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The Bacchanalian Cult of 186 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Tenney Frank
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Extract

There is no little division of opinion regarding the provenance of the Bacchanalian rites which were suppressed with much cruelty by the Senate in 186 B.C. Since the Dionysiac orgies were native to Phrygia, and since Livy tells the story in question immediately after describing the immoral practices that were brought back from Asia by the returning army of Manlius Vulso in 187, it has frequently been assumed that Anatolia was the source of these rites. Reitzenstein and Cichorius, in discussing a recently-found decree of Ptolemy IV. regarding an inquisition into Dionysiac rites in Egypt, both assume that the Roman cult had come from the Orient. Carcopino, in a recent discussion of the ‘Underground Basilica’ at Rome, suggests that the objectionable element of the cult was the Pythagorean club, which might become a political menace. Other scholars, remembering Livy's statement that one of the priests of the cult had operated in Etruria before coming to Rome, have tried to find traces of Dionysiac rites on Etruscan monuments.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 3-4 , June 1927 , pp. 128 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1927

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References

page 128 note 1 Livy, 39, 8–19.

page 128 note 2 Archiv. Rel. XIX. 191; cf. Weissenborn-Müller, on Livy, 39, 8, 5: ‘Thracien und Kleinasien.’

page 128 note 3 Romische Stud. 1922, p. 21. One need not go to Ptolemaic laws to explain the acts of the Senate. The paralellism in phraseology is only such as must occur in legal documents, and Rome's attack upon an immoral foreign cult is sufficiently explained by the fact that Cato's nationalistic reform party was now gaining the ascendency and was making use of every favourable incident to win favour. It has been suggested that Cato's, oration de conjuratione, Festus, (ed. L.) 280Google Scholar, was delivered on this occasion.

page 128 note 4 La Basilique Pythagoricienne, Paris, 1927, p. 179Google Scholar. Carcopino's suggestion implies that Tarentum was the source of the Bacchic cult and with that we must agree.

page 128 note 5 See Fowler, Warde, Relig. Exp., p. 346Google Scholar. Taylor, R., Local Cults of Etruria, p. 207Google Scholar, finds Dionysus only in Populonia.

page 128 note 6 Toutain, Cultes Païens, passim; Frank, , Roman History, p. 510 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 129 note 1 Livy, 27, 15–16.

page 129 note 2 Evans, , Jour. Hell. St., 1886, p. i sqq.Google Scholar; Furtwängler, , Sitz. Münch. Akad. 1897, 134Google Scholar n. This interpretation has been questioned, but it is now supported by the discoveries at Locri, and by some inscriptions of Tarentum. See I.G. XIV., p. 689. See also Gianelli, , Culti e Miti delta Magna Gr., p. 25Google Scholar. On the chthonic rites of Dionysus in Greece, see Farnell, , Cults, Vol. VGoogle Scholar.

page 129 note 3 Livy, 29, 6–9; Oldfather, , Philologus, 1912, 321 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 129 note 4 Orsi's numerous reports of his excavations in Not. Sc. 1902, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, and Boll. d'Arte, 1909; Quagliati, , Ausonia, 1909, 142 sqq.Google Scholar; Oldfather, , Pauly-Wissowa, XIII. 2Google Scholar(preprint); Gianelli, , Culti e Miti, 218 sqqGoogle Scholar. See also Gianelli, pp. 45 (a temple of Dionysus at Heraclea), 82 (a temple at Metapontum), 28 (Orphic charms at Thurii and Petelia), 136 (Dionysus on coins of Laos), 146 (Kore and Dionysus at Posidonia), 253 (Kore and Dionysus at Medma).

page 130 note 1 Roman Rep. II., p. 229.

page 130 note 2 De Conjuratione, Festus, (Lindsay), p. 280Google Scholar.

page 130 note 3 In Luco Stimulae, see Huelsen, , Top. III. 171Google Scholar.

page 130 note 4 Since the cult of Dionysus was prominent at Naples (Peterson, , Cults of Campania, p. 194)Google Scholar, citizens of Campania may of course have been initiated in that city.

page 131 note 1 Cf. Evans, , J.H.S. 1886Google Scholar; the inscriptions ίαρὰ Διονύσω in Ins. Gr. XIV., p. 689; and Gianelli, , Culti e Miti, p. 25 sqqGoogle Scholar. There is also some evidence of matriarchy at Locri, , Polyb. XII. 5Google Scholar(discussed by Sanctis, De, Mon. Ant. 1914, p. 688Google Scholar, and Beloch, 12, 1, 84). If Locrian captives were numerous at Rome it would help to account for the unusual prominence of women in Livy's story of the Bacchic cult. For women in the Dionysiac cult in Greece, see Farnell, V., p. 160.

page 131 note 2 Oldfather, , Pauly-Wiss. XIII. 2Google Scholar, 31, Perhaps at Temesa also; cf. Gianelli, p. 272.

page 132 note 1 I follow Livy's account (XL. 29), which seems to be based upou Piso's Annals, Pliny (XIII. 84), who quotes some phrases from Cassius Hemina, differs in some minor details. See also Varro, in St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, 7Google Scholar, 34; Val. Max. 1, I, 12: Plut, . Numa, 12Google Scholar.

page 132 note 2 See bibliography in Wissowa, , Rel. und Kult 2, p. 309Google Scholar sqq. Bona dea is generally identified with Dameia of Tarentum, and Wissowa (P. W. III. 690) assumes that her cult came to Rome at the first capture of Tarentum in 272 B.C. Since this cult was in charge of a magistrate cum imperio, it is likely that Rome had first introduced it for the benefit of her Tarentine captives (a prudential measure which we often find in the early days), and had placed it under strict military supervision to prevent orgiastic practices. In the following century Rome was less generous in the treatment of the cults of her war captives.