Paculla Annia - Rites

Rites

In 188 BC, Paculla is said to have allowed men to participate for the first time, although it is now believed that men had participated before that. The first men to be initiated were her sons, Minius and Herennius Cerrinius. She also ordered the festivities to take place by night instead of by day, and decided that instead of taking place over three days in a year there would be five days of initiation in each month. Participants of the ceremonies were to be of all sorts: men and women, noble and common people, free and slaves—all in a celebration of wine and sex. Finally, as a rule, it was decided that no-one older than twenty should be initiated.

In the rites, men were said to have shrieked out prophecies in an altered state of consciousness with frenzied bodily convulsions. Women, dressed as Bacchantes, with hair dishevelled, would run down to the Tiber with burning torches, plunge them into the water, and take them out again. Their flames would not diminish as they were made of sulphur mixed with lime.

The rites gradually turned into sexual orgies, particularly among the men, and men who refused to take part were sacrificed. It is said these men were fastened to a machine and taken to hidden caves, where it was claimed they were kidnapped by the gods.

The festivities were reported to Postumius who persuaded the Roman Senate to authorize a full investigation. In 186 BC, the Senate passed a strict law (the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus) prohibiting the Bacchanalia except under specific circumstances which required the approval of the Senate. Violators were to be executed.