The destruction of Jerusalem
115 An evil storm of war will also come upon Jerusalem
from Italy, and it will sack the great Temple of God,
whenever they put their trust in folly and cast off piety
and commit repulsive murders in front of the Temple.
w
Then a great king will flee from Italy like a runaway slave
x
120 unseen and unheard over the channel of the Euphrates,
when he dares to incur a maternal curse for repulsive murder
y
and many other things, confidently, with wicked hand.
When he runs away, beyond the Parthian land,
many will bloody the ground for the throne of Rome
z
125 A leader of Rome will come to Syria
a2 who will burn
the Temple of Jerusalem with fire, at the same time slaughter
many men and destroy the great land of the Jews with its broad roads.
Then indeed
an earthquake will destroy at once Salamis and Paphos
when the dark water overwhelms Cyprus, which is washed by many waves.
Various disturbances
But when a firebrand, turned away from a cleft in the earth
in the land of Italy, reaches to broad heaven,
b2
it will burn many cities and destroy men.
Much smoking ashes will fill the great sky,
and showers will fall from heaven like red earth.
135 Know then the wrath of the heavenly God,
because they will destroy the blameless tribe of the pious.
Then the strife of war being aroused will come to the west,
and the fugitive from Rome will also come, brandishing a great spear,
c2
having crossed the Euphrates with many myriads.
140 Wretched Antioch, they will no longer call you a city
when you fall under spears by your own folly;
and then pestilence and terrible din of battle will destroy Cyprus.
Woe to miserable Cyprus, a broad wave of the sea
will cover you when you have been tossed up by wintry blasts.
145 Great wealth will come to Asia, which Rome itself
once plundered and deposited in her house of many possessions.
She will then pay back twice as much and more
to Asia, and then there will be a surfeit of war.
d2
A bitter famine will destroy the cities of the Carians,
which are very beautifully turreted, by the waters of the Maeander,
whenever the Maeander hides its dark water.
Footnotes
w. The reference is most probably to the Romans, but possibly to the Zealots.
x. Nero. The emperor committed suicide in A.D. 68, but there was a widespread belief that he had fled to the Parthians and would return. See further vs. 138.
y. Nero had his mother put to death (Suetonius, Nero 34; cf. 39).
z. A reference to the rapid succession of emperors, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, and the accompanying strife.
a2. Titus.
b2. The eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79.
c2. The legend of Nero's return arose from the
belief that he had fled to the Parthians and was boosted
by a series of impostors who claimed to be the returned
emperor. At least two such impostors are known, one
in A.D. 69 (Tacitus, Historiae 2.8, 9; Dio Cassius
64.9) and the other about twenty years later (Suetonius, Nero 57). At first Nero was believed to be still
alive and operating on a human level. In the Jewish
tradition, however, he is mythicized and even identified with Belial in SibOr 3.63-74 and Ascenls 4:1-2.
d2. This should not be interpreted with Lanchester
as a reference to a specific event. As in the parallel
Sibylline passages, it attests the common Asiatic hope
for vengeance on Rome. See the Introduction to SibOr
3 on vss. 350-80.
