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NTS* Italics = work on (expand and/or change wording)

Peer Review #2: Overall comments: Great work, there is lots of interesting information here! A few revision ideas: It might be good to get rid of any contractions, as it will look more professional. Check on your grammar and sentence structure, I tried to to highlight what jumped out, but it would be good to check more. If possible, I think you should add information about what happens to the cult later on in the Empire. Do they rebuild their former strength? Are there any archaeological records of their existence like temples, shrines, or some sort of meeting place? It just seems odd that they would have stayed at the tiny 5 person groups that the senate approved for hundreds of years.

Introduction: “Livy's dedication to the Bacchanalia scandal was to exemplify the aspect of elders of Roman society which led to the anarchy way of life centuries later.”-What does this mean?

Background and development: Third paragraph-not sure “Undercover of religion” makes sense, maybe use”Under the cover of” or “Under the guise of” instead. I feel like the information in this section could be reorganized and split into separate “Background” and “Development” sections. This would suit the format of the rest of the article better as these are much longer paragraphs than most.

Reform: “Legislation of 186 survives in the form of an inscription.”-something needs to be added to this to make it read well, like “The Legislation of 186(BCE, CE?)” “An investigation was launched by Spurius Postumius Albinus “- are you sure this is the right person? The dates don’t seem to line up in this section. “Because Rome was very welcoming with other religions, the senatorial intervention with the Bacchanalia had nothing to do with Bacchus, who is popular in the foreign land of Greece, known as Dionysus.”- maybe rewrite as “The senatorial intervention with the Bacchanalia had nothing to do with the deity Bacchus, as Rome was accepting to all religions.” No need to mention Dionysus here as you did in “Background and development”. “They had problems with the thought that the initiates of the Bacchanalia weren't just bringing praise to the god, but the Senate believed that the initiates were more attracted to each other, which caused worry among the Senate because it would've destructed Rome's society solidarity and disrupt the government”- This needs to split up, there are too many thoughts. “destructed Rome's society solidarity and disrupt the government”- What does this mean? Maybe find a different phrase to express “society solidarity”? And “disrupted the government”, not “disrupt”. “After which the proceedings against the cult lasted five years, although the cult didn't cease to exist, the number of members reduced significantly and was appointed strict regulations”- After the investigation or a senatorial intervention? And maybe say “ After 5 years of legal(Were they?) proceedings against the cult, their numbers were much diminished due to the strict regulations applied to them by the Senate.”

Interpretations: “The practice of the Bacchanalia had different interpretations of what occurred during them; in Greece the Maenads, would get together and act wildly in honour of the Dionysus. However, to the perspective of Livy, when the cult was associated with negative practices: excessive sexual activity with multiple people, poison, and murder.” - maybe try” There are differing accounts of the rites of the Bacchanalia: The Maenads in Greece were known for doing all sorts of wild behaviour to honour Dionysus, while Livy portrayed the Roman cult as depraved, highlighting the orgies, torture, and murders that he said occurred at their meetings.”

Rmac5 (talk) 22:42, 16 March 2020 (UTC)


Thank you for your suggestions! Because of this peer review, I can see how they'll help my article sound more professional and grammatically correct! I know I'm definitely all over the place with the information but I'll pay more attention to the detail in the texts to make the article flow together. I will also look to try and include different perspectives of the Bacchanalia.

Classicaldisappointmentuno 22:18, 18 March 2020


Introduction

The Bacchanalia (or Bacchanal / Carnival) were Roman festivals of Bacchus based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They seem to have been popular and well-organized throughout the central and southern Italian peninsula. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult, Liberalia dedicated to Liber and spouse Libera, also known as Proserpina, and probably arrived in Rome itself around 200 BC. However, like all mystery religions of the ancient world, very little is known of their rites. Once the Bacchanalia had become popular, The Roman Senate was threatened by the Bacchanalia because they believed it was designed to rebel against their political views, thus wanted to suppress the mystery cult to avoid any kind of rebellion against the Senate.[1][2]

Livy, writing some 200 years after the event, offers a scandalized and extremely colorful account of the Bacchanalia. Modern scholars take a skeptical approach to Livy's allegations of frenzied rites, sexually violent initiations of both sexes, all ages, and all social classes, as well as the cult being a murderous instrument of conspiracy against the state. Livy claims that seven thousand cult leaders and followers were arrested and that most were executed. Livy's dedication to the Bacchanalia scandal leads to his belief that the role Roman Mos maiorum played in society led to the anarchic growth in later centuries. [1]

Senatorial legislation to reform the Bacchanalia in 186 BC attempted to control their size, organization, and priesthoods under threat of the death penalty. This may have been motivated less by the kind of lurid and dramatic rumors that Livy describes as the senate's determination to assert its civil and religious authority over Rome and her allies. After the prolonged social, political and military crisis of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). The reformed Bacchanalia rites may have been merged with the Liberalia festival. Bacchus, Liber and Dionysus became virtually interchangeable from the late Republican era ( 133 BC and onward ), and their mystery cults persisted well into the Principate of Roman Imperial era.


Background and Development

The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication, and ecstasy. They were based on the Greek Dionysia and the Dionysian mysteries and probably arrived in Rome c. 200 BC via the Greek colonies in southern Italy, and from Etruria, Rome's northern neighbour. Tenney Frank suggested that the Dionysian worship may have been introduced to Rome by prisoners taken by the Romans when the former Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy was captured from the Carthaginians in 209 BC.[1] Like all mystery cults, the Bacchanalia were held in strict privacy, and initiates were bound to secrecy; what little is known of the cult and its rites derives from Greek and Roman literature, plays, statuary, and paintings.[3]However, unlike other mystery cults, the Bacchanalia had two different types of religious functions: The first was celebrated by the public, which brought attention to dramatic plays - either tragedy or Satyr-comedic play. Although, this type of publicity hadn't occurred until centuries after the Bacchanalia Scandal.[4] and the second belonging to the sexual frenzy and unpolitical cult, which focuses on the release of the sexual tension among people to appease their desires to feel connected to Bacchus.[1][5]

Livy, the principal Roman literary source on the early Bacchanalia, as he reports a major political incident involving one form of the cult, names Paculla Annia, a Campanian priestess of Bacchus, as the founder of a private, unofficial Bacchanalia cult in Rome, based at the grove of Stimula, where the western slope of the Aventine Hill descends to the Tiber. The Aventine was an ethnically mixed district, strongly identified with Rome's plebeian class and the ingress of new and foreign cults.[6] The wine and fertility god Liber Pater ("The Free Father"), divine patron of plebeian rights, freedoms and augury, had a long-established official cult in the nearby temple he shared with Ceres and Libera.[7] Most Roman sources describe him as Rome's equivalent to Dionysus and Bacchus, both of whom were sometimes titled eleutherios (liberator).[8]

Bacchanalia Scandal

Livy claims the earliest version of the Bacchanalia was opened up to women only, and held on three days of the year, in daylight; while in nearby Etruria, north of Rome, a "Greek of humble origin, versed in sacrifices and soothsaying" had established a nocturnal version, added wine and feasting to the mix, and thus acquired an enthusiastic following of women and men;[9] It was in the nocturnal version of the Bacchanalia when the wine and the mingling of the sexes took place, which is when Livy describes the Bacchanalia as a place in which all evil occurs; such as sacred murders. The Bacchanalia, according to Livy would have been the best place to commit crimes due to the fact that there are lots of shouting and instruments being played, meaning that in Rome, it would be easier to hide the crime.[10] However, in ancient religious practices in Greece, most ritual rites included: singing hymns and dancing, sacrifice and libations. There would be no reason to change those rites when moving from Greece to Rome.[2]

What started the revolt between the practitioners of the Bacchanalia and the Senate is because of Publius Aebutius of the Aebutia (gens). Publius brought the existence of the mystery cult to light when he was forced to choose between becoming an initiate or being in a relationship with Hispala Fenecia. Hispala warned Publius of the dangers, that she believed came with the practice. After deciding against the Bacchanalia and being exiled from his family home, Publius and Hispala were sought out to inform the Senate on the Bacchanalia.

Once an investigation was launched by the Senate, it hired Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus Marcius Philippus to overthrow what was believed to be just a simple conspiracy.[10] The senatorial intervention with the Bacchanalia had nothing to do with the deity Bacchus, as they were accepting of all religions. However, the Senate was under the impression that initiates of the Bacchanalia weren't just bringing praise to the god, but planning a revolt against the Senate. This caused the council to worry because it would've destructed Rome's solidarity and disrupted the government.[4] This is when Publius and Hispala were hired to inform the council about people who were involved in the Bacchanalia.[2][4][11] Once enough information was placed on the initiates and priests, the Senate created an inquisition to hunt and bring justice to those found guilty of practicing the cult. This resulted in many people fleeing from the city, people becoming imprisoned and lots of executions. Those who resisted or betrayed the cult were disposed of, except for those who were informants of the Bacchanalia practices.[2] Under the cover of religion, priests and acolytes broke civil, moral and religious laws with impunity. Livy also claims that while the cult held particular appeal to those of uneducated and fickle mind (levitas animi), such as the young, plebeians, women and "men most like women", most of the city's population was involved, and even Rome's highest class was not immune. An ex-initiate and prostitute named Hispala Faecenia, fearing the cult's vengeance for her betrayal but more fearful for her young, upper-class client and protégé, told all to the consul Postumius, who presented it to a shocked Roman senate as a dire national emergency. Once investigations were complete, the senate rewarded and protected informants, and suppressed the cult "throughout Italy"—or rather, forced its reformation, in the course of which seven thousand persons were arrested, most of whom were executed.[12][13]

Reform

The Legislation of 186 BCE survives in the form of an inscription. Known as the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, it brought the Bacchanalia under control of the senate, and thus of the Roman pontifices.

The existing cult chapters and colleges were dismantled. Congregations of mixed gender were permitted but were limited to two men and three women. Any Bacchanalia gathering must seek prior permission from the Senate. Men were forbidden to becoming Bacchus' priesthood.

Despite their official suppression, illicit Bacchanals persisted covertly for many years, particularly in Southern Italy, their likely place of origin.[14][15] The reformed, officially approved Bacchic cults would have borne little resemblance to the earlier crowded, ecstatic and uninhibited Bacchanalia. Similar attrition may have been imposed on Liber's cults; his perceived or actual association with the Bacchanalia may be the reason that his Liberalia ludi of 17 March were temporarily moved to Ceres' Cerealia of 12–19 April. They were restored when the ferocity of reaction eased, but in approved, much-modified form.[16]

Interpretations

There are different accounts of the rites of the Bacchanalia: The Maenads in Greece were known for doing all sorts of wild behaviour to honour Dionysus, while Livy portrayed the Roman cult as depraved, highlighting the orgies, torture, and murders that he said occurred during their meetings.[2]

Livy's account of the Bacchanalia has been described as "tendentious to say the least".[17] As a political and social conservative, he had a deep mistrust of mystery religions, and probably understood any form of Bacchanalia as a sign of Roman degeneracy.[18] Though most of his dramatis personae are known historical figures, their speeches are implausibly circumstantial, and his characters, tropes and plot developments draw more from Roman satyr plays than from the Bacchanalia themselves.[19] Paculla Annia is unlikely to have introduced all the changes he attributes to her.[20][21][22]

Bacchanalia in Indian art Ghandara.This image depicts the followers of Dionysus, maenads to be dancing and singing, bringing worship to Dionysus

For Livy, the cult's greatest offenses arose from indiscriminate mixing of freeborn Romans of both sexes and all ages at night, a time when passions are easily aroused, especially given wine and unrestricted opportunity. Women at these gatherings, he says, outnumbered men; and his account has the consul Postumius stress the overwhelmingly female nature and organization of the cult. Yet the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus itself allows women to outnumber men, by three to two, at any permitted gathering; and it expressly forbids Bacchic priesthoods to men.[23] Livy's narrative names all but one of the offending cult leaders as male, which seems to eliminate any perceived "conspiracy of women".[24] Gender seems to have motivated the Senate's response no more than any other cause.[25]

Livy's consistent negative description of the cult's Greek origins and low moral character—not even Bacchus is exempt from this judgment—may have sought to justify its suppression as a sudden "infiltration of too many Greek elements into Roman worship".[26] The cult had been active in Rome for many years before its supposedly abrupt discovery, and Bacchic and Dionysiac cults had been part of life in Roman and allied, Greek-speaking Italy for many decades. Greek cults and Greek influences had been part of Rome's religious life since the 5th century BC, and Rome's acquisition of foreign cults—Greek or otherwise—through the alliance, treaty, capture or conquest was a cornerstone of its foreign policy and an essential feature of its eventual hegemony. While the pace of such introductions had gathered rapidly during the 3rd century, contemporary evidence of the Bacchanalia reform betrays no anti-Greek or anti-foreign policy or sentiment.[27]

Gruen interprets the Senatus consultum as a piece of realpolitik, a display of the Roman senate's authority to its Italian allies after the Second Punic War, and a reminder to any Roman politician, populist and would-be generalissimo that the Senate's collective authority trumped all personal ambition.[28] Nevertheless, the extent and ferocity of the official response to the Bacchanalia was probably unprecedented, and betrays some form of moral panic on the part of Roman authorities; Burkert finds "nothing comparable in religious history before the persecutions of Christians".[29][30]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Walsh, P. G. "Making a Drama out of a Crisis: Livy on the Bacchanalia." Greece & Rome 43, no. 2 (1996): 188–203. Citation on 191. Accessed February 19, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/643095.
  2. ^ a b c d e Takacs, Sarolta A. "Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 BCE." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 100 (2000), 301-310. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3185221.pdf
  3. ^ One of the earliest sources is Greek playwright Euripides's The Bacchae, which won the Athenian Dionysia competition in 405 BC.
  4. ^ a b c Gildenhard, Ingo, and Andrew Zissos. "The Bacchanalia and Roman Culture." In Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.511-733: Latin Text with Introduction, Commentary, Glossary of Terms, Vocabulary Aid and Study Questions, 65-68. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016 www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1fzhh5b
  5. ^ Baldini, Chiara. 2015. "The Politics Of Ecstasy: The Case Of The Bacchanalia Affair In Ancient Rome". Https://Www.Academia.Edu/14051554/The_Politics_Of_Ecstasy_The_Case_Of_The_Bacchanalia_Affair_In_Ancient_Rome. https://www.academia.edu/14051554/The_Politics_of_Ecstasy_the_Case_of_the_Bacchanalia_Affair_in_Ancient_Rome.
  6. ^ "No other location approaches [its] concentration of foreign cults": see Eric M. Orlin, "Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), pp. 4–5.
  7. ^ Only official introductions, controlled by Rome's ruling elite, conferred legitimacy on foreign cults in Rome; see Sarolta A. Takács, "Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 B.C.E" in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 100, (2000), p. 302.
  8. ^ Robert Rouselle, Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, The Classical Journal, 82, 3 (1987), p. 193.
  9. ^ Sarolta A. Takács, Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 B.C.E., Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 100, (2000), p.305: the "Greek of humble origin" (Graecus ignobilis, in Livy, 39.8.3) may be understood as an ethnically Greek, itinerant priest of Dionysus.
  10. ^ a b Mathisen, Ralph W. (2019). Ancient Roman Civilization. Oxford University Press. p. 147.
  11. ^ Riedl, M. (2012). The Containment of Dionysos: Religion and Politics in the Bacchanalia Affair of 186 BCE. International Political Anthropology, 5(2), 113-133. https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/31499354/Riedl_Bacchanalia.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Containment_of_Dionysos_Religion_and.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20200223%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200223T183050Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=ccfcc3e78f6d29409afede4cb4ff712ee81dc2832dede33c71709102515f8ea5.
  12. ^ Overview in Erich S. Gruen, "The Bacchanalia affair", in Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, University of California Press, 1996, p. 34 ff.[1]
  13. ^ For Livy's account, see Livy, The History of Rome, Vol 5, Book 39, IX. Modern scholarly sources offer various estimates on the number executed.
  14. ^ See Sarolta A. Takács, Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 B.C.E., Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 100, (2000), p.301. [2]
  15. ^ Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 93–96.
  16. ^ T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133.
  17. ^ Eric M. Orlin, "Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), p. 2.
  18. ^ Walsh, P. G., "Making a Drama out of a Crisis: Livy on the Bacchanalia", Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 43, No. 2, Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association, 1996, p. 190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gr/43.2.188
  19. ^ The plots and stock characters of Greek-based Satyr plays would have been familiar to Roman audiences from around the 3rd century BC, as they certainly were in Livy's day, 200 years on. See Robert Rouselle, Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, The Classical Journal, 82, 3 (1987), p. 191.[3]
  20. ^ Eric M. Orlin, "Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), University of Michigan Press, p. 2.
  21. ^ For the changes attributed to Paculla Annia as unlikely, see Erich S. Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy, University of California Press, 1996, pp 48–54: Hispala Faecina is the standard "golden-hearted prostitute" whose courage and loyalty outweigh her low origin and profession, and her fear of reprisal, see Victoria Emma Pagán, Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History, University of Texas Press, 2004, pp. 61–65.
  22. ^ ..."the Bacchic passages in the Roman drama, taken over from their Greek models, presented a pejorative image of the Bacchic cult which predisposed the Romans towards persecution before the consul denounced the cult in 186." Robert Rouselle, Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, The Classical Journal, 82, 3 (1987), p. 193.
  23. ^ cf later descriptions of Liber's "aged priestesses" who offer sacrifice at the Liberalia festival.
  24. ^ Gruen, E. Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy, University of California Press, 1996, Ch. 2.
  25. ^ Schultz, C., Women's religious activity in the Roman Republic, UNC Press Books, 2006, p. 93.
  26. ^ Orlin, Eric (2007). In Rüpke, J (ed.). A Companion to Roman Religion. Blackwell publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4051-2943-5.
  27. ^ Eric Orlin, "Urban Religion in the Middle and Late Republic", in Jorge Rüpke (editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Blackwell, 2007, pp. 59–61.
  28. ^ Erich S. Gruen, Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy, University of California Press, 1996, Ch. 2.
  29. ^ Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Religions, Harvard University Press, 1987, p. 52.
  30. ^ During the Punic crisis, some foreign cults and oracles had been repressed by Rome, but on much smaller scale and not outside Rome itself. See Erich S. Gruen, Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy, BRILL, 1990, pp.34–78: on precedents see p.41 ff.[4]
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