Bacchanalia
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The Bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman god Bacchus. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy by way of Etruria (c. 200 BC), the bacchanalia were originally held in secret and attended by women only. The festivals occurred on three days of the year in the grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill. Later, admission to the rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month. According to Livy, the extension happened in an era when the leader of the Bacchus cult was Paculla Annia - though it is now believed that some men had participated before that.
Livy informs us that the rapid spread of the cult, which he claims indulged in all kinds of crimes and political conspiracies at its nocturnal meetings, led in 186 BC to a decree of the Senate—the so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered in Apulia in Southern Italy (1640), now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna—by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in certain special cases which must be approved specifically by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on those found in violation of this decree (Livy claims there were more executions than imprisonment), the Bacchanalia survived in Southern Italy long past the repression.
Modern scholars hold Livy's account in doubt and believe that the Senate acted against the Bacchants for one or more of three reasons. First, because women occupied leadership positions in the cult (contrary to traditional Roman family values). Second, because slaves and the poor were the cult's members and were planning to overthrow the class system. Or third, according to a theory proposed by Erich Gruen, as a display of the Senate's supreme power to the Italian allies as well as competitors within the Roman political system, such as individual victorious generals whose popularity made them a threat to the senate's collective authority.
The term has since been extended to refer to any drunken revelry.
Bacchanalia is also an annual party at Rice University thrown by Brown College. It involves masses of people dressing up in togas and usually involves various forms of debauchery. The Bacchanalia is also an annual party at Harvard University thrown by Lowell House. It serves as the Spring Formal and among other things involves the arrival of Bacchus to the House.
One of the best-known melodies from Camille Saint-Saëns's 1877 opera Samson and Delilah (opera) is the Bacchanalia.
See also
- Maenad - female worshippers of Dionysus
- Dionysus - Greek equivalent of Bacchus
- Roman Senate - political body responsible for suppressing the Bacchanalia
References
External links
- [Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus in Latin] at The Latin Library
- [Senatus Consultum de Bacchaniabus in English and Latin] at forumromanum.org
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