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Cato the Censor (234
BC - 149 BC) 
issued many warnings about
the innumerable quack astrologers and magicians coming to Rome
in and around 200-150 BC.But the influence of the quack astrologers was
far outweighed by the influence of the knowledge accumulated by
Greek astronomers, and the Romans were enormously impressed by
scientific achievements. When Marcellus conquered Syracuse in
212 BC, and returned to Rome with a magnificent model of the
celestial spheres which he had found in the house of Archimedes
(killed when the city fell), it was greatly admired - and used.
Cato would eventually learn Greek as well. Starting in the middle
of the second century BC, in every aspect of the
private culture of the upper classes, Greek
culture was increasingly in ascendancy, in spite
of tirades against the "softening" effects of
Hellenized culture from the conservative
moralists. By the time of Augustus, cultured
Greek household slaves taught the Roman young
(sometimes even the girls); chefs, decorators,
secretaries, doctors, and hairdressers—all came
from the Greek East.
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| Cato
Quotes |
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| Cato the
Younger (95 BC–46 BC), known as Cato the Younger to
distinguish him from his great-grandfather Cato the Elder, was a
politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a
follower of the Stoic philosophy. He is remembered for his
legendary stubbornness and tenacity especially in his lengthy
conflict with Julius Caesar, as well as his immunity to bribes
and famous distaste for corruption. |
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Bacchus on Roman Coins |
Bacchus, with his attributes, is more
frequently found on colonial imperial coins; especially on those
struck in Syria and Phoenicia, by most cities of which regions
he was worshipped, on account of his traditional expeditions to
the East.
Besides Apamea, in whose mintages the Indian Bacchus appears,
the God of Wine is seen on several coins of Berytus, mostly
dedicated to Gordianus Pius.
On a brass coin dedicated at Damascus, to Trebonianus Gallus,
Bacchus under the figure of a young man, stands naked, on a
plinth, holding a vine tendril in each hand. His image on this
coin shows that he was worshipped by the inhabitants of
Damascus, in whose terrority he was said to have originally
planted the vine.
Dictionary Of Roman Coins
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Calendar
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45 BC In order to return festivals to their original position
Julius Caesar made his most significant contribution to world
history, among many -- the Julian calendar.
Caesar employed the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes to work out a new 12-month calendar
based upon 12 months and 365.25 days.
The new calendar set
abandons the lunar cycle.
The first Roman year began in the month of March (named after
Mars), when the earth begins to spring to life again after
winter. This made September the seventh month of the year. In
Latin, Septembris, Octobris, Novembris and Decembris (September,
October, November, and December) mean the 7th, 8th, 9th, and
10th month respectively. When Julius Ceasar changed the Roman
calendar in 46 BC he made January the first month, and did not
change the names of the months or their relative order. He
coined the names of 8 months leaving the four misnamed as a
deference to a successor or perhaps to help insure his memory
whenever the question is asked.
April is named after Aphrodite. May is named
for the Goddess Maia and June, for Juno. The fifth month,
Quintilis, was named Julius (July) to honor Julius Caesar. And
the sixth month, Sextilis, was renamed Augustus in honor of the
second Caesar.
The oldest Roman calendars only contained the
ten months Januarius (named for Janus, the Roman God
of doors) and Februarius were added to the calendar. Februarius
came from a Latin word meaning, "to purify" and this month of
purification was shortened or lengthened in order to fit the
solar year.
It solved the 1/4 day by making every 4th year
being a leap year or adding an extra day every four years. The
matter of a year actually having an additional 11 minutes beyond solar year
length every calendar year would not be resolved till the middle of the sixteenth
century when these added minutes had accumulated to
point that Christian festivals were not being observed during
their original time frames. |
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Pontifex Maximus
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| At the head of Rome's religion was the
Pontifex Maximus, who, when Rome became a republic, had
replaced the Etruscan king in this role. Under the Pontifex
Maximus was a college of priests, who were called pontiffs. They
were officers of the government in charge of handling Rome's
relations with the supernatural. It was their duty to keep the
city on good terms with the gods by preserving religious
traditions and by making sure that every important act of state
was sanctioned by the gods, including relations with foreign
communities. Priests were assigned to individual gods, and laws
derived from myths governed their actions: the priest of
Jupiter was forbidden to walk under an arbor of vines, touch a
dead man, eat bread fermented with yeast or to go outside
without his cap. |
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Cumont, who also wrote
The Mysteries of Mithra
was a Belgian scholar who specialized in the study of ancient
religion. Topics include the cults of the Magna Mater,
Cyblele, Isis, Astarte, Mithrism and Zoroastrianism, as well as
a study of astrology and how it became part of Roman beliefs
wiki/
Franz_Cumont
Mysteries of Mithra,
by Franz Cumont (English translation) at sacred-texts.com
The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism,
by Franz Cumont (English translation) at sacred-texts.com
Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks
and Romans, by Franz Cumont at
sacred-texts.com |
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The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and
started the year on 1 March. It was dedicated to Roman God of War, Mars
who was honored daily with parades of the priests of Mars dancing
through the streets. The culmination of the year end celebration was
March 16 and 17th which were the feast days of Bacchus which was how
Dionysus was known throughout the Roman empire. Fear of a powerful
non-roman religious hierarchy resulted in restrictions by Senate decree
in 186 AD which were not repealed until Julius Caesar was in power. Into
this vacuum flowed numerous other cults whose mythic stories often
replayed the great cosmic drama of life-death-rebirth. The backdrop was
the Mediterranean and particularly the world's first great
 multicultural community
of Rome.
Today, as above, we continue to use the symbol of a
festive baby for our commemoration of New Year's. Meanwhile, for those
cities fortunate to have an annual Carnaval parade, your most likely
find the best repository for the ancient rhythms and dances of the rite
which celebrates rebirth in this cosmic dance.
Neo-Platonism [wiki],
attempted the reconciliation of the antiquated religions with the
advanced moral and intellectual ideas of its own time by spiritual
interpretation of outgrown cult stories and cult practices several times
over the course of history including the change from Christianity to the
Roman Catholic Church. Yet the tension between
Apollo and Dionysos-Bacchus has never been far below the surface, as
revelations seek a communion with truth. A powerful revitalizing
force from vital Oriental religions who entered the Roman arena wtih the
advent of the Great Mother of the Gods in B. C. 204 and never left
despite the downfall of paganism at the end of the fourth century
continues to the present. The eventual triumph of Christianity in the
age of Pisces must be considered an evolution in these mysteries.
The Great Mother and Attis, with self-consecration,
enthusiasm, and asceticism; Isis and Serapis, with the ideals of
communion and
purification; Baal, the omnipotent dweller in the far-off heavens;
Jehovah, the jealous God of the Hebrews, omniscient and omnipresent;
Mithra, deity of the sun, with the Persian dualism of good and evil, and
with after-death rewards and punishments--all these, and more, flowed
successively into the channel of Roman life
ROMAN EMPIRE: Dionysus,
Orpheus, Attis,
Serapis-Osirus,
Mithras and Jesus were all gods whose cult
adherents believed had died and risen again. Mystery cults offered their
believers access to a personal relationship with the divine that would
offer them a meaningful peace in their human existence, and more
importantly, a belief in a new life that transcended death in after
world. Worshippers
would also experience a personal initiation or baptism in which a
special ceremony would reveal secrets only to be known by members. Cult ceremonies often
included hymns and ritual feasts. Most observed a calendar of yearly
celebrations which might be preceded by periods of ritual preparation by
members.
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Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus
Roman, 186 B.C Bronze;
L: 27,3 cm, W: 28,5 cm |
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This
inscription from the year 186 B. C. is the oldest
surviving Senatorical Decree and an important
document in the history of the Latin language. |
The popularity with citizens of the Roman Empire, and their own
different hierarchical nature in terms of deference paid to priests
disturbed Rome's political/religious leadership. As the priests,
were often not Roman, and not of the 'best' social background it was
perceived that there was an undermining of Roman values concerning
gender, status and class. When cult popularity advanced ethnically
distinct groups within Rome, the Roman rulers grew concerned. Cults that
refused to participate in the multicultural milieu of pagan worship like Christianity further increased Roman suspicion and
raised the ire of all Roman citizens.
The organization of cults was specific and hierarchical.
While some might allow any to be priest or priestess, others, such as
high priests of Isis were at first limited by birth to the priestly caste based
in Egypt. Most cults, including the Bacchic, were democratic in their membership allowing
women and men worshipped together regardless of ethnic or social caste.
Roman women of the
senatorial elite frequently played major roles as patrons of and
participants in mystery cults. While traditional Roman, public religion
offered a place for women, it did not offer them much of an active role
in ritual observations and, with very few exceptions, offered them no
positions of religious authority. Female worshippers of Dionysus were
called Bacchants and celebrations in his honor were called the
Bacchanalia.
Originally the Roman initiation into the cult of
Bacchus was attended by women only, on three days in the year in the
grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill, around March
16 and 17. But democratic growth brought all
sexes and classes into a weekly observance. The
growth of the powerful female priesthood
attracted the attention of the Roman Senate.
The Bacchic cult had been established in Greece for centuries and was
established in Etruria and southern Italy long before Senatorial decree
of 186 BCE and for some time in Rome as well.
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The Roman
fertility deities Liberia and Liber became synonymous with
Bacchanalia although Liberia resembled the Greek
agricultural goddess Persephone more than Dionysus' wife
Ariadne
All three goddesses are preservers of marriage and the sacred
law |
Thus, the Senate's action was taken against a cult it
had tolerated for a long while but whose
influence was growing and whose hierarchy threatened the elite. The free
participation in Dionysian rites by slaves and free, Romans and
foreigners, and men and women was undermining the rank of the powerful
men. The "ecstatic" practices - which included drink and an encounter
with the god described in erotic language might be found unsettling or
even threatening.
While much of the Roman propaganda against the cult focused on critiques
of ritual practice, the Senate's edict was, in fact, directed only
against the hierarchical organization of the cult. It forbade Romans to
be priests. It forbade adherents to share money and property in kind. It
forbade adherents to recognize the authority of Bacchic priests in their
daily lives. Thus, devotees of Bacchus could get drunk and have sex as
much as they liked, as long as their worship didn't create a structure
of social and religious authority that members of the Senatorial elite
could not control. Similarly, in the propaganda Livy reiterates attacks
on the role of women in the cult, what appears to have prompted at least
part of the Senatorial response was the fact that cult had begun to
become popular with Roman men. Thus the existing cult structure would
have permitted women authority over the lives of male adherents.
Nevertheless, as throughout the empire, the cult of
Dionysus continued to remain the most practiced and popular, yet the
action no doubt enhanced the advantage to rival cults. The women only
cult of Bon Dia, where the name Bacchus could not be mentioned appears
to have become the place for the elite women of Rome.
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Official
Propaganda
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| ROMAN
SENATE BANS BACCHANALIA |
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Burkert writes in Ancient Mystery Cults, p. 105, of Livy's
testimony about the Bacchanalia of 186 B. C: "With as much explicitness
as Augustan prudery would allow, he says that the initiands suffered
homosexual rape." |
| In 186 B.C. the Roman
Senate, alarmed at reports of deterioration in the
ceremonies attempted to regulate the practice throughout the
country.— the
so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet
discovered in Calabria (1640), now at Vienna — by which the
Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in
certain special cases which must be approved specifically by
the Senate. |
| Hispala, a
courtesan, was the chief witness the Senate used to justify
their restriction. She gave this account on Bacchus mystery
practices. |
The
Testimony of the Chief Witness
"At first,those rites were performed by women. No man used to
be admitted. They had three stated days in the year on which
persons were initiated among the Bacchanalians, in the
daytime. The matrons used to be appointed priestesses, in
rotation. Paculla Minia, a Campanian, when priestess, made
an alteration in every particular, as if by the direction of
the gods. For she first introduced men, who were her own
sons, Minucius and Herrenius, both surnamed Cerrinius;
changed the time of celebration, from day to night; and,
instead of three days in the year, appointed five days of
initiation, in each month.
"From the time
that the rites were thus made common, and men were
intermixed with women, and the licentious freedom of the
night was added, there was nothing wicked, nothing
flagitious, that had not been practiced among them. There
were more frequent pollution of men with each other than
with women. If any were less patient in submitting to
dishonor, or more averse to the commission of vice, they
were sacrificed as victims.
"To think nothing
unlawful was the grand maxim of their religion. The men, as
if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic
contortions of their bodies; the women, in the habit of
Bacchantes, with their hair disheveled, and carrying blazing
torches, ran down to the Tiber; where, dipping their torches
in the water, they drew them up again with the flame
unextinguished, being composed of native sulphur and
charcoal. They said that those men were carried off by the
gods, whom the machines laid hold of and dragged from their
view into secret caves. These were such as refused to take
the oath of the society, or to associate in their crimes, or
to submit to defilement. This number was exceedingly great
now, almost a second state in themselves, and among them
were many men and women of noble families. During the last
two years it had been a rule, that no person above the age
of twenty should be initiated; for they sought for people of
such age as made them more liable to suffer deception and
personal abuse.
"Whatsoever
may have remained to represent the original intent
of the rites, regarded as Rites of Initiation, the
externalities and practice of the Festivals were
orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of
drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one
leading up to the other. Over all reigned the
Phallus, which - in its symbolism a rebours -
represented post ejaculation the death-state of
Bacchus, the god of pleasure, and his resurrection
when it was in forma errecta. Of such was the sorrow
and of such the joy of these Mysteries".
(A E Waite, New Encyclopedia of
Freemasonry) |
'This Dionysiac
mystery-cult,' according to the consul 'is a growing evil;
its adherents grow more numerous every day it weakens
loyalty to the state; it is a conspiracy; it is the sole
cause of all the evils of recent years; and unless we are
vigilant, it will take over the state (for that is their
aim).. .' |
|
Livy, History of Rome,
Book 39.8-19. Describing the ban on Dionysan worship. |
"The trouble had
started with the arrival in Eturia of a Greek of humble
origin, possessed of none of those numerous
accomplishments which the Greek people, the most highly
educated and civilized of nations, has introduced among
us for the cultivation of mind and body; he dealt in
sacrifices and soothsaying. But his method of infecting
people's minds with error was not by the open practice
of his rites and the public advertisement of his trade
and his system; he was the hierophant of secret
ceremonies performed at night. There were initiations
which at first were only imparted to a few; but they
soon began to be widespread among men and women. The
pleasures of drinking and feasting were added to the
religious rites, to attract a larger number of
followers. When wine had inflamed their feelings, and
night and the mingling of sexes and of different ages
had extinguished all power of moral judgment, all sorts
of corruption began to be practiced, since each person
had ready to hand the chance of gratifying the
particular desire to which he was naturally inclined.
The corruption was not confined to one kind of evil, the
promiscuous violation of free men and women; the cult
was also a source of supply of false witnesses, forged
documents and wills, and perjured evidence, dealing also
in poisons and in wholesale murders among the devotees,
and sometimes ensuring that not even the bodies were
found for burial....."The Senate decreed
that the priests of these rites, male and female, were
to be sought out...so that they should be available for
the consuls [who were investigating the cult]...
"The next task
entrusted to the consuls was the destruction of all
shrines of Bacchic worship, first at Rome and then
throughout Italy...for the future it was provided by
decree of the Senate that there should be no Bacchanalia
in Rome or Italy."
(Trans: Henry
Bettenson, "Livy: Rome and the Mediterranean",
New York, Penguin, 1976)
Livy's History of Rome: Book 39
The Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy Translator: Rev.
Canon Roberts
Rome 186 BC
(Livy, Book 39, 8, 13)
victorytutorials.com/Great%20Books
%202/Ceasar%20and%20Cato.htm
CAESAR (100-44 B.C.) Plutarch translated by John Dryden |
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Bon
Dia |
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Plutarch describes a
famous scandal which sheds light on the cult of Bon Dia |
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"I wished my wife to be
not so much as suspected."
Caesar replied |
"Publius Clodius was a patrician by descent,
eminent both for his riches and eloquence, but in licentiousness
of life and audacity exceeded the most noted profligates of the
day. He was in love with Pompeia, Caesar’s wife, and she had no
aversion to him. But there was strict watch kept on her
apartment, and Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, who was a discreet
woman, being continually about her, made any interview very
dangerous and difficult.
The Romans have a goddess whom they
call Bona, the same whom the Greeks call Gynaecea. The
Phrygians, who claim a peculiar title to her, say she was mother
to Midas. The Romans profess she was one of the Dryads, and
married to Faunus.
The Grecians affirm that she is that mother of Bacchus whose
name is not to be uttered, and, for this reason, the women who
celebrate her festival cover the tents with vine-branches, and,
in accordance with the fable, a consecrated serpent is placed by
the goddess.
It is not lawful for a man to be by, nor so much as
in the house, whilst the rites are celebrated, but the women by
themselves perform the sacred offices, which are said to be much
the same with those used in the solemnities of Orpheus. When the
festival comes, the husband, who is either consul or praetor,
and with him every male creature, quits the house. The wife then
taking it under her care sets it in order, and the principal
ceremonies are performed during the night, the women playing
together amongst themselves as they keep watch, and music of
various kinds going on.
As Pompeia was at that time celebrating this feast, Clodius, who
as yet had no beard, and so thought to pass undiscovered, took
upon him the dress and ornaments of a singing woman, and so came
thither, having the air of a young girl. Finding the doors open,
he was without any stop introduced by the maid, who was in the
intrigue. She presently ran to tell Pompeia, but as she was away
a long time, he grew uneasy in waiting for her, and left his
post and traversed the house from one room to another, still
taking care to avoid the lights, till at last Aurelia’s woman
met him, and invited him to play with her, as the women did
among themselves. He refused to comply, and she presently pulled
him forward, and asked him who he was and whence he Clodius told
her he was waiting for Pompeia’s own maid, Abra, being in fact
her own name also, and as he said so, betrayed himself by his
voice. Upon which the woman shrieking, ran into the company
where there were lights, and cried out she had discovered a man.
The women were all in a fright. Aurelia covered up the sacred
things and stopped the proceedings, and having ordered the doors
to be shut, went about with lights to find Clodius, who was got
into the maid’s room that he had come in with, and was seized
there. The women knew him, and drove him out of doors, and at
once, that same night, went home and told their husbands the
story.
In the morning, it was all about the town, what an
impious attempt Clodius had made, and how he ought to be
punished as an offender, not only against those whom he had
offended, but also against the public and the gods. Upon which
one of the tribunes impeached him for profaning the holy rites,
and some of the principal senators combined together and gave
evidence against him, that besides many other horrible crimes,
he had been guilty of incest with his own sister, who was
married to Lucullus. But the people set themselves against this
combination of the nobility, and defended Clodius, which was of
great service to him with the judges, who took alarm and were
afraid to provoke the multitude. Caesar at once dismissed
Pompeia, but being summoned as a witness against Clodius, said
he had nothing to
charge him with. This looking like a paradox,
the accuser asked him why he parted with his wife. Caesar
replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected." Some
say that Caesar spoke this as his real thought, others, that he
did it to gratify the people, who were very earnest to save Clodius. Clodius, at any rate, escaped; most of the judges
giving their opinions so written as to be illegible that they
might not be in danger from the people by condemning him, nor in
disgrace with the nobility by acquitting him.
CAESAR (100-44 B.C.)
Plutarch translated by John
Dryden
http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/caesar.html
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| MAIA: The Goddess honored by Bon Dia cult's is an early earth
goddess which corresponds can mean either
Isis or Cybele
who were prominent but the earliest earth goddess for Rome was Maia who Caesar named the
month of May after in 46 BC. |
| Roman Timeline: |
36 BC: Rome tries to invade Persia
31 BC: Octavianus (Augustus)
becomes the first emperor after defeating Mark Anthony at the
battle of Actium
30 BC: Cleopatra commits suicide
and Egypt is annexed to Roma
20 BC: a treaty between Roma and
Persia (Parthians) fixes the boundary between the two empires
along the Euphrates river (Iraq)
17 BC: the theater of Marcellus
13 BC: Augustus expands the borders
to the region of the Danube
6 BC: Jesus is born in Palestine
1 AD: Roma has about one million
people
2 AD: the Forum of Augustus
5 AD: Roma acknowledges Cymbeline,
King of the Catuvellauni, as king of Britain
6 AD: Augustus expands the borders
to the Balkans
12 AD: The last Etruscan
inscription is carved
14 AD: Augustus dies and Tiberius
becomes emperor
14 AD: five million people live in
the Roman empire
25 AD: Agrippa builds the Pantheon
37 AD: Tiberius dies and the mad
Caligula succeeds him
41 AD: Caligula is assassinated and
is succeeded by Claudius
43 AD: Claudius invades Britain
46 AD: Thracia becomes a Roman
province
50 AD: the Romans found Londinium
in Britain
54 AD: Claudius is succeeded by
Nero
58 AD: the Romans conquer Armenia
64 AD: Nero sets fire to Roma and
blames the Christians for it
68 AD: March
16th (Feast of Bacchus) Nero, the last blood relative of
Caesar commits suicide and is
succeeded by Vespasianus
79 AD: Vespasianus is succeeded by
Tito
70 AD: Tito destroys Jerusalem and
Jews spread in Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Spain
and Greece
77 AD: the Romans conquer Wales
79 AD: The Coliseum is completed.
Mt. Vesuvius erupts and
Pompeii is buried under ash.
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By
the first century the new mysteries was flourishing among
the wealthy in southern Italy, as inscriptions, wall
paintings in villas, reliefs, and decorations on
sarcophagi continue to show to our delight. Traveling guilds of actors that
presented plays throughout the empire were organized
as a religious association dedicated to Dionysus.
They were considered "sacred" and granted immunity
and special protection by the rulers. Dionysiacs
used the term mysteries loosely for their dances and
for dramatic contests (both of which were public).
The dances, masquerades, banquets and accompanying
revelry, and singing were the main attraction for
many. |
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Triumphs of Caesar |
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Julius Caesar, 100 |
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88
BC: Italians are granted full citizenship
83 BC: Sulla becomes dictator
74 BC: Cicero enters the senate
73 BC: Spartacus leads the revolt
of the gladiators
71 BC: Mithridates VI of Pontus is
conquered by Roman general Lucius Lucullus
71 BC: Crassus puts down Spartacus'
revolt
70 BC: Crassus and Pompey are
elected consuls
69 BC: Rome invades Tigranes'
Armenian kingdom and destroys its capital, Tigranocerta
64 BC: Syria becomes a Roman
province under general Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius)
63 BC: Pompeus captures Jerusalem
and annexes Palestine to Roma "
Ceasar was elected pontifex maximus
[high priest], allegedly by heavy bribes.
62 B.C., Clodius and Caesar’s second wife, Pompeia,
is involved in a
scandal concerning the violation of the secret rites of
Bona Dea,
and Caesar obtained a divorce, saying, “Caesar’s wife must be
above suspicion.”
60 BC: Crassus, Pompey and Caesar
form a "triumvirate, ambitious for the consulate.
Against senatorial opposition he achieved a brilliant stroke—he
organized a coalition, known as the First Triumvirate, made up
of Pompey, commander in chief of the army; Marcus Licinius
Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome ; and
Caesar himself. Pompey and Crassus were jealous of each other,
but Caesar by force of personality kept the arrangement going.
59 BC:
Caesar is elected consul
58 BC: Caesar begins his successful
campaign to conquer Gaul
55 B.C., Caesar made explorations into
Britain, and in 54 B.C. he defeated the
Britons, led by Cassivellaunus. Pompey's wife,
Caesar's daughter, dies
53 B.C. Crassus was killed in battle with the
Parthians; and the triumvirate was dissolved
52 B.C. Caesar met his most serious opposition in Gaul
from Vercingetorix, whom he defeated in Alesia By the
end of the wars Caesar had reduced all Gaul to Roman control.
These campaigns proved him one of the greatest commanders of all
time. In them he revealed his consummate military genius,
characterized by quick, sure judgment and indomitable energy.
After the First Triumvirate ended, the senate
supports Pompey, who became sole consul
51 BC: Caesar crushes revolt of
Vercingetorix in Gaul Meanwhile, Caesar had
become a military hero as well as a champion of the people. The
senate feared him and wanted him to give up his army
49 BC: Caesar crosses the Rubicon, defeats
Pompey and becomes sole dictator of Rome, The army called for action, and on Jan. 19, 49
B.C., Caesar with the words “Iacta alea est” [the die is cast]
crossed the Rubicon, the stream bounding his province, to enter
Italy. Civil war had begun.
The senate fled
to Capua. Caesar pursues Pompey to Greece where Pompey gathers
forces far greater in number than Caesar. Caesar engages Pompey at Dyrrhachium but
is forced to
fall back and begin a long retreat southward, with Pompey in
pursuit. This proved difficult since provisions were difficult
to obtain.
But after he took Gomphi, a town of Thessaly, he not only found
provisions for his army, but physic too. For there they met with
plenty of wine, which they took very freely, and heated with
this, sporting and revelling on their march in bacchanalian
fashion, they shook off the disease, and their whole
constitution was relieved and changed into another habit.
48 B.C. August Near Pharsalus,
Caesar camped in a very strategic location. Pompey, who had a
far larger army, attacked Caesar but was routed and fled to Egypt, where he was
killed.
47 BC:
Caesar follows Pompey to Egypt. He
becomes involved in the politics of the Ptolemies taking the
side of Cleopatra against her brother and husband Ptolemy
XII. In an Egyptian ceremony, he marries Cleopatra,
while still married to his Roman wife, and makes her Queen.
She bears him a son named Caesarion.
46 BC: Caesar
declared dictator for ten years
He also restored the Festival of Bacchus to March 16 to be
celebrated in conjunction with the Roman Gods of Fertility,
Liber and Libera (March 17th)
On his return to Rome, where he was now
tribune of the people and dictator, he had four great triumphs [victory
celebrations]
and pardoned all his enemies. He set about reforming the living
conditions of the people by passing agrarian laws and by
improving housing accommodations. He also drew up the elaborate
plans (which Augustus later used) for consolidating the empire
and establishing it securely.
Winter of 46
B.C.–45
B.C. he returns to Spain
to defeat the revolt led by the sons of Pompey most notably Gaeus
Pompeius. |
|
Caesar's costly victory on the feast of Bacchus |
Julius Caesar:
"The battle was fought
on the feast of Bacchus, and the Pompeians were entirely routed
and put to flight; insomuch that not a man could have
escaped, had they not sheltered themselves in the place whence
they advanced to the charge. The enemy lost on this occasion
upward of thirty thousand men, and among the rest Labienus and
Attius Varus, whose funeral obsequies were performed upon the
field of battle. They had likewise three thousand Roman knights
killed, partly Italian, partly provincial. About a thousand were
slain on our side, partly foot, partly horse; and five hundred
wounded. We gained thirteen eagles, and several standards, and
emblems of authority, and made seventeen officers prisoners.
Such was the issue of this action.
This was the decisive Civil War victory, yet there was little mercy shown by Caesar
who would not live to celebrate its anniversary. |
|
 |
| 45 BC On his return, he celebrated a triumph, such as had
never occurred before, over vanquished citizens. By his
ostentatious ambition of becoming a king, and by the assumption
of honours too lofty for mortal man, he incurred the hatred of
many individuals, and the envy of all classes. |
| 44
BC March 15 (the Ides of
March and the Eve of the Feast of Bacchus), 44 B.C., he
was stabbed to death in the senate house. His will left
everything to his 18-year-old grandnephew Octavian later the
emperor Augustus.
43 to 36 B.C. SECOND
TRIUMVIRATE Personal alliance between Mark , Octavian
and Lepidus.
The primary purpose of this alliance was to avenge the death
of Julius Caesar on the Senators who supported Cassius and
Brutus. This was achieved by the Battle of Philippi in
42 B.C. where Mark Antony
defeated the two conspirators and their armies.
After Philippi, the triumvirs divided the Roman Empire
among themselves.
They shared the administration of Italy. Mark Antony took the
East including Egypt; Lepidus got North Africa; and Octavian
took Spain and Gaul.
40 BC Second Triumvirate renewed at
Brundisium
The alliance broke down when Mark Antony married Cleopatra
in 37 B.C. Mark Antony who
was married to Octavia, the sister of Octavian took up with the
Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Thus the
political rivalry between Antony and Octavian now became a
personal one as well. Antony had also failed in an expedition
against the Parthians in 36 BC which also hampered his
credibility among the Roman elite.
Lepidus was easily removed from North Africa by
Octavian. Thereafter Civil war broke out between Mark Antony
and Octavian. Octavian won the power struggle at the naval
Battle of Actium in September 31 B.C.
Mark Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in Egypt. |
This coin was struck in Asia in 39 BC in
honor of Marc Antony. The obverse is inscribed with the legend
Marcus ANTONIVS IMPerator COnSul DESIGnatus, ITERum ET TERTium,
which translated reads, ”Marc Antony, general-in-chief, consul
elect for the second and third time.” Antony is portrayed here
wearing an ivy wreath which was symbolic of the god Bacchus,
also known as Dionysus, the god of wine and male fertility.
Antony often fashioned himself after this god. Upon Antony’s
return from Italy to Greece in the year that this coin was
struck, statues of him were erected throughout Asia Minor
bearing the name Bacchus and the Athenians saluted him as this
god as well. His rival Augustus was much in the model of
Apollo. See Apollo & Dionysus
|
|
Baalbeck |
 |
| The temple of Bacchus
at
Baalbeck in Lebanon was built about 150 A.D. and is likely
where the
celebration of mysteries occurred in the monumental development.
The temple complex was begun in
60 A.D. with the
construction of the temple of
Jupiter-Baal who
was identified with the Phoenician sun god Baalbeck. It was
completed by Emperor
Septimus Severus [193
to 211 AD]
who was originally from
Carthage which was founded by the great Phoenican
[wiki
] traders, originally from Lebanon which dominated the seas for
over a millennium before the rise of the Roman empire. Built on
an ancient trade route to Syria Baalbaak is
85 kilometers from Beirut
"Baalbek, with its colossal structures,
is one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at
its apogee," UNESCO [wiki]
reported in making Baalbek a World Heritage Site [wiki
] in 1984.
Popular Triad:
Under the Roman empire the local gods simply took on Roman
citizenship. Hadad became Jupiter Heliopolitanus, the great
goddess was called Venus Heliopolitana and the young god of
spring/fertility turned into Mercury [Hermes]. This triad was
extraordinarily popular. Altars dedicated to the Heliopolitan
triad are found, not only in the eastern provinces, but
throughout the whole Roman world, from the Balkans to Spain,
Gaul and Scotland. The best
preserved temple is identified
with Bacchus because of his popularity in Roman times in the
region and the the
carvings of grapes and opium poppies on the main door jamb and
some carved Bacchic scenes. During the Byzantine period the
temple of Venus was converted into a church dedicated to Saint
Barbara. who is the patron
saint of Baalbeck to this day.
Near the Temple of Venus are the remains of "The Temple of
the Muses", dating from the beginning of the 1st century A.D.
According to the
Ministry of Tourism
[tourisminlebanon.com
] "Baalbeck is more than a fascinating group of ruins of
awe-inspiring majesty. It is a place where east and west have
met and merged, a crossroad where different influences and
beliefs have come together in mutual understanding, as in
Lebanon today." |
 |
|
