Author: Scully, Aidan
Title: Latinizing the Messiah: Prophecies of Cicero, Vergil, and the Sibyl in Constantine’s Oration to the Assembly of the Saints
Review/Collection: Persephone Fall 2024
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 35-50
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy, Religion - Religione - Religion
Description: The Oration to the Assembly of the Saints, appended by Eusebius to the end of his Life of Constantine, was framed by the church historian as a speech delivered by the emperor himself. In a lengthy defense of Christianity, Constantine puts forth two textual traditions as pagan messianic prophecies anticipating the coming of Christ. The first was an ostensible prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl preserved by Vergil, who reworked it into his Eclogue 4. The second was a prophecy ascribed to the Erythraean Sibyl (known to us as part of Book 8 of the Sibylline Oracles) which was supposedly preserved by Cicero (On Divination 2.112). The question of the attribution of specific texts to specific Sibyls is an important one, but one that exists beyond the scope of this study. For our present purposes it is important that Constantine argues that the Erythraean Sibyl authored a text that was preserved by Cicero. These texts proved, to Constantine, that the message of Christianity was available to Gentiles even before the coming of Christ) [Author].
Works:
Link: https://persephone.hsites.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum2341/files/2025-01/Persephone%20vol.%209%20Fall%202024.pdf#page=36
Author initials: Scully 2024
Title: Latinizing the Messiah: Prophecies of Cicero, Vergil, and the Sibyl in Constantine’s Oration to the Assembly of the Saints
Review/Collection: Persephone Fall 2024
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 35-50
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy, Religion - Religione - Religion
Description: The Oration to the Assembly of the Saints, appended by Eusebius to the end of his Life of Constantine, was framed by the church historian as a speech delivered by the emperor himself. In a lengthy defense of Christianity, Constantine puts forth two textual traditions as pagan messianic prophecies anticipating the coming of Christ. The first was an ostensible prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl preserved by Vergil, who reworked it into his Eclogue 4. The second was a prophecy ascribed to the Erythraean Sibyl (known to us as part of Book 8 of the Sibylline Oracles) which was supposedly preserved by Cicero (On Divination 2.112). The question of the attribution of specific texts to specific Sibyls is an important one, but one that exists beyond the scope of this study. For our present purposes it is important that Constantine argues that the Erythraean Sibyl authored a text that was preserved by Cicero. These texts proved, to Constantine, that the message of Christianity was available to Gentiles even before the coming of Christ) [Author].
Works:
Link: https://persephone.hsites.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum2341/files/2025-01/Persephone%20vol.%209%20Fall%202024.pdf#page=36
Author initials: Scully 2024
