ROMAN MYTHOLOGY AND SAGA 643same price. This time, acting on the advice of the augurs (an important group
of priests), Tarquin bought the books. The Sibyl handed them over and promptly
disappeared. The books were stored in the Capitoline temple of Jupiter, to be
consulted only on the orders of the senate—for guidance in times of calamity
and perplexity or during a pestilence or after the appearance of disturbing prodi-
gies. The priests who had charge of them were prominent citizens. The books
were considered so important that after they were destroyed in the Capitoline
fire of 83 B.c., a new collection was made, which Augustus later deposited in the
base of the statue of Apollo in his new temple on the Palatine Hill. The Sibylline
books are an example of early Greek influence at Rome. They also were influ-
ential in bringing new cults to Rome. For example, they advised the introduc-
tion of the cults of Ceres, Liber, and Libera in 496 B.c. and of Apollo in 433.
APOLLO AND AESCULAPIUS
Apollo—the only one of the great Greek gods not to change his name at Rome—
arrived as the result of a pestilence, and his temple was dedicated in 431 B.C.,
two years after the Sibylline books had been consulted. Until the time of Au-
gustus, this remained his only temple at Rome. Except for his cult under Au-
gustus and, to a lesser extent, under Nero, he was never as prominent at Rome
as he was in the Greek world. He was worshiped originally as Apollo Medicus
(corresponding to his Greek title of Paean, the Healer). Later his other attributes
and interests were introduced, and in 212 the Ludi Apollinares (Games of Apollo,
an annual festival), were instituted. Augustus had a special regard for Apollo,
and in 28 B.c. he dedicated a magnificent new temple to him on the Palatine Hill.
In 293 B.C., during an epidemic, the Sibylline books counseled bringing As-
clepius, the Greek god of healing, to Rome from Epidaurus. He came in the form
of a sacred serpent; when the ship bringing him came up the Tiber to Rome, the
serpent slipped onto the island that is in the middle of the present-day city and
there made its home. A temple to Aesculapius (his Latin name) was built on the
island and his cult was established.CYBELE
In 205 B.c., during another period of public distress, the Sibylline books advised
the Romans to bring in the Phrygian mother-goddess Cybele, known also at Rome
as the Magna Mater (Great Mother). After a visit to Delphi, a solemn embassy
went to the city of Pessinus in Phrygia, where it received a black stone that was
said to be the goddess. It was brought to Rome with much ceremony; a temple
was built on the Palatine Hill, and the festival of the Megalensia was instituted
in honor of Cybele. The ecstatic nature of her worship was exceptional at Rome.
Her priests (known as Galli) practiced self-castration, and until the reign of
Claudius, Roman citizens were forbidden to become Galli. The Megalensia,