, give way to my chaste hands.” 4.325. She spoke: then gave a slight pull at the rope 4.326. (A wonder, but the sacred drama attests what I say): 4.327. The goddess stirred, followed, and, following, approved her: 4.328. Witness the sound of jubilation carried to the stars. 4.329. They came to a bend in the river (called of old 4.330. The Halls of Tiber): there the stream turns left, ascending. 4.331. Night fell: they tied the rope to an oak stump 4.332. And, having eaten, settled to a tranquil sleep. 4.333. Dawn rose: they loosed the rope from the oak stump 4.334. After first laying a fire and offering incense 4.335. And crowned the stern, and sacrificed a heifer 4.336. Free of blemish, that had never known yoke or bull. 4.337. There’s a place where smooth-flowing Almo joins the Tiber 4.338. And the lesser flow loses its name in the greater: 4.339. There, a white-headed priest in purple robe 4.340. Washed the Lady, and sacred relics, in Almo’s water. 4.341. The attendants howled, and the mad flutes blew 4.342. And soft hands beat at the bull’s-hide drums. 4.343. Claudia walked in front with a joyful face 4.344. Her chastity proven by the goddess’s testimony: 4.345. The goddess herself, sitting in a cart, entered the Capene Gate: 4.346. Fresh flowers were scattered over the yoked oxen. 4.347. Nasica received her. The name of her temple’s founder is lost: 4.348. Augustus has re-dedicated it, and, before him, Metellus.’
6. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15.622-15.744 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
7. Vergil, Aeneis, 5.759-5.760 5.759. that-fabled labyrinthine gallery 5.760. wound on through lightless walls, with thousand paths

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
aeneas	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
aesculapius	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
aristophaness plutus incubation scene,evidence of incubations prominence	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
aristophaness plutus incubation scene,problem of setting at athens or peiraeus	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asclepius	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
asklepieia,written evidence for incubation	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asklepieia and lesser cult sites,alipheira	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asklepieia and lesser cult sites,smyrna	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asklepieia and lesser cult sites,tarentum	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asklepios,spread of cult	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
asklepios	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
aventine (hill)	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
balagrae asklepieion	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
capitoline hill	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
cultural appropriation,romans and	Gruen (2011), Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, 347
divination (greek and roman),sibylline oracles	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
divinities (greek and roman),apollo kalliteknos	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
epidauros	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
epidauros asklepieion,spread of cult from epidauros	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
epidauros asklepieion,written sources for incubation	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
epidauros asklepieion	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
epidauros miracle inscriptions,evidence for non-local visitors	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
eternity and timelessness	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
euocatio,evocatio (ritual to summon foreign gods)	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
gods	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
jests	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
joy,laetus	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
julian	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
juno	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
livy (historian)	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
magna mater,roman cult of	Gruen (2011), Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, 347
miracles	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
nature	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
numen (divine power or god)	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
pergamon asklepieion,establishment and early history	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
plague,cult of asklepios brought to rome in response to plague	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
roman,and non-roman elements	Gruen (2011), Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, 347
rome and romans,cultural adaptation and appropriation	Gruen (2011), Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, 347
rome asklepieia,establishment of tiber island asklepieion	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
rome asklepieia,problem of where in rome incubation practiced	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
sacred animals (greek),serpents at epidauros asklepieion	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
sibylline books,in rome	Gruen (2011), Rethinking the Other in Antiquity, 347
sibylline books	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
sicily	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
sincerity (conviction,credulity,religiosity)	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
sparta,and asklepios cult	Renberg (2017), Where Dreams May Come: Incubation Sanctuaries in the Greco-Roman World, 182
statuary'	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
temple,of aesculapius at epidaurus	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
tiber island	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171
veii	Mueller (2002), Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, 41
venus erycina	Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 171