According to Virgil in the Aeneid, Aeneas had consulted the Cumaean Sibyl before he travelled to the lower world. The story of how king Tarquinius bought them from the Cumaean Sibyl was a famous legend. She offered to sell Tarquin a collection of nine books of prophecy, but he refused the price, so she burnt three. After that she offered to sell the six remaining books for the same price. He refused again and she burnt another three. Finally he bought these three remaining books for this price so they would not be destroyed, and put them in the temple of Jupiter in Rome. 