8. The
following year diverted Spurius Postumius Albinus and
Quintus Marcius Philippus from the care of armies, and wars,
and provinces, to the punishing of an intestine conspiracy.
The praetors cast lots for their provinces, Titus Maenius
obtained the city jurisdiction; Marcus Licinius Lucullus,
that between citizens and foreigners; Caius Aurelius
Scaurus, Sardinia; Publius Cornelius Sulla, Sicily; Lucius
Quintius Crispinus, Hither Spain; Caius Calpurnius Piso,
Farther Spain.
The making of inquisition concerning clandestine meetings was decreed to both the consuls. A Greek of
mean condition came, first, into Etruria,
not
with one of the many trades which his nation, of all others the most
skillful in the cultivation of the mind and body, has
introduced among us, but
a low operator in sacrifices, and a soothsayer;
- nor was he one who, by open
religious rites,
- and by publicly professing his
calling and teaching,
- imbued the minds of his followers
with terror,
but a priest of secret and nocturnal rites.
These mysterious rites were, at first, imparted to a
few,
but afterwards communicated to great numbers, both
men and women.
To their religious performances were added
the pleasures of wine and feasting,
to allure a
greater number of proselytes.
When wine, lascivious
discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every
sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind
began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that
sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion
predominant in his nature.
Nor were they confined to one species of
vice---the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women;
but from this store-house of villainy
proceeded false witnesses,
counterfeit seals (marks),
false evidences, and pretended discoveries.
From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases, not even the bodies
could be found for burial. [Judas
was a siccari or assassin and his bag carried mouthpieces
for wind instruments]
Many of their audacious deeds were
brought about by treachery, but most of them by
force; it
served to conceal the violence, that, on account of the loud
shouting, and the noise of
drums and cymbals, none of the cries uttered by the persons suffering violence or murder could be heard abroad.
9. The infection of this mischief, like that from the contagion
of disease, spread from
Etruria to Rome; where, the size of the city affording greater
room for such evils, and
more means of concealment, cloaked it at first; but
information of it was at length brought to the consul, Postumius, principally in the following manner.
Publius Aebutius, whose father had held
equestrian rank in the army, was left an orphan, and his
guardians dying, he was educated under the eye of his
mother Duronia, and his stepfather Titus Sempronius
Rutilus. Duronia was entirely devoted to her husband; and
Sempronius, having managed the guardianship in such a
manner that he could not give an account of the property,
wished that his ward should be either
made away with,
or bound to compliance with his will by some strong tie.
The Bacchanalian rites
were the only way to effect
the ruin of the youth.
His mother told him, that, "during his
sickness, she had made a vow for him, that if he should
recover, she would initiate
him among the Bacchanalians;
that being, through the kindness of the gods, bound by this
vow, she wished now to fulfill it;
that it was necessary he should preserve
chastity for ten days, and on the tenth, after he should have
supped and washed himself, she would conduct him into the
place of worship."
There was a freedwoman called Hispala Fecenia, a noted courtesan, but deserving of a better lot than the mode
of life to which she had been accustomed when very young and
a slave, and by which she had maintained herself since her manumission.
As they lived in the same neighborhood, an
intimacy subsisted between
her and Aebutius, which
was far from being injurious to either to the young man's
character or property;
for he had been loved and wooed by her
unsolicited; and as his friends supplied his wants
illiberally, he was supported by the generosity of this
woman; nay, to such a length did she go under the
influence of her affection, that, on the death of her
patron, because she was under the protection of no one,
having petitioned the tribunes and praetors for a
guardian, when she was making her will, she constituted
Aebutius her sole heir.
10. As
such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither kept
anything secret from the other, the young man, jokingly, bid
her not be surprised if he separated himself from her for a
few nights; as, "on account of a religious duty, to discharge a vow made for his health, he
intended to be initiated
among the Bacchanalians."
On hearing this, the woman, greatly
alarmed, cried out, "May the gods will more favorably!"
affirming that "it would be better, both for him and her,
to lose their lives than that he should do such a thing,"
she then imprecated curses, vengeance, and destruction on
the head of those who advised him to such a step.
The young man, surprised both at her
expressions and at the violence of her alarm, bid her
refrain from curses, for "it was his mother who ordered him
to do so, with the approbation of his stepfather."
"Then," said she, "your stepfather (for perhaps it is not allowable to censure
your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act, your chastity, your character,
your hopes, and your life." To him, now surprised by such
language, and inquiring what was the matter, she said (after
imploring the favor and pardon of the gods and goddesses,
if, compelled by her regard for him,
she disclosed what ought not to be
revealed) that "when in service, she had gone into that
place of worship, as an attendant on her mistress; but that, since
she had obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near
it: that she knew it to be the receptacle of all kinds of
debaucheries; that it was well known that, for two years past, no one
older than twenty had
been
http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/connections_deities.htm
there.
When any person was introduced he was delivered as a victim to the priests, who led him away to a
place
resounding with shouts, the sound of
music, and the beating
of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while suffering
violation, should be heard abroad."
She then entreated and besought him to
put an end to that matter in some way or other; and not
to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first
suffer, and afterwards
commit, every thing that was abominable. Nor did she
quit him until the young man gave her his promise to
keep himself clear of
those rites.
See notes here.
Gnostics
believed that those who passed through initiation (as in the earlier
Mysteries) and achieved Gnosis, had the right
to interpret the message of Jesus in their own way.
In
an introduction to the finds at Nag Hammadi, the
distinguished Gnostic historian Elaine Pagels writes
about Professor Gilles Quispel's dicovery of a
complete
text of the Gospel of Thomas
11. When
he came home, and his mother made mention of such things
pertaining to the ceremony as were to be performed on that
day and on the several following days, he told her that he
would not perform any of them, nor did he intend to be
initiated.
His stepfather was present at this
discourse. Immediately the woman observed, that Ahe could
not deprive himself of the company of Hispala for ten
nights; that he was so fascinated by the caresses and
baneful influence of that serpent, that he retained no respect for his mother or
stepfather, or even the gods themselves."
His mother on one side and his stepfather
on the other loading him with reproaches, drove him out
of the house, assisted by
four slaves. The youth on this repaired to his aunt Aebutia,
told her the reason of his being turned out by his
mother, and the next day, by
her advice,
gave information of the affair to the consul
Postumius, without any witnesses of the interview. The
consul dismissed him, with an order to come again on the
third day following.
In the mean time, he inquired of his
mother-in-law Sulpicia, a woman of respectable character,
whether she knew an old matron called Aebutia, who lived
on the Aventine hill?" When she answered that "she knew
her well, and that Aebutia was a woman of virtue, and of
the ancient purity of morals," he said that he required a
conference with her, and that a messenger should be sent
for her to come.
Aebutia, on receiving the message, came
to Sulpicia's house, and the consul, soon after, coming
in, as if by accident, introduced a conversation about
Aebutius, her brother's son. The tears of the woman burst
forth, and she began to lament the unhappy lot of the
youth:
"who, after being robbed of his
property by persons whom
it least of all became, was then residing with her,
being driven out of doors by his mother, because, being
a good youth (may the gods be propitious to him,)
he refused to be initiated in
ceremonies devoted to lewdness, as report goes.
12. The
consul, thinking that he had made sufficient inquiries
concerning Aebutius, and that his testimony was
unquestionable, having dismissed Aebutia, requested his
mother-in-law to send again to the Aventine, and bring from
that quarter Hispala, a freedwoman, not unknown in that
neighborhood; for there were some queries which he wished to
make of her.
Hispala being alarmed because she was sent
for by a woman of such high rank and respectable character,
and being ignorant of the cause, after that she saw the
lictors in the porch, the multitude attending on the consul
and the consul himself, was very near fainting. The consul
led her into a retired part of the house, and, in the
presence of his mother-in-law, told her that "she need not
be uneasy, if she could resolve to speak the truth. She
might receive a promise of protection either from Sulpicia,
a matron of such dignified character, or from himself. That
she ought to tell him, what was accustomed to be done at the
Bacchanalia, in the nocturnal orgies in the grove of
Stimula." When the woman heard this, such terror and
trembling of all her limbs seized her, that for a long time
she was unable to speak; but recovering, at length she said,
that Awhen she was very young, and a slave, she had been
initiated, together with her mistress; but for several years
past, since she had obtained her liberty, she knew nothing
of what was done there." The consul commanded her so far, as
not having denied that she was initiated, but charged her to
explain all the rest with the same sincerity; and told her,
affirming that she knew nothing further, that "there would
not be the same tenderness or pardon extended to her, if she
should be convicted by another person, and one who had made
the whole from her, and had given him a full account of it.
13. The
woman, now thinking without a doubt that it must certainly
be Aebutius who had discovered
the secret, threw herself at
Sulpicia's feet, and at first began to beseech her "not to
let the private conversation of a freedwoman with her lover
be turned not only into a serious business, but even capital
charge;" declaring that Ashe had spoken of such things
merely to frighten him, and not because she knew any thing
of the kind." On this Postumius, growing angry, said, "she
seemed not to know she was speaking in the house of a most
respectable matron, and to a consul." Sulpicia raised her,
terrified, from the ground, and while she encouraged her to
speak out, at the same time pacified her son-in-law's anger.
At length she took courage, and, having censured severely
the perfidy of Aebutius, because he had made such a return
for the extraordinary kindness shown to him in that very
instance, she declared that "she stood in great dread of the
gods, whose secret mysteries she was to divulge; and
in much greater dread of the men implicated, who would tear
her asunder with their hands if she became an informer.
Therefore, she entreated this favor of Sulpicia, and
likewise the consul, that they would send her away to some
place out of Italy, where she might pass the remainder of
her life in safety." The consul desired her to be of good
spirits, and said that it should be his care that she might
live securely in Rome.
Hispala then gave a full account of
the origin of the mysteries. At first," she said, "those
rites were performed by women. No man used to be
admitted. They had three stated days in the year on
which persons were initiated among the Bacchanalians,
in the daytime. The matrons used to be appointed
priestesses, in rotation.
Paculla Minia,
a Campanian, when priestess,
made an alteration in
every particular,
as if by the
direction of the gods.
For she first introduced men, who were her
own sons, Minucius and Herrenius, both surnamed Cerrinius;
changed the time of celebration, from day to night; and,
instead of three days in the year, appointed five days
of initiation, in each
month.
1Th.5:7 For they that
sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are
drunken in the night.
Eze.8:12 Then said he
unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of
the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the
chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us
not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.
Ep.5:11 And have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them.
Ep.6:12 For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1Th. 5:5 Ye are all the
children of light, and the children of the day: we are not
of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th. 5:7 For they that
sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are
drunken in the night.
1Pe.4:3 For the time
past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will
of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts,
excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable
idolatries:
Komos (g2970) ko'-mos;
from 2749; a carousal (as if a letting loose): -
revelling, rioting.
From the time that the rites were thus
made common, and men were intermixed with women, and the
licentious freedom of the night was added, there was nothing wicked, nothing
flagitious, that had not been practiced among them. There
were more frequent pollution of men with each other than with women. If any were less patient in
submitting to dishonor, or more averse to the commission of
vice, they were sacrificed as victims.
To think nothing unlawful was the grand maxim of their religion.
The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of their bodies;
the women, in the habit
of Bacchantes,
with their hair disheveled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to
the Tiber; where, dipping their torches in the water, they
drew them up again with the flame unextinguished, being
composed of native sulphur and charcoal.
They said that those men were carried
off by the gods, whom the
machines laid hold of and dragged from their view into
secret caves.
These were such as refused to take the
oath of the society, or to associate in their
crimes, or to submit to defilement. This number was exceedingly great now, almost
a second state in themselves, and among them were many men
and women of noble families.
During the last two years it had been a
rule, that no person above the age of twenty should be
initiated;
for they sought for people of such age as made them
more liable to suffer deception and personal abuse.
14. When
she had completed her information, she again fell at the
consul's knees, and repeated the same entreaties, that he
might send her out of the country. The consul requested his
mother-in-law to clear some part of the house, into which
Hispala might remove; accordingly, an. apartment was
assigned her in the upper part of it, of which the stairs,
opening into the street, were stopped up, and the entrance
made from the inner court. Thither all Fecenia's effects
were immediately removed and her domestics sent for.
Aebutius, also, was ordered to remove to the house of one of
the consul's clients. When both the informers were by these
means in his power, Postumius represented the affair to the
senate, laying before them the whole circumstance, in due
order; the information given to him at first, and the
discoveries gained by his inquiries afterwards.
Great consternation seized on the
senators; not only on the public account, lest such
conspiracies and nightly meetings might be productive of
secret treachery and mischief, but, likewise, on account of
their own particular families, lest some of their relations
might be involved in this infamous affair. The senate voted,
however, that thanks should be given to the consul because
he had investigated the matter with singular diligence, and
without exciting any alarm.
They then committed to the consuls the
holding of an inquiry, out of the common course, concerning
the Bacchanals and their nocturnal orgies.
They ordered them to take care that the informers, Aebutius
and Fecenia, might suffer no injury on that account; and to
invite other informers in the matter, by offering rewards.
They ordered that the officials in those rites, whether men
or women, should be sought for, not only at Rome,
but also throughout all the market towns and
places of assembly, and be delivered over to the power of
the consuls; and also that proclamation should be made in
the city of Rome,
and published through
all Italy, that "no persons initiated in the Bacchanalian
rites
should presume to come
together or assemble on account of those rites,
or to perform any such
kind of worship;
and above all, that
search should be made for those who had assembled or
conspired for personal abuse,
or for any other
flagitious practices. The senate passed these decrees.
The consuls directed the curule aediles to
make strict inquiry after all the priests of those
mysteries, and to keep such
as they could apprehend in custody until their
trial; they at the same time charged the plebeian aediles to
take care that no religious ceremonies should be performed
in private. To the capital triumvirs the task was assigned
to post watches in proper places of the city, and to use
vigilance in preventing any meetings by night. In order
likewise to guard against fires, five assistants were joined
to the triumvirs, so that each might have the charge of the
buildings in his own separate district, on this side the
Tiber.
15. After
despatching these officers to their several employments, the
consuls mounted the rostrum; and, having summoned an
assembly of the people, one of the consuls, when he had
finished the solemn form of prayer which the magistrates are
accustomed to pronounce before they address the people,
proceeded thus: Romans, to no former assembly was this
solemn supplication to the gods more suitable or even more
necessary: as it serves to remind you, that these are the
deities whom your forefathers pointed out as the objects of
your worship, veneration, and prayers:
and not those which infatuated men's minds with corrupt and foreign
modes of religion,
and drove them, as if goaded by the furies, to every
lust and every vice.
I am at a loss to know what I should
conceal, or how far I ought to speak out; for I dread
lest, if I leave you ignorant of any particular, I should
give room for carelessness, or if I disclose the whole,
that I should too much awaken your fears. That the Bacchanalian
rites have subsisted for some time past in every country
in Italy, and are at present performed in many
parts of this city also, I am sure you must have been
informed, not only by report, but by the nightly noises
and horrid yells that resound through the whole city; but
still you are ignorant of the nature of that business.
Part of you think it is some kind of
worship of the gods; others, some excusable sport and
amusement, and that, whatever it may be, it concerns but a
few. As regards the number, if I tell you that they are many
thousands, that you would be immediately terrified to
excess is a necessary consequence; unless I further acquaint
you who and what sort of persons they are.
First,
then, a great part of them are women, and this was the source of the evil; the rest
are males, but nearly resembling women; actors
and pathics in the vilest
lewdness; night revelers, driven frantic by wine, noises of instruments, and clamors.
The conspiracy, as yet, has no strength;
but it has abundant means of acquiring strength, for they
are becoming more numerous every day.
Your ancestors would not allow that you
should ever assemble casually, without some good reason; that is, either
when the standard was erected on the Janiculum, and the army
led out on occasion of elections; or when the tribunes
proclaimed a meeting of the plebeians, or some of the
magistrates summoned you to it.
And they judged it necessary, that
whatever a multitude was, there should be a lawful governor of
that multitude present. Of what kind do you suppose are the
meetings of these people? In the first place, held in the
night, and in the next,
composed promiscuously of men and women.
If you knew at what ages the males
are initiated, you would
feel not only pity but also shame for them.
Romans, can you think youths
initiated, under such oaths as theirs, are fit to be made
soldiers? That arms should be intrusted with wretches
brought out of that temple of obscenity?
Shall these, contaminated with their own
foul debaucheries and those of others, be champions for
the chastity of your wives and children?
16. "But
the mischief were less, if they were only effeminated by their practices; of that the disgrace would
chiefly affect themselves; if they refrained their hands
from outrage, and their thoughts from fraud.
But never was there in the state an evil
of so great a magnitude, or one that extended to so many
persons or so many acts of wickedness. Whatever deeds of
villainy have, during late years,
been committed through lust; whatever, through fraud; whatever, through violence;
they have all, be assured, proceeded from that association
alone.
They have not yet perpetrated all the
crimes for which they combined. The impious assembly at
present confines itself to outrages on private citizens; because it has not yet acquired force
sufficient to crush the commonwealth;
but the evil increases and spreads
daily; it is already too great for the private ranks of
life to contain it, and aims its views at the body of
the state.
Unless you take timely precautions,
Romans, their nightly assembly may become as large as this, held in open
day, and legally summoned by a consul.
Now they one by one dread you collected
together in the assembly; presently, when you shall have
separated and retired to your several dwellings, in town
and country, they will again come together, and will hold a consultation on the means of their own safety, and, at
the same time, of your destruction.
Thus united, they will cause terror to
every one of you. Each of you, therefore, ought to pray
that his kindred may have behaved with wisdom and
prudence;
and if lust, if madness, has dragged
any of them into that abyss, to consider such a person
as the relation of those with whom he has conspired for
every disgraceful and
reckless act, and not
as one of your own.
I am not secure, lest some, even of
yourselves, may have erred through mistake;
for nothing is more deceptive in appearance than false
religion.
When the authority of the gods is held out
as a pretext to cover vice,
fear enters our minds,
lest, in punishing the crimes of men, we may violate some
divine right connected therewith. Numberless decisions of
the pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and even answers of the
haruspices free you from religious scruples of this
character. How often in the ages of our fathers was
it given in charge to the magistrates,
to prohibit the performance of any foreign religious
rites;
to banish strolling sacrificers and soothsayers from the forum, the circus, and the city;
to search for, and burn, books of divination; and to abolish every mode of sacrificing
that was not conformable to the Roman practice!
Acts 19:19 Many of them also which used
curious arts brought their books together, and burned them
before all men: and they counted the price of them, and
found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
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Acts 19:19 Many of them
also which used curious arts brought their books
together, and burned them before all men: and they
counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand
pieces of silver.
Acts
19.19 hikanoi de tōn ta perierga praxantōn sunenegkantes tas biblous katekaion enōpion pantōn: kai sunepsēphisan tas timas autōn kai heuron arguriou muriadas pente.
periergos , on,
3. curious, superstitious,
“hierourgiai”
Plu.Alex.2;
ta
p. curious arts, magic,
Act.Ap.19.19.
Plut.
Alex. 2 [5]
But concerning these matters there is another story to
this effect: all the women of these parts were
addicted to the Orphic rites and the orgies of
Dionysus from very ancient times (being called
Klodones and Mimallones [Bacchantes], and
imitated in many ways the practices of the Edonian
women and the Thracian women about Mount Haemus, from
whom, as it would seem, the word ‘threskeuein’
came to be applied to the celebration of extravagant
and superstitious ceremonies. [6]
Now Olympias, who affected these divine possessions
more zealously than other women, and carried out these
divine inspirations in wilder
fashion, used to provide the revelling
companies with great tame serpents, which would often
lift their heads from out the ivy and the mystic
winnowing-baskets, 3 or coil
themselves about the wands and garlands of the women,
thus terrifying the men.
3
Sacred to Dionysus, and carried on the heads of the
celebrants.
Strab.
10.3.11 In Crete, not only these
rites, but in particular those sacred to Zeus,
were performed along with orgiastic worship and
with the kind of ministers who were in the service
of Dionysus, I mean the Satyri. These ministers
they called "Curetes," young men who executed
movements in armour, accompanied by dancing, as
they set forth the mythical story of the birth of
Zeus; in this they introduced Cronus as accustomed
to swallow his children immediately after their
birth, and Rhea as trying to keep her travail
secret and, when the child was born, to get it out
of the way and save its life by every means in her
power; and to accomplish this it is said that she
took as helpers the Curetes, who, by surrounding
the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy
instruments and with war-dance and uproar, were
supposed to strike terror into Cronus and without
his knowledge to steal his child away; and that,
according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared
by them with the same diligence; consequently the
Curetes, either because, being young, that is
"youths,"1
they performed this service, or because they
"reared" Zeus "in his youth"2
(for both explanations are given), were accorded
this appellation, as if they were Satyrs, so to
speak, in the service of Zeus. Such, then, were
the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship.
hierourg-ia , hē,
A. religious
service, sacrifice, Hdt.5.83
(in Ion. form hirorgiai, with
vv.ll.), Pl.Lg.775a,
Hdt.
5.83 [2]
In the course of this struggle, they did the
Epidaurians much damage and stole their images
of Damia and Auxesia. These they took away and
set them up in the middle of their own country
at a place called Oea,
about twenty furlongs distant from their city. [3] Having set them up
in this place they sought their favor with
sacrifices and female choruses in the satirical
and abusive mode. Ten men were appointed
providers of a chorus for each of the deities,
and the choruses aimed their raillery not at any
men but at the women of the country. The
Epidaurians too had the same rites, and they
have certain secret rites as well. CHORE´GUS
LEITU´RGIA TELOS
khraō
I. in Act. of the
gods and their oracles, proclaim, abs.,
“khreiōn muthēsato Phoibos” 8.79:
“khreiōn ek daphnēs gualōn hupo Parnēsoio” h.Ap.396:
c. acc. rei, khrēsō anthrōpoisi Dios boulēn ib.132,
“khrē moi toiauth' ho Phoibos” S.El.35;
“soi d' ouk ekhrēsen ouden” E.Hec.1268;
“kh. phonon” Id.El.1267:
also c. acc. cogn., “kh. khrēsmon” Id.Ph.409;
“humnōdian” Id.Ion681
(l
arrētos ,
II. that cannot be spoken or expressed,
“adianoēton kai a. kai aphthegkton kai alogon” Pl.Sph.238c:
hence, unspeakable, immense, App.BC3.4;
“epithumia” Phld.Ir.p.50
W.; “eukharistia”
IV. of numbers, arrēta, ta, irrationals,
surds, opp. rhēta, Pl.Hp.Ma.303b,
cf. R.546c
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For they, completely versed in every
divine and human law, maintained that nothing tended so
strongly to the subversion
of religion as sacrifice,
when we offered it not after the institutions of our
forefathers, but after foreign customs.
Thus much I thought necessary to mention
to you beforehand, that no vain scruple might disturb your
minds when you should see us demolishing the places resorted
to by the Bacchanalians, and dispersing their impious
assemblies.
We shall do all these things with the
favor and approbation of the gods; who, because they were
indignant that their divinity was dishonored by those
people's lusts and crimes,
have drawn forth their proceedings from
hidden darkness into the open light; and who have
directed them to be exposed, not that they may escape with impunity, but
in order that they may be punished and suppressed.
The senate have committed to me and my
colleague an inquisition extraordinary concerning that
affair. What is requisite to be done by ourselves, in
person, we will do with energy. The charge of posting
watches through the city, during the night, we have
committed to the inferior magistrates; and, for your
parts, it is incumbent on you to execute vigorously
whatever duties are assigned you, and in the several
places where each will be placed, to perform whatever
orders you shall receive, and to use your best endeavors
that no danger or tumult may arise from the treachery of
the party involved in the guilt.
17. They
then ordered the decrees of the senate to be read, and
published a reward for any discoverer who should bring any
of the guilty before them, or give information against any
of the absent, adding, that if any person accused should
fly, they would limit a certain day upon which, if he did
not answer when summoned, he would be condemned in his
absence; and if any one should be charged who was out of
Italy, they would allow him a longer time, if he should wish
to come and make his defense. They then issued an edict,
that "no person whatever should presume to buy or sell
anything for the purpose of leaving the country; or to
receive or conceal, or by any means aid the fugitives." On
the assembly being dismissed, great terror spread throughout
the city; nor was it confined merely within the walls, or to
the Roman territory, for everywhere throughout the whole of
Italy alarm began to be felt, when the letters from the
guest-friends were received, concerning the decree of the
senate, and what passed in the assembly, and the edict of
the consuls.
During the night, which succeeded the day
in which the affair was made public, great numbers,
attempting to fly, were seized, and brought back by the triumvirs,
who had posted guards at all gates; and informations were
lodged against many, some of whom, both men and women,
put themselves to death. Above seven thousand men and women
are said to have taken the oath of the association. But it
appeared that the heads of the conspiracy were the two
Catinii, Marcus and Caius,
Roman plebeians; Lucius Opiturnius, a Faliscan; and Minius
Cerrinius, a Campanian: that from these proceeded all their
criminal practices, and that these were the chief priests
and founders of the sect. Care was taken that they should be
apprehended as soon as possible. They were brought before
the consuls, and, confessing their guilt, caused no delay to
the ends of justice.
18. But
so great were the numbers that fled from the city, that
because the lawsuits and property of many persons were going
to ruin, the praetors, Titus Maenius and Marcus Licinius,
were obliged, under the direction of the senate, to adjourn
their courts for thirty days, until the inquiries should be
finished by the consuls. The same deserted state of the
law-courts, since the persons, against whom charges were
brought, did not appear to answer, nor could be found in
Rome, necessitated the consuls to make a circuit of the
country towns, and there to make their inquisitions and hold
the trials. Those who, as it appeared, had been only
initiated, and had made after the priest, and in the most
solemn form, the prescribed imprecations, in which the
accursed conspiracy for the perpetration of every crime and
lust was contained, but who had not themselves committed, or
compelled others to commit, any of those acts to which they
were bound by the oath---all such they left in prison. But
those who had forcibly committed personal defilements or
murders, or were stained with the guilt of false evidence,
counterfeit seals, forged wills, or other frauds, all these
they punished with death.
A greater number were executed than thrown
into prison; indeed, the multitude of men and women who
suffered in both ways, was very considerable. The consuls
delivered the women, who were condemned, to their relations,
or to those under whose guardianship they were, that they
might inflict the punishment in private; if there did not
appear any proper person of the kind to execute the
sentence, the punishment was inflicted in public.
A charge was then given to demolish all
the places where the Bacchanalians had held their meetings; first in Rome, and
then throughout all Italy; excepting those wherein should be
found some ancient altar or consecrated statue. With regard
to the future,
the senate passed a decree, "that no
Bacchanalian rites should
be celebrated in Rome or in Italy;" and ordering that,
"in case any person should believe some
such kind of worship
incumbent upon him, and necessary; and that he could not,
without offence to religion, and incurring guilt, omit it,
he should represent this to the city praetor, and the
praetor should lay the business before the senate. If
permission were granted by
the senate, when not less than one hundred members were
present,
then he might perform those rites,
provided that no more than five persons should be present at the sacrifice, and that they should have no common
stock of money, nor any
president of the
ceremonies, nor priest."
19.
Another decree connected with this was then made, on a
motion of the consul, Quintus Marcius, that "the business
respecting the persons who had served the consuls as
informers should be proposed to the senate in its original
form, when Spurius Postumius should have finished his
inquiries, and returned to Rome." They voted that Minius
Cerrinus, the Campanian, should be sent to Ardea, to be kept
in custody there; and that a caution should be given to the
magistrates of that city, to guard him with more than
ordinary care, so as to prevent not only his escaping, but
his having an opportunity of committing suicide. Spurius
Postumius some time after came to Rome, and on his proposing
the question, concerning the reward to be given to Publius
Aebutius and Hispala Fecenia, because the Bacchanalian
ceremonies were discovered by their exertions, the senate
passed a vote, that "the city quaestors should give to each
of them, out of the public treasury, one hundred thousand asses; and that the consuls should desire the
plebeian tribunes to propose to the commons, as soon as
convenient, that the campaigns of Publius Aebutius should be
considered as served, that he should not become a soldier
against his wishes, nor should any censor assign him a horse
at the public charge."
They voted also, that "Hispala Fecenia
should enjoy the privileges of alienating her property by
gift or deed; of marrying out of her rank, and of choosing a
guardian, as if a husband had conferred them by will; that
she should be at liberty to wed a man of honorable birth,
and that there should be no disgrace or ignominy to him who
should marry her; and that the consuls and praetors then in
office, and their successors, should take care that no
injury should be offered to that woman, and that she might
live in safety. That the senate wished, and thought proper,
that all these things should be so ordered." All these
particulars were proposed to the commons, and executed,
according to the vote of the senate; and full permission was
given to the consuls to determine respecting the impunity
and rewards of the other informers.
The Decree:
Quintus Marcius, the son of Lucius, and
Spurius Postumius, consulted the senate on the Nones of
October [i.e., the 7th],
at the temple of the Bellonae. Marcus Claudius, son of
Marcus, Lucius Valerius, son of Publius, and Quintus
Minucius, son of Gaius, were the committee for drawing up
the report. Regarding the Bacchanalia, it was resolved to
give the following directions to those who are in alliance
with us: No one of them is to possess a place where the
festivals of Bacchus are celebrated; if there are any who
claim that it is necessary for them to have such a place,
they are to come to Rome to the praetor urbanus, and the
senate is to decide on those matters, when their claims have
been heard, provided that not less than one hundred senators
are present when the affair is discussed. No man is to be a
Bacchantian, neither a
Roman citizen, nor one of the Latin name, nor any of our
allies unless they come to the praetor urbanus, and he in
accordance with the opinion of the senate expressed when not
less than one hundred senators are present at the
discussion, shall have given leave. Carried.
No man is to be a priest; no one, either man or woman, is to be an
officer (to manage the temporal affairs of the
organization);
nor is anyone of them to have charge
of a common treasury; no
one shall appoint either man or woman to be master or to act as master;
henceforth they shall not form conspiracies among
themselves, stir up any disorder, make mutual promises or agreements, or interchange pledges; no one shall
observe the sacred rites
either in public or private or outside the city, unless he
comes to the praetor urbanus, and he, in accordance with
the opinion of the senate, expressed when no less than one
hundred senators are present at the discussion, shall have
given leave. Carried.
No one in a company of more than five
persons altogether, men and
women, shall observe the sacred rites, nor in that company
shall there be present more than two men or three women,
unless in accordance with the opinion of the praetor urbanus
and the senate as written above.
See that you declare it in the assembly for not less than three market days;
that you may know the opinion of the senate that this was
their judgment: if there are any who have acted contrary to
what was written above, they have decided that a proceeding
for a capital offense should be instituted
against them; the senate has justly decreed that you should
inscribe this on a brazen tablet, and that you should order
it to be placed where it can be easiest read; see to it that
the revelries of Bacchus,
if there be any, except in case there be concerned in the
matter something sacred, as was written above, be disbanded within ten days after this letter shall be
delivered to you. In the Teuranian field.