Bacchanal scandal

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Frenzied bacchants among the ruins of civilization, oil painting by Alessandro Magnasco and Clemente Spera (ca.1710)

The suppression of the cult of Bacchus in republican Rome in the year 186 BC is seen as a bacchanalia scandal . Chr. Designated.

The report of Livy

The Roman historian Titus Livius gives in the 39th book of his Roman history Ab urbe condita ("From the foundation of the city") a detailed and extremely dramatic account of the events. In addition, there are several mentions of the bacchanalia scandal in the anecdotal collection of Valerius Maximus , from which one does not learn anything beyond what was reported by Livy.

First Livy reported that the spread of the form of the Bacchus cult, which was ultimately suppressed by the Senate , came from a Greek priest of inferior rank who had stayed in Etruria for a time , then turned to Rome and began to look for followers for his nocturnal rites. At first there were only a few whom he was able to initiate into his mysteries, but soon their number grew considerably, due to the attraction of the enjoyment of wine and sexual permissiveness that came about in the course of these Bacchic orgies, exercised on women as well as men. Every conceivable profligacy has been practiced there, and not only that: poisoning, forgery of documents, defamation, all possible crimes up to outright murder have been hatched and carried out: “A lot happened through betrayal, most of it through violence, but it remained secret because there you couldn't hear the screams of the victims over the roar of the drums and cymbals ”. The description leaves nothing of what is still part of the cliché of a classical Roman orgy to this day .

But finally, in spite of all the drumming and beating of the cymbals, the dark goings-on became evident: An orphan, Publius Aebutius, had been robbed of his inheritance by his stepfather and was now to be removed or rendered harmless. To this end, his mother wanted to expose the boy to the unnerving influence of the Bacchic orgies. She would have made a vow to consecrate her son to Bacchus when he was seriously ill. At first the son had no objections, but told his lover about the impending inauguration, a freedman named Hispala Fecenia, a courtesan, but of noble disposition. She was horrified, because before her release she had to accompany her mistress to those nightly celebrations and had witnessed the atrocities committed there: "a hotbed of every kind of destruction" (corruptelarum omnis generis ... officinam) , as she puts it. He will be handed over to a priest there, who will take him to a place where, drowned out by drums and cymbals, nobody can hear his screams. He had to promise her not to be initiated into such customs under any circumstances.

When Aebutius refused to start preparing for the initiation at home, he was thrown out of the house. The boy went to his aunt and, on her advice, brought the case to the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus , who first made inquiries and, after being convinced of the plaintiffs' reputation, began to act decisively. First he had Hispala brought before him and asked her what was going on in the Simila grove at night . Hispala initially refused to provide any information because she feared reprisals from the followers of the cult. Finally, threatened by the consul and after his promise to ensure her safety, she reported everything she knew about the orgies.

She said that earlier only women were allowed to practice the cult and that the initiations took place three times a year, during the day. Priestesses were noble women. That changed completely when Paculla Annia, originally from Campania , became a priestess. The rites now took place five times a month at night and men were initiated, including the priestess' sons, Minius Cerinnius and Herennius Cerinnius. Then the rule of vice began: with general promiscuity , homosexual libertinage , madness and frenzy. That there is no such thing as outrage is the main motto of the cult. Those who refused to attend were first abused and then killed. An incredible number of people are involved in the cult, almost a second state, including men and women from the nobility .

After the consul had ensured the safety of Hispala and Aebutius, his two main witnesses, he informed the Senate, which was dismayed by the existence of such a strong underground movement, saw the state in danger and therefore gave the consuls extensive powers to investigate the activities gave. Rewards were offered for informers . A decision of the Senate was to be made known not only in Rome, but in the entire Roman sphere of influence in Italy, which forbade all Bacchic celebrations. The curular aediles were instructed to search for the leaders of the cult, the plebeian aediles were instructed to stop cult celebrations in Rome. Then the consuls turned to the assembled people and informed them of the disaster threatening the state, pointing out above all that here young men wallowing in a swamp of vice who would later defend the fatherland with guns in hand , and asked the Romans the rhetorical question , whether in future “the chastity of your wives and children should be protected by those who are defiled by passive sodomy?” Then the Senate decision was read out and the rewards for informers named.

The result of the search was fruitful beyond all measure. 7000 people were charged with involvement in the conspiracy. Many tried to flee Rome but were arrested at the city gates. Those who had only belonged to the cult community but had demonstrably not participated in murder, abuse and other crimes were presumably taken into preventive detention until the proceedings were completed. The others (namely the majority) were sentenced to death. In the case of women, the enforcement of the sentence was left to their families under the patria potestas . If none of the relatives were willing or able to do so, a public execution took place. Then the Bacchian shrines were destroyed, not only in Rome, but in the entire Roman sphere of influence. Destruction was only avoided where there was a particularly venerable altar or a sacred cult image. Last, Hispala and Aebutius were to receive their reward. Both received 100,000 aces from the state treasury, and Hispala was largely treated as a free-born woman.

Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus

Bronze plaque from Tiriolo with the text of the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus

The second important source on the events of 186 BC Is the inscription with the text of a Senate resolution on the Bacchanalia, which contains provisions on these meetings. 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 surviving text is a bronze plaque that was found in 1640 in Tiriolo, Province of Catanzaro in Calabria. Today the panel is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna .

Translation of the inscription by Tiriolo:

Quintus Marcius, son of Lucius [and] Spurius Postumius, son of Lucius, appointed the senate as consuls to the nuns of October [7. Oct. 186 BC Chr.] At the temple of Bellona . Responsible for the written version were Marcus Claudius, son of Marcus, Lucius Valerius, son of Publius [and] Quintus Minucius, son of Caius.
Regarding the bacchanal celebrations, they resolved the following proclamation for their allies [with Rome]: None of them may have [a place for] a bacchanal. Should there be persons who declare that they need [a place for] a bacchanal, they must come to the city praetor in Rome, and after their hearing our Senate shall decide on this in the presence of at least 100 senators at this hearing. Nobody is allowed to mingle with the Bacchae, be they a Roman citizen, Latino or one of the allies, unless he has [previously] visited the city praetor and has received permission from him with the approval of the Senate in the presence of at least 100 senators at the hearing.
[This is what the senators have decided].
No man can be a priest; no man and no woman may be the ruler; none of them may run a common fund; No one may appoint a [managing] official or a deputy, be he male or female. From now on they are not allowed to join each other by oath or vow, neither by contract nor by a promise, nor give each other the floor. Nobody may perform the rituals in secret, nor may anyone allow the rituals to take place on public or private land, or outside the city, unless he goes to the city praetor and the city praetor gives permission with the approval of the Senate in the presence of at least 100 senators at the negotiation.
[This is what the senators have decided].
More than five people in total, men and women, are not allowed to conduct any rituals, nor are more than two men [or] more than three women [in the rituals] among them allowed to participate [in the rituals] without the approval of the city praetor and the senate, such as detailed above.
You should announce this in the [people's] assembly on at least three market days and take note of the senate resolution with the following content: If someone violates the provisions set out above, the capital trial should be brought to him, [as the senators] decided [have] . And you should engrave this on a bronze plaque - so the Senate considered it appropriate - and have it affixed where it can best be noted. And the [places for] bacchanalia, if there are any - unless there is a religious background - as stated above, are to be removed within 10 days of these documents being handed over to you. [Second hand?] In the area of ​​Teura [Terina?].

Legal historical aspects

With the exception of poisoning ( veneficium ), all of the offenses against which the followers of the Bacchus cult were charged were capital crimes ( delicta ) under private law . These were standardized in the Twelve Tables Act and at the time of the incidents described were only prosecuted in a civil procedure ( iudicum privatum ) following private reports . However, the large number of crimes and the conspiratorial approach of the perpetrators prompted the Roman Senate to view public security and order as specifically endangered. Therefore, the private crimes were declared the subject of a public matter ( res publica ), which were officially prosecuted as crimes against the state ( crimina ) by the consul, who was given special powers, and were tried in criminal proceedings ( iudicium publicum ).

See also

literature

  • Yves Bomati: Les legends dionysiaques en Etrurie. In: Revue des Études Latines . Vol. 61, 1983, pp. 87-107.
  • Hildegard Cancik-Lindemaier : The religion discourse in the Senate resolution on the Bacchanalia of 186 BC And with Livius (B. XXXIX). In: Hubert Cancik , Hermann Lichtenberger , Peter Schäfer (eds.): History - Tradition - Reflection. Festschrift for Martin Hengel on his 70th birthday. Volume 2: Hubert Cancik (Ed.): Greek and Roman Religion. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1996, ISBN 3-16-146676-4 , pp. 77-96.
  • Mauro Cristofani , Marina Martelli: Fufluns Paxies. Sugli aspetti del culto di Bacco in Etruria. In: Studi Etruschi. Ser. 3, Vol. 46, 1978, ISSN  0391-7762 , pp. 123-133.
  • Joachim Ermann: Criminal Trial, Public Interest and Private Prosecution. Studies on the criminal law of the Roman Republic (= research on Roman law. 46). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2000, ISBN 3-412-08299-6 , pp. 7–32: Die Bacchanalien , (At the same time: Saarbrücken, University, dissertation, 1998).
  • Henri Jeanmaire : Dionysus. Histoire du culte de Bacchus. L'orgiasme dans l'antiquité et les temps modern, origine du théâtre en Grèce, orphisme et mystique dionysiaque, évolution du dionysisme après Alexandre. Payot, Paris 1978, ISBN 2-228-50190-5 , pp. 454 f.
  • Jean-Marie Pailler: Bacchanalia. La répression de 186 av. J.-C. à Rome et en Italie. Vestiges, images, tradition (= Bibliothèque des Ecoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome. 270). École Française, Rome 1988, ISBN 2-7283-0161-1 .
  • Matthias Riedl: The Containment of Dionysos: Religion and Politics in the Bacchanalia Affair of 186 BCE. In: International Political Anthropology. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2012, ISSN  2283-9887 , pp. 113-133, ( online ).
  • Leonhard Schumacher (ed.): Roman inscriptions (= Reclams Universal Library . 8512). Reclam, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-15-008512-8 , p. 79, No. 11, (translation of the inscription by Tiriolo).
  • Sarolta A. Takács: Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 BCE In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Vol. 100, 2000, ISSN  0073-0688 , pp. 301-310, JSTOR 3185221 .
  • Jean-Louis Voisin: Tite-Live, Capoue et les Bacchanales. In: Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome, Antiquité. Vol. 96, No. 2, 1984, ISSN  0223-5102 , pp. 601-653, doi : 10.3406 / mefr.1984.1426 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39, 8-19
  2. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri IX 1,3,1; 6.3.9.
  3. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39, 8.
  4. ↑ "Orgy" in the ancient sense was an act taking place in the context of a cult celebration, literally a "work".
  5. ↑ multa dolo, pleraque per uim audebantur. occulebat uim quod prae ululatibus tympanorumque et cymbalorum strepitu nulla uox quiritantium inter stupra et caedes exaudiri poterat.
  6. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39.9.
  7. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39.10.
  8. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39.11.
  9. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39.12.
  10. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39:13.
  11. ↑ nihil nefas ducere, hanc summam inter eos religionem esse.
  12. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39:14.
  13. ↑ hi cooperti stupris suis alienisque pro pudicitia coniugum ac liberorum uestrorum ferro decernent?
  14. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita 39:19.
  15. ↑ CIL 1, 581 .