page_title: Bacchanalia
section_title: Reform
hierarchical_section_title: Bacchanalia / Reform
caption_attribution_description: English: Weddings of Dionysos and Ariadne. The Latin inscription identifies the girl for whom this sarcophagus was made as Maconiana Severiana, member of a wealthy senatorial family. Ariadne's face was probably left unfinished to be completed as a portrait of Maconiana. The lion supports were added sometime after the discovery of the sarcophagus in Rome in 1873. Roman marble sarcophagus, 210–220. Español: Sarcófago romano de mármol de 210-220, decorado con un relieve de las bodas de Dioniso y Ariadna cuya inscripción indica que fue dedicado a una mujer senatorial llamada Maconia Severina, cuyo retrato fue colocado en la figura de Ariadna; corresponde con la inscripción CIL VI 3834 = CIL VI 31733, y su texto se desarrolla como: D(is) M(anibus)/ MACONIAE SEVERINAE/ FILIAE DVLCISSIMAE/ M(arcus) SEMPRONIVS PROCVLVS/ FAVSTINIANVS V(ir) C(larissimus) ET/ PRAECILIA SEVERIANA C(larissima) F(emina)/ PARENTES. Français&#160;: Noces de Dionysos et d'Ariane. L'inscription latine identifie la fille à qui ce sarcophage était destinée&#160;: Maconiana Severiana, membre d'une puissante famille sénatoriale. Le visage d'Ariane a probablement été laissé inachevé afin de le complété avec un portrait de Maconiana. Les pieds en forme de lions ont été ajoutés peu après la découverte du sarcophage à Rome en 1873. Sarcophage romain en marbre, 210-220.
context_page_description: The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They seem to have been popular and well-organised throughout the central and southern Italian peninsula. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult Liberalia which is dedicated to Liber and spouse Libera, also known as Proserpina. The cult probably arrived in Rome itself around 200 BC. However, like all Greco-Roman mysteries very little is known of their rites. Once the Bacchanalia had become popular, The Roman Senate was threatened by the Bacchanalia because they believed it was designed to rebel against their political views, thus wanted to suppress the mystery cult to avoid any kind of rebellion against the Senate.
  Livy, writing some 200 years after the event, offers a scandalized and extremely colourful account of the Bacchanalia. Modern scholars take a skeptical approach to Livy's allegations of frenzied rites, sexually violent initiations of both sexes, all ages and all social classes and of the cult being a murderous instrument of conspiracy against the state.
context_section_description: The Legislation of 186 survives in the form of an inscription. Known as the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, it brought the Bacchanalia under control of the senate, and thus of the Roman pontifices. The existing cult chapters and colleges were dismantled. Congregations of mixed gender were permitted, but were limited to no more than two men and three women, and any Bacchanalia gathering must seek prior permission from the Senate. Men were forbidden to becoming Bacchus' priesthood.
  Despite their official suppression, illicit Bacchanals persisted covertly for many years, particularly in Southern Italy, their likely place of origin. The reformed, officially approved Bacchic cults would have borne little resemblance to the earlier crowded, ecstatic and uninhibited Bacchanalia. Similar attrition may have been imposed on Liber's cults; his perceived or actual association with the Bacchanalia may be the reason that his Liberalia ludi of 17 March were temporarily moved to Ceres' Cerealia of 12–19 April. They were restored when the ferocity of reaction eased, but in approved, much modified form.
caption: Bacchanal on a Roman sarcophagus of 210–220 AD
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