Anniversary Address

Extract

Livy has recorded that on the farm of a notary called Lucius Petillius at the foot of the Janiculum, two stone chests were unearthed, which according to their inscriptions should have been respectively the coffin of Numa Pompilius and the receptacle for his books. The remains of the king had disappeared, but in the second chest there were two bundles, each containing seven books, not only entire but apparently quite fresh: seven in Latin about the Pontifical Law, seven in Greek about Philosophy. Valerius Antias said that they contained the doctrines of Pythagoras, supporting by this plausible fiction (mendacio probabili) the credit of the vulgar opinion (vulgata opinio) that Numa had been a disciple of Pythagoras. As this undermined the established system of religion, the books were burned, the fire being made by the public servants whose duty it was to assist at sacrifices.