The prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl (Syrian, 9th century).

 One of a number of Byzantine apocalypses, this version is based partly on texts still in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and partly on an unknown source.
Translation commences: The word ‘Sibyl’ is used to describe those Greek women who, by prophesying and interpreting the divine will, used to announce future events to men.
The most learned authors say that there were ten Sibyls.
The first was the Sibyl of Persia; the second that of Libya; the third, that of Delphi, who used to predict the future before the Trojan War; the fourth, of Cumae in Italy; the fifth, of Erithrea in Babylonia, called Erithres, from the name of the island where her chants were to be heard; the sixth was the Samian Sibyl, from the island of Samos; the seventh, of Amalthea.
She had been born in Syria; her father was Manasse and her mother Papilia: she came from there to Cumae.
The eighth was that of the Hellespont; the ninth, of Phrygia; the tenth, of Tibur in Greek or, as the Latins say, of Abulnia.
The prophecies of this last contain a great many things about the Lord and his Christ.
This Sibyl, whose name we have just given in twofold form, Greek and Latin, owed her birth to King Priam and to Hecuba: she was Cassandra, whom Aeneas brought from Troy.
She travelled through various parts of the east, and delivered her oracles in Asia, in Macedonia, in Licilia, in Pamphylia, in Galicia; then, after announcing the future to this part of the world, she passed through Egypt, Ethiopia, Babylonia, Africa, Libya, Pentapolis and Mauritania.
In all these places, inspired by a prophetic spirit, she announced good things to the good and woes to the bad.
We know that through her words she spoke the truth, and announced what must happen in the most remote of future times.
The Roman princes, hearing of this prophetess, spoke of her in turn in the presence of Tarquin, the Roman and Trojan emperor.
This Tarquin, seventh of the name, lived at the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
The emperor sent representatives to the Sibyl and had her brought to Rome with the greatest honors.
One night a hundred members of the Roman senate had the same dream.
It seemed to them that they could see as it were nine suns in the sky that each contained a different formation.
The first sun, brilliant, enlightened the earth with its flames; the second, more resplendent, spread abroad an aerial brilliance; the third, blood-red in colour, sent forth terrifying flames; the fourth seemed all gory; the fifth, also red, was somewhat darkened -- it was like a lamp amidst the darkness; the sixth was completely dark, and one could almost make out within it a scorpion’s sting; the seventh, crimson like the foregoing, had a sword in the middle of its terrifying disk; on the eighth a red band seemed to be forming; the ninth was dark, and only feeble rays emanated from it.
When the Sibyl made her entrance into Rome, the citizens admired her rare beauty.
Her charming face, her graceful figure, her easy speech, the beauty spread all over her person, registered with her listeners in her favour.
The senators who had had the vision approached her and said to her: "Princess, O you who, in your person, unite more charms than we have ever admired in any creature, we ask you to tell us what the dream foretells that appeared simultaneously to all of us on the same night.
" Smiling, the Sibyl answered them: "It is not proper to explain men’s visions in a place full of filth and contaminated by various battles; but come, let us climb a mountain, and there I shall tell you what must happen to the Romans.
" They did as she asked, and when they were on the mountain, she asked them to tell her what they had seen.
Then she said to them: The nine suns that you saw signify all the generations that are to come.
Just as these suns differed from each other, in the same way also these generations shall follow without resembling each other.
[The Sibyl now explains the characteristic developments and events of the first five ‘suns’, in the process predicting -- with an accuracy that stretches credibility somewhat (!) -- the principal events of the Old and New testaments.
She then goes on.] Sixth sun, sixth generation.
This city [Rome] shall be assaulted for three years and six months.
Seventh sun, seventh generation.
Two kings shall raise numerous persecutions in the land of the Hebrews.
Eighth sun, eighth generation.
Rome shall be forsaken, pregnant women shall utter screams in their labours and shall say: Believe you, we shall perish! Ninth sun, ninth generation.
The Roman princes shall cause the ruin of much of the world.
Then there shall come from Syria two kings whose armies shall be as innumerable as the grains of sand on the seashore.
They shall conquer cities and the Roman provinces up to Chalcedonia.
In those days there shall be great bloodshed.
The cities and nations shall tremble when there shall appear two kings from Egypt who shall fight four kings and shall kill them, as well as all their army.
They shall reign three years and six months.
After them shall come another king, C.by name, powerful in battles, who shall reign thirty years, shall raise a temple to God, shall execute the law and shall perform justice in the land in the name of the Lord.
After him another prince shall reign for a short time.
He shall be killed in battle and replaced by a king whose name begins with H.From H. shall come King Audon, from Audon shall come A., and from A., A., and from this last, A.The second A.shall be extremely bellicose.
From him shall be born a prince named R., from R., T., who shall count nineteen monarchs under his power.
After these shall appear a king of France named R.
He shall be great, powerful and merciful, and shall render justice to the wretched.
No King of the Romans so great shall ever have been seen before, nor shall be seen again.
After him shall come a king named L., then B., then B., and from B.shall be born A., a bellicose prince who shall travel the earth and the seas.
He shall die in exile far from his kingdom, and his soul shall pass into the hand of the Lord.
Then shall appear a prince named V.
He shall have superiority over all his enemies, and then shall come one named O., who shall be powerful, courageous and good, who shall judge with justice, then another O.just as powerful as he was.
Under this last there shall be wars between the Christians and the pagans.
The blood of the Greeks shall be shed, and this prince shall surrender his heart and soul to God after reigning for seven years.
There shall be born from him a prince O., bloodthirsty and cruel, without faith, without good works.
He shall be the cause of the shedding of much blood, and the churches shall be overthrown in his domains.
In other countries there shall be great tribulations and numerous wars.
Nation shall rise against nation in Cappadocia.
He shall reign for four years.
After him shall come a Prince H., under whom there shall be many wars.
He shall make war in Samaria and in Syria and shall take Pentapolis.
He shall be a king from the race of the Lombards and shall be replaced by a Salic [i.e.Frankish] monarch, called L.
who shall fight the Lombards; courageous, strong and powerful, this prince, so long as he shall live, shall be at war.
His reign shall be of short duration.
Then shall emerge from Babylon a king, a supporter of Satan who, in his infernal power, shall put the saints to death, and shall destroy the churches.
There shall be many wars and tribulations.
The children of Agar shall seize Tarento, and spreading through Apulia, shall sack a host of towns.
They shall be determined to enter Rome, and nobody in the world shall be able to resist them, unless it be the Lord God himself.
The Armenians, pursuing their depredations, shall advance from the East, shall fight the Romans, and shall achieve peace for a short time.
Then shall appear a king of Greek blood, who shall reign in Jerusalem.
Forty altars shall be prepared in honour of the name of God.
Plague shall spread through all the pagan nations, and a Greek monarch, a bellicose man, shall enter Hierapolis and shall destroy the temples of the idols.
Swarms of grasshoppers and an immense host of caterpillars shall devour all the trees and their fruits in Cappadocia and Sicily, and the people shall starve to death, without a doubt.
Then shall appear another Salic [i.e.Frankish] monarch named L, a strong and bellicose man, against whom many of his neighbours shall rise.
In that time sons shall disown their fathers, and fathers their sons: brother shall deliver brother to death, and fathers their sons; brother shall be sexually united with sister, and the earth shall see the greatest excesses committed.
Priests shall preach, as the apostle said, but not by example, and shall die in iniquity.
Bishops who are accomplices of the wrongdoers shall sell their benefices, and once again blood shall flow on the earth, and the sacred temples shall be desecrated.
The people shall commit shameful fornications and even the crime of sodomy.
The men of those days shall be rapists, liars, shameful, proud, enemies of justice, and even the Roman judges shall be corrupt; depending on the day of the week, their judgements shall be changed for money; if one of their eyes is good, the other shall be evil: and for money there is nothing that the magistrates shall not be prepared to do.
While swearing to do good, they shall do ill; falsity shall preside over their utterances.
Men shall be greedy and false, and truth shall disappear.
They shall send away their wives in order to get others, and shall even have sex with their own kin.
There shall be earthquakes in divers places.
The cities and provinces of the Islanders shall be swallowed up by floods.
To the plague which shall devastate some places shall be joined the fury of enemies, and nothing shall be able to comfort them.
Then shall come a king called B., under whose reign there shall be many wars.
He shall reign for two years, and after him shall come a prince A., who shall remain a long time on the throne.
He shall march against Rome and shall seize it.
The Lord shall not deliver it into the hands of his enemies during his lifetime.
He shall be good and great, and shall render justice to the poor.
He shall be from the race of the Lombards.
After him there shall be another prince, named B, from whom twelve other B. shall spring.
Himself a Lombard, he shall reign a hundred years.
Then shall appear, after him, a Salic [i.e.Frankish] prince, named L., a frightful prince, under whom shall begin a series of sufferings whose like has never been since the beginning of the world: battles, tribulations, bloodshed, earthquakes, cities in captivity.
The Lord in his wrath shall send a man whose yoke nobody shall be able to shake off, other than the Lord himself.
The Romans shall be beaten, and the Roman city shall be destroyed.
The earth shall be covered in ruins: never shall monarch have done such a thing.
This city [i.e.Rome] shall be called Babylon; this kingdom shall be of iron, and Rome shall be prey to persecution and the sword.
Men shall be greedy, despots, hard on paupers, oppressors, unjust, wicked.
Resistance shall be impossible at the time, but the Persians, Macedonians and Turks, hearing of this tyrant, shall form an alliance, shall come to Rome, and shall seize the Salic prince, whom they shall cause to undergo a cruel death, and the burning of Rome shall be avenged.
Then shall emerge in Gaul a king of the Greeks, Francs and Romans, of lofty stature and handsome appearance; his body and limbs shall have the most beautiful proportions; he shall reign a hundred and twelve years; he shall carry written on his forehead: "This man, verily, is destined to avenge Christendom, snatch it away from the yoke of Ishmael [i.e.the Arabs], conquer it from the Saracens; none of the Saracens shall thereafter be able to reign.
" Seven times over, he shall cause them the greatest ill, shall ruin their whole empire, shall strike them; after that, peace shall reign for Christians up until the time of the Antichrist.
In those days, riches shall be abundant, the earth shall produce fruits in quantity, so that three bushels shall sell for only a penny.
The king of the Franks, Greeks and Romans, reclaiming for himself the whole empire of Christendom, shall devastate all the pagan islands and cities, shall overthrow the temples of idolatry, and shall summon all the pagans to baptism.
The cross shall be raised in all the temples, and whoever shall not adore it shall be punished with the sword; and when a hundred and twenty years shall be accomplished, the Jews shall convert to God, and his sepulchre shall be glorified by all.
In those days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall resume its faith.
Then a prince of iniquity shall emerge from the tribe of Dan; he shall be called the Antichrist.
The child of perdition, full of pride and of insane malice, he shall perform a host of prodigies on the earth, in order to reinforce the errors that he shall teach: through his magic arts he shall shake the good faith of many who shall see in his voice fire descending from heaven.
Years shall be shortened like months, months like weeks, weeks like days, and days like hours.
From the north shall issue the most ferocious people whom King Alexander had held in check, namely Gog and Magog.
These people shall form twenty-two kingdoms whose population is as numerous as the sand of the sea.
The king of the Romans, when he shall see these people advance, summoning his troops together, shall fight them to the utmost and cut them to pieces.
Next he shall come to Jerusalem, and climbing Golgotha shall lay down his diadem and all his royal pomp, and shall give over his throne to God the Father and to Christ his Son.
He shall put his crown on the holy Cross, and shall raise his hands: immediately they shall ascend into heaven, together with the holy cross and the royal crown.
Then the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to judge the world, and the Roman Empire shall have ceased to exist.
Then the Antichrist shall reveal himself publicly; he shall seat himself in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.
During his reign, there shall appear two illustrious men, Elias and Enoch, to announce the coming of the Lord.
The Antichrist shall put them to death, and two days latter the Lord shall revive them.
Then shall be seen a great persecution, such as there has never been and shall never be again.
God shall shorten not the measure, but the number of those terrible days -- the same God of whom it is written: "The day is fulfilled by your command.
" For the sake of the elect, through the power of the Lord, the Antichrist shall be killed on the Mount of Olives by Michael: suddenly the dead shall be born again.
Thus it was that the Sibyl predicted to the Romans what must happen; when she came to the signs that must accompany the judgment of God, in a thunderous voice she pronounced these prophetic lines: On the day of judgement, the earth shall be covered with sweat; the king shall come from heaven through the spheres.
He shall come in flesh and in person to judge the world.
Believers or unbelievers, all shall then see the Lord in the midst of the legions of his saints who have already completed their race.
All shall appear, body and soul, to be judged.
Fire shall devour the land, the sea, and the sky at a single stroke.
The doors of dark Avernus [Hell] shall burst.
Everyone shall appear in the full light of day.
Every people shall tell of deeds until then unknown; and the Lord shall bring to light the secrets of every conscience.
Then shall commence the desolation and the anguish.
The sun and the stars shall lose their brightness, and the moon its light.
The hills shall be laid low, and the valleys raised up.
There shall no longer be on earth any eminence or unevenness, for the azure waters of the sea shall roll in level with the mountaintops.
All shall cease to be; the shattered earth shall perish.
The waves and flames shall descend in destructive torrents, and from heaven shall suddenly come the gloomy sound of trumpets.
The shattered globe, the gaping earth shall be no more than a horrible chaos, and the face of the Lord shall appear to all the kings of the earth.
A rain of fire and sulphur shall descend from heaven.
Then God shall judge everyone according to his works: the impious shall go to eternal torment, condemned forever to the flames.
The just shall receive eternal life; there shall be a new heaven and a new earth that shall exist forever.
The sea shall cease to be, God shall reign over the saints, and the saints shall reign with God for ever and ever, amen.
It is said that the Sibyl lived for 362 years.
Such, truly, are the revelations that she made, concerning the birth, passion and resurrection of Christ, as well as concerning his second coming.
If anybody wishes to verify and read these lines in the Greek, he will find them in the words [Greek quotation]-- that is to say, Christ, son of God, saviour.
You will find this prophecy in the case labeled with the two letters PP.
in the library of Divine Victor, in the town of Paris, in the noble realm of the French.