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The Containment of Dionysos: Religion and Politics in theBacchanalia Affair of 186 BCE

Matthias Riedl

Abstract

The suppression of the Bacchanalia in Rome 186 BCE was the first major religious persecutionin Europe. The essay provides a new analysis, referring to the political theory of Eric Voegelin. Itshows that the suppression was a reaction of the Roman commonwealth to a cult whichchallenged the meaning of political existence within the republic. Ultimately, the Bacchanalianaffair is a collision of two types of religiosity, the political religiosity of the public cult and theorgiastic and apolitical religiosity of the Bacchic underground. Both types are based on particularreligious experiences, the experience of gods preserving and fostering the political communityand the experience of a god promoting the fulfillment of bodily desires. As the essay shows at theexample of Euripides’Bacchae , the worship of Bacchus-Dionysus had always represented theapolitical dimension of human existence; already in the ancient myths the “alien god” figures asthe opponent of rulers and politicians. Finally, this reconsideration of the Bacchanalia helps tounderstand why the early Christians were likened to the Bacchants.

Keywords: Bacchanalia, Cosmion, Dionysos, Eric Voegelin, Livy, Roman cult, RomanRepublic, Early Christianity, Religious Persecution, Orgiastic Sexuality .

Introduction

In 186 bce, the Roman Senate decided to take measures against the worshippers of thegod Bacchus and thereby initiated the largest systematic persecution of a religious grouphitherto seen in Europe. According to Livy’s account in the 39th book of his Ab urbecondita , 7000 people fell victim to the campaign; the majority of them were executed ( Aburbe condita 39.17.4-39.18.9).1 Livy also reports that the measures caused great terror insideand outside of the city, numerous suicides, and a mass flight from Rome. According to

Cicero, the measures even included military operations, which make them appear almostcrusade-like ( De legibus 2.15.37). The measures against the Bacchic cult lasted five yearsaltogether. In the end, the cult was not completely eliminated but reduced to amanageable size and subjected to strict regulations. For the first time, the Roman Senatehad massively interfered in the religious affairs of the foederati . Even though this essaydoes not comment on the old debate about the interrelation between monotheism andreligious persecution – initiated by David Hume and reopened more recently by Jan Assmann (2009) – it provides ample evidence that “polytheistic societies” are very wellcapable of systematic religious exclusion and persecution.

The initial impetus for writing this contribution came from a rather minorphilological discovery: one of the earliest pieces of Latin apologetic literature, thedialogueOctavius , written by Minucius Felix in the early 3rd century, contains


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terminologicalreferences to Livy’s account of the Bacchanalian affair. The referencesappear in the speech of the pagan Caecilius, the ideal type of a literate and conservativemember of the upper class, who despises the Christians and accuses them ofundermining and destroying the political, moral, and religious foundations of Romansociety ( Octavius 8.4). 2 3 From the obvious terminological parallels between both texts onemay conclude that some pagans of the early 3rd century compared the Christians to theBacchants of the early 2nd century BCE, since they applied the same charges to theChristians which – according to Livy’s report – were applied to the worshippers ofBacchus. Both groups were accused by their opponents of practicingocculta and nocturnasacra , amounting to aconiuratio, a conspiracy against the republic.4

After browsing some of the relevant literature, however, it soon turned out thatthe parallel between Livy and Minucius had been seen before (Benko, 1984: 10-12).5 Moreover, other authors had showed that terminological resemblances between thecharges against the Bacchants and the Christians could be detected in other works as

well, including the famous correspondence between Pliny and Emperor Trajanconcerning the appropriate treatment of Christians (Grant, 1948; Barnes, 1968: 50;Pailler, 1988: 759ff.; Nagy, 2002). Some scholars drew far-reaching conclusions from thetextual evidence: the persecution of the Bacchants in 186 BCE, described by Livy as alegitimate, reasonable, and absolutely necessary act, served, on one hand, as a model forpopular accusations against the Christians and, on the other hand, as a precedent for legalmeasures against the Christians (Cohn, 1993: 10ff.). This result, however, raises otherquestions: why was this equation made between a group which (justifiably or not) wasinfamous for its orgiastic worship and another one which was proud of its chastity andmoral superiority? Was it mere malignity or ignorance that the Christians, just like theBacchants, were accused of sexual excesses including all kinds of imaginable perversions?Some scholars have proposed more or less convincing explanations, none of whichappear to be ultimately satisfying.

From a purely historical perspective that is only interested in the course ofevents, the significance and long-term relevance of the Bacchanalian affair are not readilyapparent. Scholars, who define religion as an “epiphenomenon of social, economic, andpolitical history” (Rüpke, 2001: 50) might be able to discern theRealpolitik-dimension ofthe affair; yet they fail to see that the extremely harsh reaction of the Romanestablishment against the Bacchants cannot be explained without some consideration of

the significance of the god Bacchus.6

In other words, many modern scholars ignore what was common wisdom among contemporaries, namely that Dionysos-Bacchus representsan anthropological reality and that the Dionysiac worshipper, the Bacchant or the Maenad,“is a real, not a conventional figure” (Dodds, 1951: 273).7

As I hope to show, the clash of orgiastic religiosity and politics at the occasion ofthe Bacchanalian affair provides a glimpse at some general conditions of man’s existencein society. Only if this deeper meaning of the affair is fully considered can oneunderstand why these events were preserved in the collective memory of Roman societyfor five centuries and actualized at numerous occasions – the reaction toward the newcommunity of the Christians being only one of them. In this essay, I propose thefollowing theses:


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1) The Bacchanalian affair plays an important role in the process of the Romandiscovery of the political as a distinct sphere of human existence.2) The Roman discovery of the political happens, at least partly, as a result of amassive confrontation with the apolitical dimension of human existence, manifest in

the religious attitude of the Bacchants.3) Livy understood the significance of these events, as his account of the speech ofConsul Postumius shows.4) Already centuries before the Bacchanalian affair, Dionysos-Bacchus symbolized theapolitical dimension of human existence, as is manifest in Euripides’s tragedyTheBacchae .5) These findings shed new light on the pagan perception of early Christianity andbetter explain why Christian communities were accused of sexual excesses andabnormalities.

The first part of this essay outlines Livy’s narrative of the Bacchanalia and the historian’sown interpretation of the events. The second part introduces Eric Voegelin’s theory ofpolitical order, as found in the introduction to hisHistory of Political Ideas , and shows theaptness of his theoretical framework to elucidate the deeper meaning of the Bacchanalianaffair. Finally, the conclusion provides an answer to the initial problem: why did paganRomans regard Christians and Bacchants as communities of the same type?

Livy’s narrative

Livy wrapped the historical facts in a kind of novel with all the ingredients that up to thisday make a good story: sex, crime, and an obscure religious cult.8 Modern historians aredivided on the question of how much of the plot is fiction, although the main charactersare certainly based on historical figures (Walsh, 1996: 195-197). In any case, the story is acarefully composed meaningful entity (cf. Adamik 2007); it goes as follows:

Publius Aebutius was a young member of an equestrian family. After the death ofhis father he was brought up under the protection of his stepfather, who embezzled theproperty of his ward. In order not to be held accountable by the judicial authorities, thestepfather and the mother of Publius sought to destroy the virtue and reputation of theyoung man by urging him to become an initiate to the Bacchanalia. However, a well-known prostitute, the freedwoman Hispala Faecenia who had a love-affair with theyoung Publius, warned him about the cult. As a girl she had been initiated to theBacchanalia together with her mistress and had observed the horrible rites practiced inthe cult. Upon her urgent advice, Publius refused initiation into the mysteries of theBacchanalia and, consequently, was expelled from the house of his stepfather. Publiusconsulted the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus who then decided to investigate thecase.

The outcome of the inquiry was the following: the Bacchus cult, deriving fromthe Greek Dionysian festivals, had first come to Etruria and from there to Rome, wherethe rites were performed in the grove of Stimula. In the beginning it seems to havecaused no major misgivings. Hispala reports to the consul Postumius that the


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Bacchanalia “had started as a cult for women, and it was the rule that no man should beadmitted. There had been three fixed days in a year on which initiations took place atdaytime into the Bacchic mysteries; and it was the custom for the matrons to be chosenas priestesses in rotations” ( Ab urbe condita 39.13.). The troubles began when a womannamed Paculla Annia became priestess and altered the rites. According to Livy, theBacchanalia eventually turned into violent sex-orgies, including the rape of female andmale adolescents ( Ab urbe condita , 39.11.6-7, 39.13.14.).9 The historian lets Hispala go on with her report:

[Paculla Annia] had performed the ceremonies by night insteadof by day, and in place of three days in a year she hadappointed five days of initiation in each month. From the time when the rites were held promiscuously, with men and womenmixed together, and when the licence offered by darkness hadbeen added, no sort of crime, no kind of immorality was leftunattempted. There were more obscenities practiced betweenmen than between men and women. Anyone refusing tosubmit to outrage or reluctant to commit crimes wasslaughtered as a sacrificial victim. To regard nothing asforbidden was among these people the summit of religiousachievement ( Ab urbe condita 39.13.9-11).

Livy also tells us that consul Postumius presented the results of his investigation to thesenators, who for two reasons were “seized with extreme panic ( pavor ingens ).”Collectively, they were afraid “on account of the community ( publico nomine )” that “theseconspiracies and nocturnal meetings might lead to some secret treachery or hidden peril;”and privately ( privatim ), “each one feared on his own behalf, afraid that he might havesome connection with this horrid business” ( Ab urbe condita 39.14.4). The Senate reactedquickly. Postumius and his co-consul Quintus Marcius Philippus were officiallyempowered to conduct an extraordinary inquiry ( quaestio extra ordinem ):

The Senate decreed that the priests of these rites, male andfemale, were sought out, not only in Rome but in all market-towns and centres of population, so that they should beavailable for the consuls; furthermore, that it should beproclaimed in the city of Rome (and edicts should be sentthroughout Italy to the same effect) that no one who had beeninitiated into the Bacchic rites should attempt to assemble ormeet for the purpose of holding these ceremonies or toperform any such religious rite. More especially, it was decreedthat an inquiry should be held regarding those persons who hadassembled or conspired for the furtherance of any immoral orcriminal design ( Ab urbe condita 39.14.7-8).

Livy describes the immediately following persecutions, which were enacted asquaestioextraordinariaon the basis of the decree as necessary emergency measures. The greatnumber of victims and the rashness with which the Roman authorities reacted seem to


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explain the great terror ( terror magnus ) that came over Rome and Italy.10 However, afterthese immediate steps the Senate issued another, more carefully composed decree, which was supposed to regulate future worship of Bacchus. Livy summarizes it as follows:

For the future it was provided by decree of the Senate thatthere should be no Bacchanalia in Rome or in Italy. If anyperson regarded such ceremonies as hallowed by tradition andas essential for him and believed himself unable to forgo them without being guilty of sin, he was to make a declaration beforethe city praetor, and the praetor would consult the Senate. Ifpermission were granted to the applicant, at a meeting attendedby at least a hundred members of the Senate, he would beallowed to perform the rite, provided that not more than fivepeople took part; and there was to be no common fund ofmoney, no president of the ceremonies, and no priest ( Ab urbecondita 39.18.8-9).

The text of this second decree is preserved on a bronze tablet that was found in the 17th century in Tiriolo in Southern Italy and is now on display in theKunsthistorische Museumin Vienna (Riccobono, 1968). The original text of the decree does not differ much from thecontents of the decree as rendered by Livy ( Ab urbe condita 39.14,7-9), which attests to thehistorian’s accuracy. In addition, archaeological evidence shows that exactly at the sametime temples dedicated to Bacchus were violently destroyed (Beard, North, and Price1998: 93).11 Another, somewhat neglected source is Cicero’s construction of idealreligious laws in the second book of hisDe legibus . The fact that Cicero incorporates thesenatorial decree in his construct shows that already before Livy the legal measuresagainst the Bacchants had a paradigmatic significance ( De legibus 2.9.21 and 2.15.37; cf. Altheim, 1956: 62).

Livy’s narrative concludes with the significant rewards given to the heroes of thestory, Aebutius and Hispala, for their efforts to protect the city against great harm.

Livy’s Interpretation

Alongside the narrative, Livy’s account includes two interpretive sections, which perfectlycomplement each other. The first one is the historian’s summary of the events at thebeginning of his account ( Ab urbe condita 39.8.1-39.9.1). The second, more elaborate oneis the oration of Consul Postumius before the people’s assembly made to justify thepersecutions ( Ab urbe condita 39.15.2-39.16.13). We do not know if Livy based the orationon older sources or if he made it up completely.12 Yet, there can be no doubt that theunprecedented dimension of the persecutions made such a speech necessary. The task was not easy. On one hand, the consuls had to stir up the citizens’ fear of the Bacchantsas an obscure, alien, and hostile group threatening their social and individual existence.On the other hand, it was foreseeable that the persecutions would bring about greatanxiety in the city. Apparently, many feared not only the violent measures but even morethe revenge of Bacchus. In order to secure their own position, the consuls had to calm


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the people and justify their actions. Whether older sources were available or not, Livyknew exactly what the consuls had to say in such a situation. In any case, Livy does notshow any disagreement with the measures taken by the consuls and the reasons given inPostumius’ oration. It might be useful to provide a synoptic outline of the majorelements of these two passages, in order to show that both make four common claims:

1) The Bacchanalia are a political problem.2) The Bacchanalia are not sanctioned by tradition.3) The Bacchanalia destroy the moral personality.4) The Bacchanalia must be destroyed immediately.

Ad 1) Livy’s summary : The Bacchanalia have to be seen as domestic and secretconspiracies ( intestinae / clandestinae coniurationes ). This argument implies that theBacchanalia are first and foremost a political problem which requires a political solution.

Postumius’ speech : The Bacchanalia are no longer just a problem of privatereligion, even though it is yet confined to private outrages ( privatae noxia ). Ultimately, theimpious conspiracy ( impia coniuratio ) of the Bacchants aims at taking over the completecontrol of the republic ( ad summam rem publicam spectat ). Therefore the republic must act. Yet, the consul has to fight the popular fear that measures against a cult will raise theanger of the gods. Previous interpreters of this text have overlooked that, in the courseof his argumentation, Postumius (or, respectively, Livy) redefines the concept ofsuperstition. It is no longer, as described by Cicero, just an unjustified fear of the gods,the general misjudgment of somebody who does not know how to properly distinguishthe profane from the sacred and believes that his well-being completely depends on thegods ( De natura deorum 1.117 and 2.72).Superstitio now denotes more specifically theattitude of somebody who is unable to differentiate between divine agency and politics asthe sphere of human agency:

Nothing is more deceptive in its appearance than a depravedreligion ( prava religio ). When the agency of the gods ( deorumnumen ) is made an excuse for criminal acts, there comes into themind the fear that in punishing human misconduct ( fraudeshumanae ) we may be doing violence to something of divinesanction ( divini iuris aliquid ) that is mixed up with the offences.But you are freed from such religion by countless decisions ofthe pontiffs, resolutions of the Senate, and, for good measure,responses of the soothsayers. (…) I have thought it right togive you this warning, so that no superstition ( superstitio ) mayagitate your minds when you observe us suppressing theBacchanalia and breaking up these criminal gatherings ( Ab urbecondita 39.16.6-10; translation slightly altered, M.R.).13

Postumius, of course, does not think of a completely secular sphere of political action.He adds that all measures against the Bacchants are favored and willed by the gods ( omniadiis propitiies volentibus faciemus ); however, this claim presupposes that the gods grant to thehumans a sphere of independent action, even including religious affairs. This is an


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important step in the differentiation between the divine and the human spheres of order,resembling the rationale behind Solon’s reforms in Athens four centuries earlier: disorderin the realm of the political is rather the result of human misconduct than that of divinedestiny and, accordingly, must be set right by human action.14

Necessarily, the acts of the authorities must be in accordance with the generalnorms of the religio-political order of the city. But since the gods are interested in thepublic good of the city, which is threatened by the Bacchants, they will approve. Thisleads to the next issue in Li vy’s interpretation, the nature of the Bacchic cult.

Ad 2)Livy’s summary : The Bacchus cult is an alien religion, imported from Greece viaEtruria, which, first, “spread like an epidemic” thereby “infecting the people’s minds witherror,” and, secondly, is not performed openly in public but “secretly and at night”. When Livy emphasizes that the cult does not belong to the religious traditions of theancestors, he implies that the suppression of the cult will neither affect themos maiorum nor cause the anger of Rome’s tutelary deities.

Postumius’ speech : The religionmore maiorum as the fundament of the civicorder will only prevail if it is carefully protected against foreign religious practices. Thedimension of the anti-Bacchic measures might have a new quality, but they are inaccordance with the traditional policies to ban thesacra externa from the Forum.

For men of deepest insight in all matters of divine and humanlaw came to the decision that nothing tended so much to thedestruction of religion ( nihil aeque dissolvendae religionis esse ) as asituation where sacrifices were offered not with the traditionalritual ( patrio ritu ) but with ceremonies imported from abroad( externo ritu )( Ab urbe condita 39.16.9).

Yet, Postumius goes much further. The exordium of the consul’s oration includes thecustomary appeal to the gods, which, in this situation, is given a special meaning:

It is a prayer that reminds us that these are the gods who,according to the institutions of your ancestors, are to receiveyour worship, your veneration, your prayers – not those gods who would drive on to every sort of crime, to every form oflust, those persons whose minds have been taken captive bydegraded and alien rites ( pravae et externae religiones ) (…) ( Ab urbecondita 39.15.3-4).

This sentence is of special importance, since it shows that Livy’s Postumius not just wants to ban a specific form of Bacchic worship, but the god Bacchus himself. He is analien god and he is unlike the domestic gods: he does not care for the welfare of Rome ashe provokes individual desires that have a destructive effect on the moral order of therepublic. Bacchus does not fit thedo-ut-desprinciple of Roman civil religion. Postumiusrejects Bacchus on the same grounds as Cicero rejects the careless gods of theEpicureans: where the gods do not care for the welfare of the humans, there can be no


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pietas , no sanctitas , no religio( De natura deorum 1.3, 1.115, 1.123). The consul’s enmityagainst Bacchus does not contradict the finding that his speech reflects a differentiationbetween human and divine things. As he puts it, it is in the hands of the citizens whetherthey accept the new god or if they follow the traditions of their ancestors.

Ad 3)Livy’s summary : The rites have eventually turned into wild, unrestrained sexorgies. It is important to render Livy’s exact words, since they refer to elements of Stoicethics. To my knowledge, no previous commentator has taken this into account.15

The pleasures of drinking and fasting were added to thereligious rites to attract a larger number of followers. When wine had inflamed their feelings, and night and the mingling ofthe sexes and of different ages had extinguished all power ofmoral judgment, all sort of corruption began to be practised,since each person had ready to hand the chance of gratifyingthe particular desire ( voluptas ) to which he was naturally inclined( quo natura pronioris libidinis esset ) ( Ab urbe condita 39.8.5).

These words make very clear that Livy saw the sexual excesses as the core of theBacchanalian scandal. As Hispala says, the feeling of absolute license ( licentia ) and thenegation of sacrilege ( nefas ) were the guiding principles of the orgies and, at the sametime, the essence of the cult ( summa inter eos religio ) ( Ab urbe condita 39.13.10-11). Livy isreferring to the Stoic doctrine of theinclinationes naturales , innate instincts, which arenecessary to enable the individual as well as the human species to survive. Yet, in the

adult human, they can turn into amoral and harmful lust ( libido ) when they are notcontrolled by reason. It was common wisdom in Roman political theory (up to Augustine’sDe civitate Dei ) that the Stoic sage, who has full rational control of his desires,is a rare specimen if he exists at all. Therefore, reason must be institutionalized in lawsand socially supported by moral norms in order to restrain the passions of the people,especially of adolescents.16 In other words, Livy’s interpretation can be summed up asfollows: If the laws of the republic are no longer observed and, additionally, reason iscorrupted by alcohol and ecstatic music, unrestrained lust will rule. And precisely this lustis the religious experience behind the Bacchic cult. The other crimes related to theBacchanalia are secondary, yet still serious: Humans who try to resist initiation must bemurdered in order to secure the secrecy of the cult; forgery of testaments is necessary tofinance the ceremonies.

Postumius’ speech : Unrestrained lust ( libido ) is a rage ( furor ) that snatches maninto a whirlpool ( gurges ) of desires. He then is no longer with himself ( suum ) but with theones who conspire to commit every evil deed and every crime. In other words, theBacchanalia mean the absolute destruction of the moral personality, the dissolution ofthe rational individual into the Dionysian collective. The consul goes so far as to say,“whatever wrongdoing ( peccatum ) there has been in these years, whether in the form oflust ( libido ), or of fraud ( fraus ), or of violent crime ( scelus ), all of it, you may be sure, has its

origin in this one shrine” ( Ab urbe condita 39.16.2.).


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Ad 4)Livy’s summary : First only a few persons were initiated, but then the initiations“began to be widespread among men and women.” This assessment provides two reasons why the cult has to be suppressed at this particular point of time. A) Theinitiation of men, which violated not only Roman but also Bacchic traditions, is already

morally dubious. However, as Livy adds a little later, “the very size of the city concealedit, giving ample room for such evils and making it possible to tolerate them.” B) Now,the number of initiates has become so big that it can neither be neglected nor tolerated. As Hispala makes clear in her report to the consul, the huge crowd ( multitudo ingens ) ofthe Bacchants is about to establish a parallel society ( alter populus ) ( Ab urbe condita 39.13.14).17

Postumius’ speech : The consul gives exactly the same two reasons for thenecessity of immediate measures: A) The cult was known in Italy for quite a while butcame to Rome only recently. First, most initiates were female, but now males “scarcelydistinguishable from females” participate in the rites. The consul, however, says thatalready in its earlier form the cult was morally corrupt and that the female Bacchants arethe source of the evil. B) The number of initiates is increasing so dramatically that thedevelopment has to be stopped right now; there are already thousands of them in thecity. As they are about to organize they aim at destroying the social order and,consequently, individuals as soon as they no longer enjoy the protection of the civiccommunity:

Unless you are on your guard, Citizens of Rome, this presentmeeting, held in the daylight ( diurna contio ), legally summonedby a consul, can be paralleled by another meeting held in thenight ( nocturna contio ). Now, as individuals, they are afraid ofyou, as you stand assembled in your entirety; but presently, when you have scattered to your houses in the city or to yourhomes in the country, they will have assembled, and will bemaking plans for their own safety and at the same time for yourdestruction; and then you as individuals, will have to fear themin their entirety ( Ab urbe condita 39.16.4; translation slightlyaltered, M.R.).

The meaning and significance of the Bacchanalian affair

In 1938, after Eric Voegelin had escaped the new Nazi regime in Austria and immigratedto the USA, he started out to write aHistory of Political Ideas . For several reasons, not to bediscussed here, the largest portion of this work was only published posthumously in theedition of Voegelin’sCollected Works . The introduction to theHistory contains the outlineof a unique theory of the political, which, despite the recently renewed interest in theconcept of the political, has not yet received the scholarly attention it deserves.18 Thistheory also provides a convincing alternative to Carl Schmitt’s agonistic concept of thepolitical.19 According to Voegelin, the political is the meaningful dimension of a society.

It therefore is not primarily a shelter against an enemy who seeks to annihilate one’sphysical existence but, first and foremost, functions as a shelter against the frightening


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experience of contingency. The following quotations contain the tenets that are relevantto the interpretation of the Bacchanalian affair:

To set up a government is an essay in world creation. Out of ashapeless vastness of conflicting human desires rises a little world of order, a cosmic analogy, a cosmion, leading aprecarious life under the pressure of destructive forces from within and without, and maintaining its existence by theultimate threat and application of violence against the internalbreaker of its law as well as the external aggressor. Theapplication of violence, though, is the ultimate means only ofcreating and preserving a political order, it is not its ultimatereason: the function proper of order is the creation of a shelterin which man may give to his life a semblance of meaning(Voegelin 1997: 225).

Interpreted in these terms, the political cosmion provides astructure of meaning into which the single human being can fitthe results of the biologically and spiritually [productive,procreative] energies of his personal life, thereby [relieving] hislife from the [disordering aspects] of existence which alwaysspring up when the possibility of the utter senselessness of alife ending in annihilation is envisaged (Voegelin 1997: 226).

The coexistence of, and comparison between, the political andthe apolitical attitudes toward life reveals the creation of thepolitical cosmion as the experiment to overcome the essentialincompleteness and relativity of human life by means of animage of divine completeness and absoluteness (Voegelin 1997:227).

The political idea is not an instrument of description of apolitical unit but an instrument of its creation. (…) Thelinguistic symbols [contained] in a system of political ideas, bycalling a ruler and a people by name, call it into existence. Theevocative power of language, the primitive magic relationbetween a name and the object it denotes, makes it possible totransform an amorphous field of human forces into an orderedunit by an act of evocation of such units (Voegelin 1997: 228).

Applied to the Bacchanalian affair, Voegelin’s theory leads to the following results: in theBacchanalian affair, the cosmion of the Roman Republic defended itself against anenemy which was, asreligio externa , an external aggressor and, asintestina coniuratio, a threatfrom within. Yet, whatever crime and violence might have originated from the Bacchic

shrine, the real threat was a different one: the Bacchanalia questioned the meaning of theRoman cosmion. The Bacchic cult had always offered an alternative opportunity to find


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some fulfillment for people who had no chance to participate in the care for andadministration of the republic ( procuratio atque administratio rei publicae ), according to Cicerothe republican epitome of a meaningful life ( De re publica 1.22.36). From the earliest times,long before the cult came to Italy, women and even slaves had been admitted to the

Dionysian mysteries. The comedies of Plautus, which were mostly written before theBacchanalian affair, show that the Bacchic cult was known in Rome previously but wasalways considered to be somewhat dubious (Walsh, 1996: 191f.; Beard/North/Price,1998: 93). Yet, as long as the rites were performed by a limited number of people and atrare occasions, the cult could be tolerated.

In 186 bce, however, the Roman authorities realized that the cult had grown outof control. More and more people tried to find the meaning of life in the fulfillment ofbodily desires. Livy himself gives a social and a psychological reason for why the numberof people who felt attracted by foreign religions had increased since the Hannibalic wars.First, many people fled from their deserted lands in the countryside to the city wherethey did not – or at least not immediately – find their place in the social order. Secondly,the vicissitudes of war and the “alternations of success and failure” made the citizensreceptive to new interpretations of human existence ( Ab urbe condita 25.1). Some peoplemay have just used the cult to live out their sexual fantasies; nevertheless, there is noreason to doubt that to the majority of initiates the experience of drunkenness,unrestrained sexuality, and lustful violence was at the same time a religious experience. As even consul Postumius admits, the Bacchants felt driven by a divine force ( numen ) andclaimed to be acting according to the will of a god. Once this alternative dimension ofmeaning was accepted among a certain group of people, their desires became more and

more extreme as the norms and limitations of the overarching cosmion successivelybegan to fall. Eventually, some initiates were seeking the ultimate thrill in acts of sexual violence against adolescent males.

The cosmion reacted exactly in the moment when the apolitical forces ofunrestrained bodily desires had gained a dimension where their destructive potentialcould no longer be neglected.20 Besides the frightening size the cult had gained, there isevidence that promiscuous sexuality, especially the initiation of young males, who werethe future carriers of the republic, was the main reason for the reversal of the hithertotolerant policy toward the Bacchants.21 “The idea that young men were initiated beforethe age of twenty meant that they were getting initiated at exactly the same time as they were supposed to obtain their toga virilis; this could not be tolerated by the Senate”(Limoges, 2009: 90).

Additionally, Postumius intimates that especially the fact that young males wereinitiated and morally corrupted before the military could get hold of them, caused greatconcern. The military oath of somebody, who has already sworn the oath of Bacchicinitiation, is worthless. Those are not the right persons to defend the chastity of wivesand children ( Ab urbe condita 39.15.13-14). The concerns of the senators about sexualdisorder are also manifest in the original text of the second decree, when it orders that noman should wish to present himself to the female Bacchants ( Bacas neiquis uir adiese uelet )(Riccobono, 1968: 240, line 7; cf. Pailler, 1995: 166f.).


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Postumius depicts the Roman Republic as a cosmion in which the joint efforts ofgods and the civic institutions provide a shelter for the citizens. At the end of his speechhe solemnly emphasizes that especially now, in times of crisis, the leaders of the city, thelesser magistrates, and the people have to gather in order to protect the city ( Ab urbecondita 39.16.12-13). The god Bacchus, on the other hand, is not part of the cosmion butan alien force creating destructive forces inside the cosmion. The essence of thisdestructive force is religious individualism, the desire for individual fulfillment asopposed to the care for the public good. The Bacchants therefore actapolitically from theperspective of the republican cosmion. If the republic would not defend itself against thisalien element, Bacchus and his Bacchants would establish their own cosmion, in whichthe virtuous and pious citizens would be an alien element and subject to elimination.Postumius clearly sees that the core of the conflict is the clash between two oppositereligious experiences.22 On the one hand, there is the experience behind the civil religion,as most clearly expressed in one of Cicero’s speeches:

(...) who, once convinced that divinity does exist, can fail at thesame time to be convinced that it is by its power ( numen ) thatthis great empire has been created, extended, and sustained?( De haruspicum responsis oratio 9.19).23

The articulation of this experience with symbols likereligio, pietas , sanctitas , cura , andsacra publica contributed essentially to the evocation of the Roman cosmion and determinedthe symbolic structure of the political. Yet, there is another religious experiencesymbolized by the name of the alien god. Postumius does not doubt that the Bacchic

experience originates from the numinous sphere. Nevertheless, it is an experience whichoffends the gods of the ancestors, and therefore the gods support political measurestaken in order to fight the fatal result of this experience. All this is summed up in this onesentence of Postumius’:

All this we shall do, with the favour and approval of the gods; itis they who have dragged these matters out of the shadows intothe light of the day, because they were indignant that theirdivine majesty ( numen ) should be polluted by deeds of crimeand lust ( Ab urbe condita 39.16.11).

Postumius seems to say that the gods of the ancestors do not accept Bacchus as theirfellow god. He is an alien god even from the divine perspective. Consequently, none ofthe symbols of the republican cosmion really apply to the Bacchic cult. Alternativesymbols, however, are not simply at hand. Therefore, whenever traditional symbols areapplied to the Bacchanalia, they are often accompanied by adjectives which turn theminto their exact opposites ( religio prava , sacrarium obscenum , sacra externa , externus ritus ) (cf.Canzik-Lindemaier, 1996: 90f.). In other words, the application of the republicansymbols to the individualist cult of the Bacchants would undermine the logic of thepolitical order, based on the principle that the procuratio rei publicae is the highest form ofpersonal fulfillment.24 A Bacchant cannot be a citizen. Should the city accept the


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Bacchanalia assacra publica and asreligio civilis it would mean the victory of Bacchus andhis destructive power. Postumius understood that the most significant differentiation isnot the one between religion and politics, but between political and apolitical forms ofreligiosity.

At this point we have to ask what kind of god we are dealing with here. Thequestion is not easy to answer. The myths indeed say that Dionysus has to fightconstantly for his acknowledgment as a proper god in the divine as well as in the humanrealm (Vernant, 1999).25 It is, however, interesting that the mythological enemies ofDionysos are predominantly rulers, who try to ban him from their kingdoms: Perseus of Argos, Lykurgos of Thracia, and most importantly, Pentheus of Thebes (Kerényi, 1966:206). Dionysos, however, is the god ofmania and breaks his way through every humanresistance (Kerényi, 1967: 280-282). In the famous monologue at the beginning ofEuripides’Bacchae , the illegitimate son of Zeus announces his return to Thebes, thehometown of his mother Semele, as follows:

To this of Hellene cities first I come,Having established in far lands my dances And rites, to be God manifest to them.(...)

Now Cadmus gave his crown and royal estate To Pentheus, of another daughter born, Who wars with Heaven in me ( theomachei ta kat’ eme ),and from my libations Thrusts, nor makes mention of me in his prayers. Therefore to him my godhead will I prove. And to all Thebans ( Bacchae 20-22, 43-48).26

The king tries to ban Dionysos from the city, neglecting that a god does not stop at city walls ( Bacchae 653-654). Dionysos cunningly turns the women of the city into Maenads who follow him and celebrate Dionysian festivals in the mountains outside the city.Pentheus wants to stop the Bacchanalia, but falls victim to the Dionysian dimension inhimself. The god appeals to his voyeuristic desires as he seduces him, convincing him todress up like a woman and to observe the Bacchanalia in the mountains. The whole storycannot be told here, but finally Pentheus’ resistance against the god leads to hisdestruction in a gruesome scene. The women, including his mother, are blinded bymania and mistake him for an animal, tearing him to pieces.

One may, as E. R. Dodds did, interpret the story in psychological terms:

(...) the ‘moral’ of theBacchae is that we ignore at our peril thedemand of the human spirit for Dionysiac experience. Forthose who repress the demand in themselves or refuse itssatisfaction to others transform it by their act into a power ofdisintegration and destruction, a blind natural force that sweepsaway the innocent with the guilty.27


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This psychological dimension is certainly present in Euripides’ tragedy and the underlyingmyth. Yet, as Jean-Pierre Vernant did, one may also emphasize the political ‘moral’ of thestory:

The tragedy of theBacchae shows the dangers that are involved when a city retrenches within its own boundaries. If the worldof the same refuses to absorb the element of otherness thatevery group and every human being unconsciously carry withinthemselves, just as Pentheus refuses to recognize thatmysterious, feminine, Dionysiac element that attracts andfascinates him despite the horror that he claims to feel for it,then all that is stable, regular, and the same tips over andcollapses and the other, of hideous aspect, absolute othernessand a return to chaos, come to appear as the sinister truth, theother, authentic, and terrifying face of the same. The onlysolution is for women to use the controlled trance, an officiallyrecognizedthiasos [i.e. a Dionysian gathering; M.R.] promotedto the status of a public institution, while men turn to the joy ofthe komos , wine, disguise, and carnival and for the city as a whole, in and through the theater, to make it possible for theother to become one of the dimensions of both collective lifeand the daily life of each individual. The victorious eruption ofDionysus is a sign that otherness is being given its place, withfull honors, at the center of the social system (Vernant, 1990:402).

The argument of Vernantcan be brought in line with the terminology of Eric Voegelin’spolitical theory: From the perspective of the political, “absolute otherness” causing a“return to chaos” is the equivalent concept to Voegelin’s “apolitical forces” aiming at thedestruction of the cosmion. Expressed in these terms, Euripides seems to say that a sanepolitical order leaves some room for the Dionysian dimension. If the cosmion tries toban the Dionysian completely, it will break through and turn into violent rage. TheDionysian cannot be banned since it is the apolitical dimension of human naturetranscending all political orders. And according to Greek understanding, everything that

is generally in man, everything that is natural and essential must be of divine origin. Yet,the Dionysian can be contained within certain boundaries. In Euripides play Cadmus,Pentheus’s grandfather and predecessor on the throne, represents a type of ruler whoreconciled the Dionysian with the political. As Jean-Marie Pailler observed, only thispolitical reading of the tragedy as a play about thedialectique “bachique/civique” reveals theprofound relationship between Euripides’Bacchae and Livy’s account of the Bacchanalia.28

Returning to the Bacchanalia of 186 bce, wemay ask if Euripides’ message washeard in Rome. To this question we get different answers. Postumius resemblesPentheus, who wants to ban the god himself. It seems, however, that the Senate took amuch more moderate attitude, as is manifest in the second decree that was probablyissued after the senators were already confronted with theterror magnus of thepersecutions. They subjected the cult to strict regulations and the supervision of the


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Vernant rather than the one developed in Nietzsche’s early work The Birth of Tragedy. By sayingthat the Dionysian dimension is an anthropological reality I certainly do not claim that it is das Wahrhaft-Seiende, as Nietzsche says (Nietzsche, 1999: 38f). Nietzsche’s work undoubtedlycontains lucid passages even though his juxtaposition of the Dionysian and the Apollonian canhardly claim to be grounded in classical traditions. However, it is very unfortunate that he heldEuripides in such low esteem and therefore neglected the political significance of the Dionysianas displayed in the Bacchae.8 This novel-like part of the account begins in 39.9.2. The story, in fact, has been turned into adetective novel (Zimmermann, 1996)9 The narrative strikingly resembles the emergence of pantomime in Rome, as recently describedby Arpad Szakolczai (2013: 95-104). In both cases we are told that the practices migrated toRome from the East via Greece and Etruria (with possible origins in prehistoric shamanism). Inboth cases, the practices were at first perceived as alien and existed rather at the fringes of

society. And in both cases social disturbances resulting from imperial warfare have been maderesponsible for the acceptance of these foreign practices.10 For the reach of the persecution outside Rome see Stek (2009: 19-21).11 For a comprehensive study of the archaeological evidence of the Bacchus cult in Italy and itspersecution see Pailler (1988).12 Livy may have used the family annals of the Postumii or, more likely, a Latin translation of ahistory written in Greek by a younger relative. For the speech in particular he may have also usedthe acta senatus (Limoges, 2009: 78, 81; cf. Adamik, 2007: 333f.).13 Accordingly, in Livy’s text the concept of superstition is not applied to the Bacchanalia. 14 Eric Voegelin writes on Solon’s discovery: “The responsibility rests not with the gods, but withthe folly of men. (…) For the first time, the historico-political process appears as a chain of causeand effect; human action is the cause of order or disorder in the polis” (Voegelin 2000b: 265; cf.Meier 1995: 225ff. and Meier 1993: 69ff.). Postumius’ discovery is of exactly the same type. 15 Sarah Limoges points to Livy’s “stoic view of religion” but not to his use of Stoic ethicalconcepts (Limoges, 2009:78).16 For the Stoic theory of inclinationes naturales and its legacy in Western thought see Forschner(1998: 50-60 and 1995: 142-159).17 “La vrai crime, selon Tite-Live, était de commettre tous ces actes en obéissant aux lois d’unorganisme autre que l’État romain, et ce qui a encore aggravé la menace était le grand nombre desparticipants issus de toutes les couches de la société” (Nagy, 2002: 181). Such a large group ofinitiates is unprecedented in the history of the mystery cults (Burkert, 1987: 52f.).18 This short text, which previously existed only as a handwritten manuscript, is now published asappendix to Voegelin (1997: 225-237); some discussion of this text and its intellectual andbiographical background is found in Hollweck/Sandoz (1997), Henningsen (2000: 1-9), Gebhardt(1998), Sigwart (2005: 265-280), Riedl (2007: 113-115). See also Voegelin’s own remarks in his Autobiographical Reflections (Voegelin 1996: 62-69).19 “The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is thatbetween friend and enemy” (Schmitt, 1996: 26). 20 Cf. also the analysis of J. A. North from the perspective of religious history. North emphasizesthat the Bacchanalia must also be seen in the context of a religious revolution, namely theformation of religious organizations based on the membership principle. “It is difficult to

exaggerate the importance of the religious revolution of which this development was the firstsign in Italy. Once a society has within it groups of people who have joined together because of


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their shared religious beliefs, a whole new set of religious possibilities arises. The leadership ofthe group acquires a degree of control that priests had previously lacked: the organized groupbecomes a potentially threateningforce in politics” (North, 2000: 66).21 “It was the detail of the systematic sexual abuse, and especially as inflicted in young men, which caused the outrage (…)”( Walsh 1996: 200). “C’est bien cette entrée chez les Bacchantesde jeunes homes, ou plus exactement la multiplication de tels gestes, qui inquiète en 186 lepouvoir romain: cela lui paraît humainement aberrant et civiquement dangereux.” Pailler (1995:167); cf. Bauman (1990: 347).22 “They [the leaders of the Bacchants] were unwitting actors ina drama which was bigger thanthemselves. But it was also larger than the figures of the consuls and the majesty of the Senate,for it was a drama of ideas, a clash between two religious worlds, two totally different forms ofreligion, the religion of the State, in this case the Roman State, and the religion of the individual,here represented by the religion of the Bacchanalia. In this clash of ideas the persecution of the

Bacchanalia finds its real historical explanation.”(Pettazzoni 1954: 206).23 Quoted from the bilingual edition in Cicero (1965: 341).24 For the term procuratio see Verboven (2002: 230).25 See esp. the chap. “Dionysos à Thèbes”. 26 Quoted from Euripides (1912, vol. 3: 9-11). According to E. R. Dodds the words theomacheita kat’ eme could more adequately be translated as “opens war on deity in my person”(Dodds1960: 68).27 Quoted from Dodds’ introduction to Euripides (1960: xlv); cf. Dodds (1951: 273): “To resistDionysos is to repress the elemental in one’s nature; the punishment is the sudden completecollapse of the inward dykes when the elemental breaks through perforce and civilisation vanishes.”28 “En 186 av. J.-C., lorsqu’éclate à Rome le ‘scandale des Bacchanales’, c’est l’ombre de Thèbesqui s’étend sur l’Italie. Pour nous aujourd’hui, comme pour les administrés du consul persécuteurPostumius, les mythique ‘Bacchantes’ d’Euripide fournissent en effet le modèle et comme la grillede lecture de l’épisode dramatiquement réel dont Tite-Live (XXXIX, 8 à 19) nous a transmis lesouvenir” (Pailler 1995: 107). 29 “The question seems to have been handled pragmatically by a mixture of decree and policyregulation. Here was an admittedly ancient cult, and therefore offence to gods by its neglectmight be incurred of it was abolished altogether; at the same time, its rites were offensive anddestructive to social order. Therefore, their practice must be rendered harmless and confined tothe narrowest limits.” (Frend 1965: 111). 30 The “lampstand story” was extremely popular in this period, as we learn from the refutationsof various Christian authors (Wagemakers 2010: 338f.).

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