Y Myfyriwr Ymchwil

Cyfrol 2, Rhif 2, Mai 2013, 110

The Student Researcher
Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2013, 110

Prifysgol Cymru
Y Drindod Dewi Sant
University of Wales
Trinity Saint David

How does Livys Description of the Bacchanalia Scandal Reflect his

Programmatic Aims?
Jon Coles
Level 5, BA Classical Studies
Crynodeb
Tuedda ysgolheigion modern, wrth ymdrin fersiwn Livius ar sgandal Bachanalaidd 186
CC, i ganolbwyntio ar ei chywirdeb neu ei hanghywirdeb hanesyddol. O grafu o dan wyneb
yr hanes, gwelir y modd y perthyn i raglen gyffredinol Livius, fel yi heglurir yn y Rhagair
yn Lyfr Un i Ab Urbe Condita. Mae ller adroddiad yn adeiladwaith naratif ehangach Livius
yn tynnu sylw at bwynt yr ymddengys iddo gael ei esgeuluso wrth ystyried yr hanes hwn.
Er bod ysgolheigion wedi nodi defnydd rhydd Livius o archdeipiaur Gomedi Newydd,
awgrymar papur hwn fod perthynas ddyfnach rhwng testun Livius, ei ddull rhaglennol
sylfaenol, ar dull a ddefnyddia i bortreadur sgandal Bachanalaidd ir darllenydd. Honiad
y papur hwn yw mair allwedd i ddull Livius o drafod y sgandal Bachanalaidd ywr man
llei gosodir yn y testun a sylwebaeth eironig Livius ar ymgais Rhufeiniaid i ddod o hyd i
esboniad am y dirywiad moesol y credwyd ei weld ar yr union adeg yr oeddent yn dechrau
tra-arglwyddiaethu ar ardal Mr y Canoldir.
Geiriau allweddol: Hanesyddiaeth, beirniadaeth lenyddol, Rhufain

Abstract
Modern scholars approach to Livys account of the Bacchanalia scandal of 186 BCE tends
to focus on its historicity or lack thereof. Looking deeper into the account reveals how it
fits into Livys overarching programme, as defined in the Prologue in Book One to Ab Urbe
Condita. The accounts location in Livys broader narrative arc flags up a point that seems
to have been neglected when considering his tale. While scholars have noted Livys free use
of New Comedy archetypes, this paper suggests a deeper relationship between Livys text,
his underlying programmatic method, and the method he uses to play out the story of the
Bacchanalia scandal for the reader. The key to Livys approach to the Bacchanalia scandal,
this paper contends, is its location in the text and Livys ironic commentary upon Romans
search for an explanation of perceived moral decline even as it ascended to Mediterranean
supremacy.
Key words: Historiography, literary criticism, Rome

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Introduction
This paper considers the tension between the Romans religious identity and foreign
cult worship in the Italian peninsula in general and the city of Rome in particular.
Using Livy 39.8.119 as its principal source, it seeks to explore the idea of the Romans
Roman-ness, as reflected in their attitudes to ostensibly novel cults and cult practice
and the extent to which these were both suppressed and ultimately acculturated within
the Roman state. The principal source is Livys account of the incidents surrounding
the senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186 BCE, whereby according to Livy
the Roman senate suppressed the cult of Bacchus. The paper considers the light those
events shed upon how and why the state licensed and controlled its citizens and allies
conduct, whether civic or religious. That examination reveals the way in which Livys
dramatic narrative permits him to achieve the programmatic ends he sets out in the
Preface to Book 1 of his History. It also identifies the existence of a need to place the
scholarly and critical debate in its correct cultural context.
The Romans were acutely aware of their status as a parvenu power in the late
third and early second centuries BCE. They sought out and acquired ancient, quasihistorical, cultural and cultic links to provide themselves with an authoritative context
for their achievements. In this the Romans conformed to a long tradition stretching
back into Ancient Greek literature and beyond that into the complex genealogies and
aetiologies of the Near East.
The Romans were engaged in a process akin to that which Hobsbawm and Ranger
ascribe to later Western European nation states; namely, creating an invented tradition.
In a striking parallel between Ancient Rome and the modern nation states they
examine, Hobsbawm and Ranger posit
[The] curious but understandable paradox: modern nations and all their impedimenta generally claim to be the opposite of novel, namely rooted in remotest
antiquity, and the opposite of constructed, namely human communities so natural as to require no definition other than self-assertion.1
The dynamic and continuing process of reinvention caused tensions between the rulers
and the ruled. The Romans, as they achieved dominion, sought to paint themselves as
both the inheritors and perfectors of tradition. Evidence to support those contentions
is detectable in the works of Ennius and other early Latin epicists.2 The description in
Livy of early Roman society illuminates a search for balance to bridge the abyssal gaps
between the classes and the search for the right mix of attributes to satisfy the Roman
citizenry.3
Background
Roman religiosity appeared remarkable enough for Polybius, writing soon after the
events referred to above, to comment upon it as a distinguishing feature of Roman
society:
[] the quality in which the Roman commonwealth is most directly superior is
the nature of their religious convictions It is the very thing which maintains the cohesion of the Roman state My own opinion at least is that they have
adopted this course for the sake of the common people.4
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 How does Livys Description of the Bacchanalia Scandal Reflect his Programmatic Aims?

In a sense, Polybius anticipates a thesis from Kants Critique of Pure Reason and the
concept that, regardless of whether religion is founded on objectively shaky premises,
religious belief is a useful method of encouraging morality and moral conduct.
Extending that thesis further, Polybius actively suggests that top-down religion is a
valid method of social control. Livy endorses this very point.5
Livys graphic and lengthy description of the furore of 186 BCE surrounding the
practices of the cult of Bacchus, and the strong reaction to them by the Consuls
and Senate in Rome, suggests that religion even foreign-born was acceptable
(or at least tolerated) provided it did not threaten the established civic order. As
Livy relates it, the cult of Bacchus was understood by the senate to present a real
and present danger to the Roman state. Polybius makes the clear programmatic
statement regarding the ideal religious policy of the state when he writes the
multitude must be held in by invisible terrors and beliefs in the terrors of
hell.6
Livys account of the way he treats the events of the Bacchanalia scandal must be
considered in the light of the programmatic way in which he sets out his aims at the
start of his work. Walsh rather misses the point when he takes Livy to task for bias
when Livy makes plain in 1.910 that bias is what his History is about. 7 Indeed,
Walsh ignores what he acknowledges at p. 369 Livys preface does not denote a novel
approach but is part of a general tradition. When Livy was concerned about [the]
healthy and productive element of history: to behold object lessons From this you
should choose for yourself or for your state which to follow 8
He indicated an express intention to represent history in terms of a series of
moral lessons to inform, educate and (even) entertain. One might consider that if
an author tells you at the outset what he intends to do, how he intends to go about
it, and then goes ahead and does it, then criticising him for so doing holds him to a
critical standard to which he does not aspire and does not intend to address. From the
distance of over two thousand years, such criticism is particularly otiose. That is not to
say, however, that Livys work should be approached as anything other than a history.
As Oakley makes clear, Livys treatment of the historical material and sources at his
disposal demonstrates critical judgement within the constraints of the historical genre
at the time of composition.9
An analysis of the place of the Bacchanalia narrative in Livys overall scheme to
chart and describe moral decline is revealing.10 It is as Rome approaches Mediterranean
hegemony that Livy detects the first signs of moral decline in the events of 186 BCE.
The spectacular nature of Cn. Manilius triumph has already been remarked upon in
the chapters preceding the description of the Bacchanalia scandal. The advent of the
appurtenances of a sybaritic lifestyle is in itself the harbinger of doom.11
Livys New Comedy
According to Livys account, the appearance of the cult of Bacchus was an acute
phenomenon it spread rapidly (allegedly) from Etruria, where it was subject to the
malign influence of a nameless Greek . a dabbler in sacrifices and a fortune teller,12
to Rome like the contagion of a pestilence.13 The reader is struck by the melodramatic
way in which Livy relates his bizarre tale of debauchery, human sacrifice and noisy
rites that muffled the screams of its victims: Those who had refused to conspire, to
join in or to suffer abuse were sacrificed To consider nothing wrong was the
highest form of religious devotion.14
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Until exposed by chance, by one diligent city official, these acts apparently took
place unnoticed in the crowded city of Rome. The ignorance of bystanders to acts
being performed around them is typical of the drama from which Lily proceeds to
draw his characters and plot. Livys account of events owes much to New Comedy.
There is a cast of stock characters to populate his narrative. Beard, Price and North
point out that we can tell from references in Plautus that Livys account of the
history of the cult of Bacchus and its relationship with the Roman state is partial and
incomplete. Moreover, they contend as does Walsh 15 that it appears as though
Livys text is a literary re-working of his source material.16
Evidence from Plautus demonstrates a deep-seated Roman familiarity with
Bacchic cult.17 If that familiarity did not exist Plautus jokes would have no point
of reference and hence no point to his audience. Pistoclerus in Bacchides sets out the
position: I fear Bacchants, Bacchis and your bacchanalsWhat I fear, you wicked
creature is your bidding not your bed. Dens of darkness are not suited, madam, to my
tender years.18
That negative aspect is also used in Ennius and fragmentary remains of Naevius
Lycurgus.19 Livy chooses identifiable stereotypes from New Comedy to convey his
minatory tale. In Livys narrative, Aebitus stands in for the adulescens Pistoclerus.
Hispala Faecina well suits the stereotypical golden hearted courtesan. Aebitus tells
Hispala that his mother has pledged his initiation into the Bacchic mysteries in
gratitude for his recovery from illness. Horrified, Hispala tells him he would be
better off dead. Reluctant to accuse his mother of malice toward him, Hispala insists
that Aebitus stepfather, who has been the guardian of his estate, is trying to destroy
him.
All the characters involved are the stock stuff of New Comedy and as noted
above highly suggestive of the literary sources from which Livy culled the narrative
to form his tale.20 The prima facie reason for his decision is that he intended to animate
his story using a topos which his audience would have understood. The process can
be split down as follows:
1
2
3
4

the characters would be familiar;

they would behave as the audience expected;
the topos enables Livy to simplify a complex narrative; and
the method underlines the moral message

Other reasons can be postulated for choosing this method:

Livy the Political Commentator
Livy uses this narrative to reflect upon Cicero and the Catiline conspiracy.21 He
adds the topos of New Comedy to the mix to simplify the complex political reality
underlying Catilines and Ciceros positions within the Roman State. He uses the
Bacchanalia as emblematic of the sources of disorder within the body politic and puts
Sp. Postumius in the Cicero role of rooting out the rot at the heart of the Roman
state.
In this version of the narrative, Livy clothes a difficult and controversial period
in Romes history (the fate of the alleged conspirators and their associates was an
open wound) in New Comedys clothes. The narrative demonstrates the appropriate
use of Consular and Senatorial power, by implication contrasts it with inappropriate
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 How does Livys Description of the Bacchanalia Scandal Reflect his Programmatic Aims?

deployment of the same, and highlights the proactive role the state should have in
public protection.
Livy the Moral Commentator
Livy uses the narrative as part of his programmatic approach to Roman history.22
Livy plots Romes moral decline, even as its temporal power increases. The source of
Roman immorality and the motor for moral decline are portrayed as being of foreign,
i.e. non-native, origin. The ringleaders are revealed to be women (they are the source
of this mischief ),23 plebeians and non-citizens.24 In addition, the conspirators are
accused of undermining the martial nature of each Roman citizens obligation to the
state, as at 39.15.14 and 39.16.1.
Looking back at Book 1, Livy identifies the moral motor behind Romes rise to
power as being autochthonous. It is something born out of the land and out of the
innate characteristics of the Romans themselves. Livys account of the evolution of
the Roman state complements Polybius view of the same. To Polybius, the Romans
were uniquely suited for rule due to both their moral and religious character and the
organization of their states organs of power in a mixed constitution.
Livy fixes upon the opening of access to the wealth of the East as the onset of
Roman decline. While Rome is struggling, while it observant of native customs and
religious practice, while it is impelled by a moral as well as material mission, the
Roman state flourishes. Contrariwise, once Rome starts acquiring wealth, importing
foreign cult practices and starts focusing on the material over the moral, moral decline
and the descent into social chaos ensues. Book 39, which follows on from Roman
gains in the Eastern Mediterranean contains criticism of the wealth brought back to
Rome, the beginnings of foreign luxury were introduced to Rome by the army
from Asia...the signs then appearing were merely the seeds of the extravagance to
follow25, 186 BCE is, therefore, a pivotal point in Livys narrative. In addition to
these two reasons, a third can be cautiously posited:
Livy the Ironist
Livy uses a foreign literary genre to make a native, Roman point. In so doing, he plays
with the expectations of his readers. In Books 3840 Livy comments adversely on
foreign wealth, foreign cults and foreign ways and their deleterious effect on Rome.
In the case of the Bacchanalia scandal, he does so using what is essentially a foreign
medium, i.e. the narrative topoi of New Comedy. By doing so, Livy uses meta-textual
as well as inter-textual devices.
Read that way, Livys narrative is not simply a re-telling of a tale in a way that makes
a relatively contemporary political point; neither is it an exclusively programmatic
narrative with little or no historical basis. This synthesis places the narrative at the
heart of Livys programme. On the one hand, he is using the characters and plot arc
of a foreign form to communicate with his readers (as at 1 and 2 immediately above);
on the other, Livy is inviting the reader to conclude that (as with the Bacchic rites and
worship of Kybele as Magna Mater) the best use of foreign forms is to fit exclusively
Roman ends without losing sight of Roman virtues.
Livy relies upon his readers to get the point not only about alien input as a negative
influence, but also how foreign methods can be used by Rome in its favour. It is not,
in this reading, exclusively foreign influence and exposure to luxury that undermines
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Rome and hastens perceived moral decline into these days, in which we can bear
neither our diseases nor their remedies.26 Rather, it is misuse of foreign wealth and the
weakness of individuals in dealing with the opportunities wealth and power presents
to them that causes moral fracture.
The Inscription
We have direct and contemporaneous attestation of an alteration in permitted
Bacchanalian cult practices through a preserved copy of the senatorial decree that
substantiates the curtailment and control of the Bacchic cult: Concerning the
Bacchic shrines they decreed that the following proclamation be issued to those
who were bound <to Rome> by treaty: None of them shall seek to have a Bacchic
shrine. But if there are some who say it is essential for them to have a Bacchic shrine,
they should appear before the urban praetor in Rome, and our senate (emphases
added) 27
In seeking to reconcile Livys narrative with the historical record, Meisner proposes
that there were grounds for senatorial alarm in 186 BCE.28 He suggests that it is
possible that the ancient cult of Bacchus had been infiltrated by criminal elements or
those discontented with their lot. He further states that elements of this are touched
upon in Livys own account regarding the importance of oaths. However, with no
sources other than Livy and the text of the decree, we should be wary about conflating
possibility with probability, especially when a less immediate but no less powerful
motivation was available.
Cultic ritual and the drive for both defining and creating order created a holistic
relationship between the functions and organs of the state and the mechanism of
delivering cult and ritual. Cultic religion in Rome was not only an inclusive act or
series of acts, it was necessarily exclusive. A sharp division existed between the sacred
and the profane. The process of exclusion of the non-initiated or non-participants
pushed them to the margins. This is not the only tension apparent in Livys account.
The subtext to Livys narrative, as noted above, points toward cultural tensions. The
status of Livys Graecus ignobilis is highly suggestive of where his sympathies lie. It
places the phrase in a context that accords with the programmatic point regarding the
malignity of foreign influence.
Not all Romans, even those who received the benefit of a Greek education,
espoused philhellenism. In Livys narrative in Books 3840, Scipio and Cato appear
at opposite ends of that spectrum.29 Cultural conservatism was a powerful reactionary
force within Roman society. The Bacchic cult, ancient and well-known to the Romans,
was of Greek origin and had long been embedded in the Greek cities of southern Italy.
The incorporation of the Magna Mater cult in Roman religious discourse had a specific
purpose: an act to propitiate a deity and to invoke her aid against the Carthaginians
in the Second Punic War. From the conservative viewpoint, it was one thing to pay lip
service to a cult for the ends of the state but quite another to bend the cultural knee
so that Rome became yet another Hellenised, effete, and weak society. The Roman
Senate and Consuls assert their primacy by fixing upon a soft target, both familiar
and alien. The opportunistic alighting upon a weak opponent and building them up
in the public eye as the source of this mischief ,30 using the straw man arguments of
the species recorded by Livy, is a familiar trope throughout history. The process is one
familiar to the engaged modern citizen, whereby the forces of revulsion are at least as
strong as those of revolution.
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Such reactionary attitudes, lead us to a point outside Livys narrative. We can

propose one possibility to explain the events of 186 BCE. The question is not one
of social control of religion although that is a desirable outcome and by-product of
its resolution. The state licensed the activities of the Bacchic cult after 186 BCE, but
this was no more than formalising the type of arrangements it put in place for the
reception of the cult of Magna Mater some 25 years previously.31
The location of the inscription reproduced above is, this paper contends, of central
importance. The inscription was located near Tirolo in Cantabria. The south of Italy
(unsurprisingly given the prevalence of Greek influence there) remained a centre for
Bacchic cult worship. Evidence from the excavation at Pompeii demonstrates that
point. The physical evidence demonstrates that licensing of Bacchic ritual, if it took
place in all circumstances throughout the Italian peninsula as required or at all, was
peripheral to the central intention of the Roman state.
The location of the inscription is important as it is a Roman definition of its
relationship with its allies. It conveys the sense that as the Labour minister Shawcross
put it in Parliament when crowing over the relief of Conservative trades union laws in
1946 we are the masters now. The inscription asserts the same essence of dominion,
not only over the temporal, but over the whole paraphernalia and apparatus of their
allies, including the spiritual.
Livys account of the previous reaction by the Roman state to new cult shows
that those who took part in certain cults and those whose activities received most
control were women, the lower classes and foreigners. To this extent we can say,
therefore, that the Bacchic cult was attractive to those otherwise marginalised from
civic discourse and public ritual practice.
The threat to civil order, such as it was, and to which the Senate reacted so strongly,
emanated not only from those alien to Rome but from those within but not fully of
Rome. Those responsible are emblematic of the concern of Rome to keep its friends
close but its enemies (or at least those who threatened Roman hegemony) closer.
McDonald notes the underlying tensions between Rome and its Italian confederates
contemporaneous with the Bacchanalia scandal.32 McDonalds approach supports the
contention that the Roman Senate and Consuls were partly, if not chiefly, interested
in using the Bacchanalia scandal to reinforce Roman power and the concepts of what
it meant to be a Roman citizen and Roman ally within the Italian peninsula. Gruen
states unequivocally that the affair defined and legitimised senatorial authority both
temporal and spiritual and was an attempt to restrain Hellenism.33
Conclusion
By the close of 186 BCE, the Roman state had expanded rapidly toward being a
Mediterranean superpower. The opportunities which Rome had seized were, in the
mind of those suspicious of foreign influence and reactionary against expanding
philhellenism, accompanied by threats. We have noted that tension is both fully
developed and alluded to in Livys express narrative and its subtext. Context suggests,
therefore, that the Senates reaction is both an act and a symbol. As Takacs puts it,
Those who were singled out for undermining the ruling authority, Rome, were
executed not for their participation in a cult but so political order could prevail.34
Luce points out that Book 39 of Livy is organised placing the Bacchanalian
narrative between the description of the triumph and events in Liguria both to
heighten the dramatic impact of the story and underline the textual and sub-textual
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points made.35 The transgressive (in the broadest sense) nature of the Bacchic ritual,
domestic political and cultural tensions, the author suggests, underpin senatorial
alarm in 186 BCE. That reactionary response to philhellenism, seen through the
prism of the semi-suppression of the Bacchic cult, aggressively asserts the reactionary
Romans own sense of Roman identity.
All the above accords with Livys central programme; he looks back to the past
and draws moral examples from history that he casts in a moral narrative. The form
of the narrative is incidental and complementary to his overarching theme. Livy is
interested in decline. Rightly or wrongly, he identifies a highpoint of Romes moral
force (probably 184 BCE and the consulship of Cato)36 and a retreat from that moral
high-tide mark.
The context for Livys history37 is a context that Livy identifies right at the beginning
of Book 1. It is not a context contingent upon the political and cultural biases of the
analyst, thus bearing out the axiom that the nature of observation changes both the
observer and the observed. We can criticise Livy on grounds of bias, his probable (if
not, certain) exclusion of material that does not suit or support his central theses, and
the absence of empirical economic or social data. It is, however, otiose to criticise Livy
for following a programmatic thesis statement to its conclusion. To that extent, some
modern scholars criticisms of Livys methodology and approach miss the mark by
some two thousand or so years.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Dr Pauline Hanesworth for her advice and teaching.
Notes
1 Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983. 14)
2 Ennius, Annales
3 Livy 25, in particular
4 Polyb. 6.56.69
5 Notably at 5.5254
6 Polyb. 6.56.1112
7 Walsh (1955. 370)
8 Livy 1.10
9 Oakley (1994. 171184)
10 Livy 1.9
11 Livy 39.57
12 Livy 39.8.3 the phrase Graecus ignobilis perhaps conveys the sense better than the English
translation
13 Livy 39.9.1
14 Livy 39.8.1011
15 Walsh (1996. 192)
16 Beard, Price & North (1998: 9293)
17 For example, in Bacchides, Aulularia and Amphitryo
18 Plautus. Bacchides 535. The subject is developed further as at Cistellaria 1569
19 Ennius. Athamas 1237; Naevius. Lycurgus. F. 57 cited in Goldberg. 2007. 578 n
20 A point made expressly by Walsh (1996. 188203)
21 As Nousek (2010. 156166)
22 Walshs criticism of the text (1996. 188203)
23 Livy 39.15.9
24 Livy 39.15.1011
25 Livy 39.6
26 Livy 1.9
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27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37

ILS 18; ILLRP 511 in Beard (1998: 290291)

Meisner (2008. 3435)
cf. Livy 29.19.12 with 39.42.5
Livy 39.15.9
Livy 29.1011
McDonald (1944: 1133)
Gruen (1984. 7677)
Takacs (2000. 310)
Luce (1977. 234)
Livy 4041
Therefore the context for his account of the Bacchanalia scandal in Book 39

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