SWAIN, SIMON, Macrianus as the "Well-Horned Stag" in the "Thirteenth Sybilline Oracle" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 33:4 (1992:Winter) p.375 Macrianus as the "Well-Horned Stag" in the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle Simon Swain T HE THIRTEENTH SIBYLLINE ORACLE, recently the subject of a detailed commentary by D. S. Potter,l is one of our most important sources for the history of the mid-third century, and is the only contemporary narrative to survive from the period, with the exception of the so-called Res Gestae of Shapur. The prophetic obscurity and apocalyptic tone of the Oracle make it a particularly difficult text to read. Any informa­ tion that can be gleaned about its background is precious, both for students of Roman history and for those interested in the cultural relations of the Near East in antiquity. The text clearly breaks into two parts (Potter 151, 328), and both show a local, eastern perspective on the world. The first part (to line 154) ends by celebrating the brilliant victory of a "sun-sent priest" over the Persians that will magnify "the city of the sun." This refers to the man known to us from his coinage as Uranius Antoninus of Emesa, clearly a member of the family that produced the 'Syrian' emperors earlier in the century.2 It is not the only occasion when the author's viewpoint is decidedly regionaP The second much shorter part of the Oracle, an additional section by a new author with no interest in the fate of Antoninus, ends by hailing the rise of Palmyra under its prince Odaenathus. The text is the product of a region where Greek and Semitic culture meet and mix in a 1 D. S. POTTER, Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Empire: A Historical Commentary on the Thirteenth Sybylline Oracle (Oxford 1990: hereafter 'Potter'), whose text is used below. 2 H. R. Baldus, Uranius Antoninus: Munzpragung und Geschichte (Bonn 1971); J.-P. Rey-Coquais, "Syrie Romaine, de Pompce it Dioclctien," JRS 68 (1978) 58; F. Millar, "Empire, Community and Culture in the Roman Near East: Greeks, Syrians, Jews, and Arabs," JJS 38 (1987) 157ff. 3 For the Syrian angle see lines 33, 59-63, 64-73, 89-100, 108f, 111, and esp. 119-36 (Shapur's campaign of 252). 375 SWAIN, SIMON, Macrianus as the "Well-Horned Stag" in the "Thirteenth Sybilline Oracle" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 33:4 (1992:Winter) p.375 376 MACRIANUS AS THE "WELL-HORNED STAG" fascinating and increasingly competitive way.4 The local Semitic languages of the region had never been in real danger from the Greek that spread outward from the cities. It is indeed from this time that one of them, the dialect of Aramaic known as Syriac, began from its center in Edessa to rival Greek as the lingua franca of Syria and Mesopotamia in later antiquity. In the period covered by the Oracle another Aramaic dialect was being accorded a status equal to Greek in the public inscriptions of Palmyra, or Tadmor as it was known in its native tongue. The present note focuses on the second part of the Oracle that finishes with the exaltation of Palmyrene power. The identifica­ tion of some of the figures mentioned rather obliquely in this part of the text is aided by a passage known to scholars from the Talmudic commentary on the Book of Genesis. With regard to one of these figures, the rebel general Macrianus, some implications of the relationship between the rabbis and the prophet remain to be brought out that touch on the origin of our author and on his expectations. The main body of the Oracle (7-154) is concerned with the history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Gordian III to the repulse of the Persians before Emesa in 253. The Oracle enthuses that around "the city of the sun ... Persians will endure the terrible threats of Phoenicians" (150-54). Emesa was famous for its cult of the sun and, though the sixth-century historian John Malalas ('the eloquent') of Antioch attributes the successful halting of Shapur to a priest of Aphrodi te called by the dynastic name of Sampsigeramus, the Oracle does better in connecting the priest with the major cult, as we see earlier in the figure of the emperor Elagabalus (Hdn. 5.3.3-8, 5.6-10, etc.). From the standpoint of our author the breakdown of Roman power and the assaults of Persia were disastrous for the region, and he signals as especially catastrophic the terrible events of the reign of Trebonianus Gallus (lines 103-44). But, though Syria suffers, the Third-Century Crisis is ultimately a crisis for Rome and not for Emesa and Syria, which are saved by the "sun-sent priest" who comes "last of all.» The additional, second part of 4 A provocative introduction to this subject can be found in P. Crone and M. Cook, Hagarism. The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge 1977) 60-70; see also F. Millar, "Paul of Samosata, Zenobia and Aurclian: The Church, Local Culture and Political Allegiance in Third-Century Syria," JRS 61 (1971) 1-17, and (supra n.2) 143-64; G. W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge 1990) 29-40. SWAIN, SIMON, Macrianus as the "Well-Horned Stag" in the "Thirteenth Sybilline Oracle" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 33:4 (1992:Winter) p.375 SIMON SWAIN 377 the Oracle displays a similar attitude. Roman military disorder and warfare with Persia led to the glorification of another local dynast who triumphs over both. The first reference in this section is to the joint rule of Valerian and Gallienus and the destruction of Valerian by Shapur (lines 155-61). The Oracle then speaks of the rise of a "well-horned stag" (TiUK£PW~ EAa