The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A lord, having come from the west, shall afterward die,
cut down by mighty Ares with the sharp bronze.
And then again another shall rule the overmighty Romans, a great-hearted Ares revealed out of Assyria,
beginning with a letter of his name, and he shall subdue all things by wars,
and he himself together with his armies shall display his rule
and set down laws; but swiftly bronze Ares
shall destroy him, fallen among treacherous armies.
After him three shall rule, men with overweening hearts,
one holding the number of a unit, and of three tens
one, and another lord shall share in three hundred;
reckless men, who gold and silver in a great fire
shall melt down, the founded images of hand-made temples,
and give it to their armies, arming themselves for victory,
as wealth, dividing up many goodly treasures;
and eager for shameful deeds, they shall likewise tear apart
the arrow-shooting Parthians of deep-flowing Euphrates
and the Medes, their enemies, and the long-haired warriors,
the Massagetae and the Persians, quiver-bearing men.
But when a king, by his own fate, lays down his rule,
leaving the royal scepter to his younger sons
and begging them to keep justice, they at once their father's commands
forgetting, and arming their hands for Ares,
shall rush into strife over the royal power.
And then one lord alone, again another from the third,
shall rule, and swiftly meet his fate, struck down by a spear.
After him many then shall perish against one another,
mighty men, struggling over the royal power.
And one great-hearted lord of the overmighty Romans shall rule,
an elder king of the fourth number, and order all things well.
And then there shall be war and strife for Phoenicia,
when the arrow-shooting nations of the Persians draw near.
Ah, how much shall fall before men of barbarous speech!
Sidon and Tripolis and boastful Berytus
shall look on one another in blood and corpses.
Wretched Laodicea, you shall raise up around yourself a great
and fruitless war, because of men's impiety.
Ah, wretched Tyrians, you shall reap the evil harvest,
whenever the sun that gives light to mortals fails by day,
and its disk shines not, and drops shall come upon the earth,
thick and frequent, bloody drops out of heaven.
And then indeed the king shall die, betrayed by his companions.
And many shameless rulers after him again
shall slay one another, stirring up evil strife.
And then again there shall be a venerable, cunning-counseled lord,
whose name has the number of five, trusting in great armies,
whom mortals shall love for the sake of his royal rule;
and having a noble name, he shall join it to noble deeds.
And a fearful sign there shall be: while he holds power,
between the Taurus and the snow-struck Amanus,
out of the land of the Cilicians a certain city shall utterly perish.