Bacchanalia

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Auguste Levêque (1866–1921): Bacchanalia

The Bacchanalia (from Latin Bacchanalia ), the Bacchus feasts in ancient Rome , were celebrations that were often celebrated with wild exuberance by the Bacchantes .

The festival has been going on since the 2nd century BC. . Chr celebrated and found every year on 16 and 17 March at the Hill Aventine Hill in Rome instead.

Origin and process

The bacchanalia of the Latin or Roman countries were not an original Roman tradition, but arose only through the cultural influence from the eastern Mediterranean, especially from Asia Minor, and through mediation via Greece. Bacchus largely corresponds to the Greek god of wine Dionysus and the Bacchanalia to Dionysia , which mostly took place in March at the beginning of the new growing season .

The Romans, especially those of the upper class, viewed themselves as being shaped by strict moral ideas and a kind of cultural sense of mission and reluctantly, as the Greek culture gained more and more influence on the Roman. The inclusion of foreign beliefs and cults was viewed by some as a corruption of morality and a violation of Roman national pride. The fact that Rome had to feel offended and powerless against the ever increasing dependence on Greek culture could show contemptuous remarks made by the Roman population in the Roman Empire towards Greeks, at least "Graeculus" (little Greek) is said to have been a widespread swear word.

In terms of religious psychology, Dionysia and Bacchanalia should be understood as an intoxicating spring and fertility cult: the overcoming of the winter season through renewed growth of vegetation was related to the joy of human existence and, last but not least, sexuality. Bacchanalia could have been excessive due to the consumption of alcohol with psychedelic substances such as hallucinogenic mushrooms and even belladonna . The multi-day, non-everyday occurrence and anti-rational counter-world of dance, mask, role-play and mummification of the Bacchanalia, perhaps somewhat similar to the modern carnival, created a lofty mood or even sexual excitement and disinhibition. In “Bacchae”, Euripides describes the participants as revelers who put on their hides and skins and take on animal roles.

The culture of the spring festival of the Bacchanalia brought together elements of the genuine Roman religion and the Etruscan culture anew , although in the external context it was imported from Greece, so to speak . In any case, active participation in tradition and religion is likely to have given many Romans days of joy and sociability and an experience of music, dance and community, which also had an effect beyond the wild holidays, into everyday Roman life.

Bacchanal scandal 186 BC Chr.

In the early 2nd century BC The bacchanalia escalated to boisterous, unbridled orgies . In 186 BC After a scandal, they were strictly regulated by the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus , the " Senate resolution on the Bacchanalia". According to the historians Flavius and Titus Livius , the scandal was uncovered by the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus . A total of 7,000 men and women were executed and the bacchanalia were subject to approval.

The inscription of Tiriolo (186 BC) reproduces the Senate decision on the Bacchanalia, which contains the provisions relating to these meetings. In this it becomes clear that the Senate viewed the cult associations as a threat to the state and therefore prohibited them from all association rights such as the election of a board of directors or the establishment of an association fund. The Senate as the approval body took over complete control. The copy by Tiriolo on a bronze plaque has been preserved and is now in the antiquities collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Bacchanalia  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Titus Livius , ab urbe condita, 39, 8-19; Alfred Heuss , Roman History, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1964, p. 126.