The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
He who sevenfold displays the tenth stroke plainly:
he will destroy Phoenicia and utterly ravage Syria;
and the sword will come upon the land of Solyma,
even to the farthest bend of the Tiberian brine.
Ah, Phoenicia, how much you will endure, heavy with grief -
gripped in tight routs, and every nation will trample you.
Ah, you will come among the Assyrians, and your infant children
you will see enslaved among hostile men,
together with their wives and their whole livelihood, and wealth will perish;
for the wrath of God will come upon you, heavy with grief,
since they would not hold fast to his commandment, but to all
idols gave service, with shameful crafts.
Many more wars again, and battles, and slaughters of men,
famines and plagues and upheavals of cities.
And at the end of his life the venerable, great-hearted king,
himself excelling in valor, will fall under the compulsion of his army.
Afterward two other men will rule as lords,
cherishing the memory of their great father the king,
and glorying greatly among warriors close in battle.
One of these will be a noble man and lord,
and his name will hold the number three hundred; yet he
will fall by treachery, stretched out among the armies,
struck down on the ground of Rome by double-edged bronze.
And after him another man, a mighty spearman,
will rule a great kingdom, from the stroke of the number four,
whom all mortals will love across the boundless earth.
And then there will be rest from war throughout the whole world.
Yet under him, from the west to the dawn,
all will serve willingly and not under compulsion,
and cities of their own accord will become subject
and enslaved. For upon him great glory will be bestowed
by heavenly Sabaoth, the imperishable God who dwells in the heavens.
And then Pannonia and all the land of the Celts
famine will diminish, and will destroy them against one another.
For the Assyrians, past whom the Orontes flows,
there will be buildings and adornment, and whatever greater thing is seen anywhere.
And these the great king will cherish and love
above the other citizens; but he himself
will take a deep wound square in the center of his chest,
taken by treachery at life's end by a companion,
inside the great and sacred house of the kingdom,
he will fall, wounded; and after him there will be a lord,
a venerable mortal of the number fifty, who beyond all
will destroy many of Rome's people and citizens; but he will rule as an oligarch, for on account of the former king
he will go down to the house of Hades, wounded from behind.
Then straightway another king, a mighty spearman,
who obtained rule stamped with the number three hundred,
will rule also the land of the Thracians, richly varied as it is,
and will destroy those at the farthest barbarian reaches of the Rhine,
the Germans dwelling there, and the arrow-shooting Iberians.