The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
And warlike Ares shall come even as far as Thrace;
and afterward he shall flee, and come into the land of the Bithynians,
and the plain of the Cilicians; but swiftly bronze-clad Ares,
soul-destroying, shall utterly waste him on the Assyrian plains.
And then, knowing well the arts of guileful conquest,
a man of cunning mind shall rise up out of the west,
and he shall bear a name whose sign is the number
two hundred; and far more, for the sake of royal power,
he shall raise up war against the Assyrian people,
gathering every army, and shall subdue all things.
And for the Romans he shall wield the great dominion; and in his heart
much cunning device, the wrath of ruinous Ares;
a dread serpent and heavy war, who shall destroy all
the high-born men that walk upon the earth,
slaying the noble for the sake of wealth, like a falling star,
plundering the whole earth of its perishing peoples, —
he shall turn his course toward the east; and all guile shall be theirs.
There, when an infant Caesar shall reign together with him,
bearing the name of the mighty Macedonian king,
its letter but beginning; and around him, war having swept him off,
he shall escape the steep snare of the king who comes against him,
in the bosom of the army; but he, by barbarian customs,
ruling suddenly, the temple-warden, shall utterly perish,
overpowered by mighty Ares with the blazing iron;
and even dead, the people shall tear him apart.
And then indeed the kings of the Persians shall rise up,
... Roman Ares against the Roman lord.
And Phrygia, rich in flocks, shall groan beneath the earthquakes.
Woe, Laodicea! Woe, wretched Hierapolis!
for you the gaping earth once swallowed first of all.
... monstrous things ... Ausonian ...
all things, as many as ...
shall wail ... of men who perish
in the hands of Ares; and evil shall be your fate,
the fate of men; but afterward, by the road of the east,
hastening to look upon Italy, by the blazing iron
stripped bare, he shall fall, having gathered hatred through his mother.
For the seasons hold all things ... and a fourth shall possess another,
one that is burning ...; but not all men know this together;
for not all things belong to all; only these shall come to joy,
who practice piety toward God and have forgotten idols.
But now, lord of the cosmos, king of every kingdom,
unlying, immortal one — for you have set within my heart
an ambrosial voice — stop my speech; for I do not even know
what I am saying; for it is you within me who speak all things.
Grant me a little rest, and lay to rest within my heart
the lovely song; for within me my heart grows weary
of the god-given verses, foretelling the reigns of kings.