Vitellius (69), Rome, AR denarius Obv.: A VITELLIVS GERM IMP AVG TR P, laureate head right Rev.: XV VIR SACR FAC, tripod topped by dolphin, below, raven. We sometimes come across popular thrillers about age-old conspiracies and mysterious ancient manuscripts hidden in some Vatican Library secret cave, supposed to contain sensational revelations that, if leaked, could topple the Catholic Church or even question the very principles of religion... Of course, only a handful of Monsignori knows about it, and would do anything to protect this secret... Rome is indeed a holy city full of age-old mysteries, and these fictions about mysterious sensational books concealed by an elite of high-ranking priests are typically Roman. In ancient times it was not a legend at all : a college of 15 Roman priests was the keeper of mysterious Greek manuscripts called the Sibylline Books, concealed in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, later in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. These top secret scrolls were supposed to contain revelations about Rome' destiny, in Greek verses no commoner could understand and had to be interpreted by initiated ones. Nobody had the right to touch these books, only a college of priests called the Quidecimviri Sacris Faciundis could open them at the senate's request. The legend says that in the 6th c. BC an old priestess of Apollo, the Cumaean Sibyl, offered 9 books of oracles to Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, for a very high price. The king declined the offer, so the priestess took 3 of these books, threw them in the fire and offered the remaining six for the same price. The king declined again, so she burned three more and demanded the same price for the three last scrolls. This time, the king said OK and paid. The three scrolls were entrusted to a college of priests of Apollo, initially ten, five more added by Sylla. We don't know what was actually written in them, the secret has been very seriously kept. But the very existence of Rome was at stake: when the city faced an existential threatening, the Senate ordrered the priests to consult the Books. What they could have read remains a mystery but we know their conclusions : which religious rites (at first sight completely absurd) had to be celebrated so the Gods would save Rome... These consultations were exceptional, after the Cannae disaster, for example. Under Nero in 65, after the great fire of Rome, the books were consulted, and the next known consultation occured more than 200 years later. During the Social War in 83 BC the Capitol burned and the Sibylline Books were lost. But the initiated knew that there were other copies of these oracles in other places around the world, where there had been other sibyls. The text was then reconstituted from sources consulted in South Italy, Sicily, Greece, Africa... The Christians too believed in these Sibylline Books, being convinced they must have foretold the birth of Jesus Christ and the fate of Christianity. That's why on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo represented the Sibyls reading from their books... In 69 Vitellius minted denarii with an original reverse never seen before : a tripod with a dolphin and a raven, and the legend XV VIR SACR FAC : Quindecimvir Sacris Faciundis. It means the emperor was a member of this college and had been one of the initiated who opened the Books in 65... A closely similar reverse was used again a few years later by Titus and Domitian, but without the explicit mention of the college. Were the two Flavian brothers members of the college too? There is no mention in historic sources of a consultation of the Sibylline Books under their reign.
Vitellius (69 A.D.) AR Denarius O: A VITELLIVS GERMAN IMP TR P,Laureate head right. R: S P Q R / OB / C S in three lines within wreath. Rome Mint, 69 A.D. 3.15g 18.5mm RIC I 83; RSC 86. Vitellius (69 A.D.) Egypt, Alexandria Billon Tetradrachm O: ΩΛΟΥ ΟΥΙΤ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒ ΓΕΡΜ ΑΥΤ, laureate head right. R: Nike advancing left, holding wreath with her extended right hand and palm frond with her left; LA (date) to left. 23mm 12.99g RPC 5372; Köln 260-2; Dattari 340; K&G 19.1. Emmett 196.1
