DIONYSUS – 186 B.C. PERSECUTION
Dionysus: The god of wine
Greek: Dionys… (Διόνυσ…) / Roman: Bacch… (Βακχ…)
Name refers to “orgy” (Greek: orgia [οργια])
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1993, Micropaedia, Vol. 1, p. 772, “Bacchanalia”:
Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Universe, Cavendish, 1995, vol. 13, p. 1810, “Mystery Religions”:
Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1933, p. 166:
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 1959, p. 68:
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Cotterell / Storm, 1999, p. 13, “The Myths of Greece and Rome | Introduction”:
http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/persecution.html (The Theologian: The Internet Journal for Integrated Theology), Church History, “Why were the Early Christians Persecuted?”:
For the first two centuries AD, the infant Church had to face deep popular hostility. This was based not only on their "hatred of the human race", but on widespread misunderstanding of their practices, especially the Lord’s Supper. The martyrs of Lyons were accused of "Thyestean banquets and Oedipean (incestuous) intercourse", and in AD 200, the lawyer Minucius Felix made the same charges of cannibalism and incest. Minucius also believed that Christians worshiped an asses head, a charge reflected in the graffito from Ostia which shows one Alexamenos worshipping a crucified figure with the head of an ass. This curious misconception was probably a reflection of anti-Semitism. … The Roman authorities were deeply suspicious of anything that looked like a secret society, especially if it was linked to an Asiatic religion, which they associated with immorality. In 186 BC the Bacchanalia had been suppressed, as had a collegium, (private club), for Isis worship in 58BC. In the reign of Trajan, collegia had been responsible for political unrest in Bithynia, and this was one of the reasons for Pliny’s suppression of the Christians. He reports to Trajan that "in accordance with your commands I had forbidden the existence of clubs (collegia)." The Bacchanalia were suspect not only due to rumours of their immorality, but also because of their plebeian origins; they were rumoured to have revolutionary intentions. Many of the early Christian converts were also of low social status, such as the "two maid-servants who were called deaconesses" that Pliny tortured. Celsus sneered at Christians as "the most illiterate and bucolic yokels" but he also warned of how "the more reckless urge the children to rebel."
Christians then were apparently a lot different than today’s suit and tie Christians, eh?
Chronicle of the World, Ecam Publications, 1989, 200-185BC, p. 169:
The New Century Cyclopedia of Names, Barnhart, 1954, Vol. 1, p. 293:
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, 1972, p. 101:
Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary, 1898, p. 207, “Dionysia”:
The Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition, 1989, Vol. 3, p. 13:
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1949, p. 129:
Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, Adkins, 1994, p. 258:
http://www.answers.com/Livy, “Livy”:
Book 39. The discovery and suppression of the Bacchanalian orgies
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy39.html, Livy's History of Rome: Book 39: The Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy, “39.18”:
The next task awaiting the consuls was the destruction of all the Bacchanalian shrines, beginning with Rome, and then throughout the length and breadth of Italy; those only excepted where there was an ancient altar or a sacred image. The senate decreed that for the future there should be no Bacchanalian rites in Rome or in Italy. If any one considered that this form of worship was a necessary obligation and that he could not dispense with it without incurring the guilt of irreligion, he was to make a declaration before the City praetor and the praetor was to consult the senate. If the senate gave permission, not less than one hundred senators being present, he might observe those rites on condition that not more than five persons took part in the service, that they had no common fund, and that there was no priest or conductor of the ceremonies.
(Livy or Titus Livius, c. 64 BC-12 AD)
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Cotterell / Storm, 1999, p. 39, “Dionysus”:
(This is referring to another persecution.)
Riot:
E.g.: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bacchanal:
bacchanal … 3: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity [syn: orgy, debauch, debauchery, saturnalia, riot, bacchanalia, drunken revelry]
A riot is an anti-establishment protest kind of thing. Governments have always tried to suppress sexual behavior deviating from set marriage, monogamous, possessiveness standards (where today we have the pill). Since it is easier for the human mind to only think in extremes (love or hate someone / something), when one becomes radical in sexual behavior, one can also become radical in violent behavior, to display their overall discontent, and to show deviance from the government standards all together. But, Jesus calmed this habitual unruly behavior associated with free sex, by symbolizing the dove in Matthew 3:16 (see my Baptism-Cotytto page), and Paul in 2 Peter 2:13 (“riot” in KJV). And, apparently, the hidden acts of the mysteries weren’t able to skirt a good journalist of that day.
The Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition, 1989, Vol. 3, p. 13, “Bacchus”:
“Oh tequila makes her clothes fall off” --Joe Nichols, 2005. It’s probably because of that Blue Agave (a Bacchante) in there.
http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/gnosis/dionysos.html, The Cult of Dionysos, “Rites of Ecstasy | (1) The Bacchants”:
"In 186 B.C.E. the Roman Senate met the increasing
suspicion about the Bacchanalia with decisive action. The official worship of Dionysos
in the Greco-Roman world was ordinarily more domesticated and respectable than
the frenzied revels of the Maenads in The Bacchae, but the orgies (Greek orgia) did continue
in some circles. Such apparently was the case in Rome during the early second
century B.C.E. Men had joined with the women in
secret Bacchic ceremonies held in the evening, and according to the
testimony of the witness Hispala, all sorts of criminal and immoral behavior transpired under the cover of
darkness. Upon hearing about this, the Senate adopted a decree that called for
the destruction of most Bacchic shrines and the strict control of all Bacchic
worship in Italy."
- The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook,
Marvin W. Meyer, Editor
http://www.sexualrecords.com/WSRvariety.html (World Sex Records), Sexual Variety:
Largest Orgy (this site is like a Guinness Book of World Records)
Throughout history there have been various religious orders that practiced mass
copulation as a means to please their gods. Titus
Livy, in History of Rome (Book 39.13), writes that the Bacchanalia, a Roman festival celebrated by
cult members in the second century BC,
would meet secretly and "no sort of crime, no
kind of immorality, was left unattempted." The cult would work
itself into a raving, orgiastic frenzy
and then "forcibly debauch"
the new recruits; any initiates who resisted were quickly dispatched. The group grew in popularity for a time, but
became so obnoxious even by the lax moral standards that the Senate banned the
cult in 186 BC. No known estimate of the
number of people who took part in these affairs exists, but at least 7,000
people were arrested in connection after the crackdown.