Lactantius, Divine Institutes 1.6

We now turn to the divine testimonies. First, however, I will cite one piece of evidence that resembles the divine both because of its great antiquity and because the man I shall name was enrolled among the gods. In Cicero, the pontiff U. Cotta argues against the Stoics concerning religions and the variety of opinions usually held about the gods. He follows the Academic practice of rendering everything uncertain. He states that there were five Mercurys; after enumerating four in order, he identifies the fifth as the one who killed Argus. On that account, this figure fled to Egypt and handed down laws and letters to the Egyptians. The Egyptians call him Thoyth; from him their first month of the year—September—received its name. He also founded a city that is still called, in Greek, the City of Mercury, and the Pheneatae worship him religiously. Although he was a man, he was the most ancient and the most thoroughly instructed in every kind of learning, so that his knowledge of many arts and sciences earned him the surname Trismegistus. He wrote many books pertaining to the knowledge of divine things. In them he asserts the majesty of the highest and singular God, addressing him by the very names we use for the Lord and Father. Lest anyone seek his name, he declared that God is anonymous, because the divine nature has no need of a proper name on account of its unity. His own words are: "O se Oso; one, indeed, one, not needing a name, is anonymous." Therefore, God does not have a name, because he is alone; there is no need for a proper title unless a multitude requires distinction, so that each person may be designated by a unique mark and appellation. But because God is always one, "God" is his proper name.

It remains to produce testimonies from the sacred and prophetic writings that are far more certain. Perhaps those against whom we argue do not consider poets credible, since they invent fictions, nor philosophers, because they could have erred, being men themselves. M. Varro, than whom no one more learned ever lived, not even among the Greeks, wrote books on divine matters addressed to C. Caesar the pontifex maximus. When discussing the quindecimvirs, he states that the Sibylline books were not the work of a single Sibyl. They bear one name, "Sibylline," because the ancients called all female prophets Sibyls, either from the name of one Delphid or from the announcing of the counsels of the gods. For they called the gods not "Osouc" but "theos," and counsel not "boulēn" but "boullan," in the Aeolic dialect. Hence the Sibyl was, as it were, a "theoboulēn"—a divine counsel. Moreover, there were ten Sibyls, and Varro enumerated them all under the authorities who wrote about each. The first was Persian, mentioned by Nicanor, who wrote the deeds of Alexander of Macedon. The second was Libyssa, recalled by Euripides in the prologue to the Lamia. The third was the Delphid, discussed by Chrysippus in his book on divination. The fourth was Cimmerian, in Italy, named by Naevius in his books on the Punic War and by Piso in his annals. The fifth was the Erythraean, whom Apollodorus of Erythrae affirmed to be his fellow citizen; she prophesied to the Greeks bound for Ilium that Troy would fall and that Homer would write falsehoods. The sixth was Samian, recorded by Eratosthenes in the ancient annals of the Samians. The seventh was the Cumaean, named Amalthea, also called Herophile or Demophile by others. She brought nine books to King Tarquinius Priscus and demanded three hundred philippeos for them. The king scorned the high price and mocked the woman's madness. In his presence she burned three of the books and asked the same price for the remaining six. Tarquin, thinking her even more insane, was moved to buy the rest for three hundred gold pieces. The number of books later increased when the Capitol was rebuilt; volumes were collected from all cities, Italian and Greek, especially from Erythrae, and brought to Rome under whatever Sibyl's name they bore. The eighth was the Hellespontian, born in the Troad, in the village of Marmessa near the city of Gergithium; Heraclides of Pontus places her in the times of Solon and Cyrus. The ninth was the Phrygian, who prophesied at Ancyra. The tenth was the Tiburtine, named Albunea, worshiped as a goddess at Tibur near the banks of the river Anio; her image is said to have been found in the whirlpool holding a book in her hand. The songs of all these Sibyls are both corrupted and preserved, except those of the Cumaean. Her books the Romans keep hidden; no one but the quindecimvirs may inspect them. There are individual books for each Sibyl, but because they are all inscribed with the name "Sibyl," they are believed to be the work of one, and are confused so that they cannot be distinguished or assigned to their proper authors—except for the Erythraean, who inserted her true name into her verse and proclaimed herself Erythraean, though she was born in Babylon. We too shall cite the Sibyls without distinction wherever their testimonies are needed.

All these Sibyls proclaim one God, above all the Erythraean, who is held more famous and noble than the rest. Fenestella, a most diligent writer on the quindecimvirs, says that when the Capitol was restored, the consul C. Curio reported to the senate that legates should be sent to Erythrae to recover the Sibyl's songs. Accordingly P. Gabinius, M. Otacilius, and L. Valerius were dispatched; they brought back to Rome about a thousand verses copied from private collections. We have shown above that Varro attests the same. In these verses, which the legates brought to Rome, the following testimonies concerning one God appear: "One God, who alone rules, immense, ungenerated." This is the only highest God, who made heaven and distinguished it with lights: "But God alone, one, most high, who made heaven, the sun, and the stars, and the moon, and the fruitful earth, and the waters of the sea." Because he alone is the builder of the world and the artificer of all things, whether they consist in it or are in it, he testifies that he alone ought to be worshiped: "Honor him, the only one, the leader of the world." "Who alone is from eternity and to eternity." Likewise, another Sibyl, whoever she may be, when she claims to bring the voice of God to men, declares: "For I am the only God, and there is no other God." I would now produce the testimonies of the other Sibyls, if these did not suffice and if I were not reserving them for more opportune places. But since we defend the cause of truth against those who, straying from the truth, serve false religions, what proof should we employ more effectively against them than to convict them by the testimonies of their own gods?