⁸ Many crimes were committed by treachery; most by violence, which was kept secret, because the cries of those who were being violated or murdered could not be heard owing to the noise of drums and cymbals.

 multa dolo, pleraque per vim audebantur. occulebat vim quod prae ululatibus tympanorumque et cymbalorum strepitu nulla vox quiritantium inter stupra et caedes exaudiri poterat.

This pestilential evil penetrated from Etruria to Rome like a contagious disease. At first, the size and extent of the City allowing more scope and impunity for such mischiefs, served to conceal them, but information at length reached the consul, mainly through the following channel. ² P. Aebutius, whose father had served in the cavalry and was dead, had been left under guardians. On their death he had been brought up under the care of his mother Duronia and his stepfather T. Sempronius Rutilus. ³ The mother was completely in her husband's hands; and as the stepfather had so exercised his guardianship that he was not in a position to give a proper account for it, he was anxious that his ward should either be put out of the way or placed at his mercy through his getting some hold upon him. One way of corrupting the youth's morals was through the Bacchanalia. ⁴ The mother told the youth that she had made a vow on his behalf during an illness, namely, that as soon as he recovered she would initiate him into the Bacchic mysteries, and in that way would through the kindness of the gods discharge the vow by which she was bound. He must preserve his chastity for ten days, then after supper on the tenth day she would take him to a place set apart for the rite of initiation.

9. huius mali labes ex Etruria Romam veluti contagione morbi penetravit. primo urbis magnitudo capacior patientiorque talium malorum ea celavit: tandem indicium hoc maxime modo ad Postumium consulem pervenit. ² P. Aebutius, cuius pater publico equo stipendia fecerat, pupillus relictus, mortuis deinde tutoribus sub tutela Duroniae matris et vitrici T. Sempronii Rutili educatus fuerat. ³ et mater dedita viro erat et vitricus, quia tutelam ita gesserat ut rationem reddere non posset, aut tolli pupillum aut obnoxium sibi vinculo aliquo fieri cupiebat. ⁴ Via una corruptelae Bacchanalia erant. Mater adulescentem1 appellat: se pro aegro eo vovisse ubi primum convaluisset, Bacchis eum se initiaturam; damnatam voti benignitate deum exsolvere id velle. decem dierum castimonia opus esse: decimo die cenatum, deinde pure lautum in sacrarium ^{p. 244} deducturam.

10. With these proofs of her love they had no secrets from each other, and the youth told her in a jocular tone not to be surprised if he absented himself from her for some nights; he had a religious duty to perform, the discharge of a vow made while he was ill, and he intended therefore to be initiated into the Bacchic mysteries. ² On hearing this she was terribly upset and exclaimed, "Heaven forbid. Better for us both to die than that you should do this," and then invoked deadly curses on the heads of those who had advised him to take this course. ³ The youth, astonished at her outburst and excitement, bade her spare her curses; it was his mother who had given him this command with the consent of his stepfather. ⁴ "Your stepfather, then," she replied, "for, perhaps, it is not right to charge your mother with it, is by this act hurrying on the ruin of your modesty, your reputation, your hopes and your life." Still more astonished, he asked her what she meant. ⁵ With a prayer to the gods and goddesses to forgive her if, constrained by her affection, she disclosed what she ought to be silent about, she explained that when she was in service she had accompanied her mistress into that place of initiation, but had never gone near it when once she was free. ⁶ She knew it to be a sink of every form of corruption, and it was a matter of common knowledge that no one had been initiated for the last two years above the age of twenty. ⁷ As each person was brought in, he was handed over to the priests like a victim and taken into a place which resounded with yells and songs, and the jangling of cymbals and drums, so that no cry from those who were suffering violation could be heard. ⁸ She then begged and implored him to get out of the affair in whatever way he could, and not to rush blindly into a place where he would first have to endure, and then to commit, every conceivable outrage. ⁹ Until he had given his word to keep clear of these rites she would not let him go.

10. haec amoris pignora cum essent, nec quicquam secretum alter ab altero haberent, per iocum adulescens vetat eam mirari, si per aliquot noctes secubuisset: ² religionis se causa ut voto pro valetudine sua facto liberetur, Bacchis initiari velle. id ubi mulier audivit, perturbata “dii meliora!” inquit: mori et sibi et illi satius esse quam id faceret; et in caput eorum detestari minas periculaque, qui id suasissent. ³ admiratus cum verba tum perturbationem tantam adulescens parcere exsecrationibus iubet: matrem id sibi adsentiente vitrico imperasse. ^{4 p. 246} “vitricus ergo” inquit “tuus—matrem enim1 insimulare forsitan fas non sit—pudicitiam famam spem vitamque tuam perditum ire hoc facto properat.” ⁵ eo magis mirabundo quaerentique quid rei esset, pacem veniamque precata deorum dearumque, si coacta caritate eius silenda enuntiasset, ancillam se ait dominae comitem id sacrarium intrasse, liberam numquam eo accessisse. ⁶ scire corruptelarum omnis generis eam officinam esse; et iam biennio constare neminem initiatum ibi maiorem annis viginti. ⁷ ut quisque introductus sit, velut victimam tradi sacerdotibus. eos deducere in locum, qui circumsonet ululatibus cantuque symphoniae et cymbalorum et tympanorum pulsu, ne vox quiritantis,2 cum per vim stuprum inferatur, exaudiri possit. ⁸ orare inde atque obsecrare ut eam rem quocumque modo discuteret nec se eo praecipitaret, ubi omnia infanda patienda primum, deinde facienda essent. ⁹ neque ante dimisit eum quam fidem dedit adulescens ab his sacris se temperaturum.

11. After he reached home his mother brought up the subject of the initiation and told him what he had to do in connection with it on that day, and what on the following days. He informed her that he would do nothing of the kind; he had no intention of being initiated. ² His stepfather was present. The mother at once exclaimed, "He cannot pass ten nights away from Hispala's embraces; he is so intoxicated with the fascinations of that venomous serpent, that he has no respect for either his parent or his stepfather or the gods." Amid the objurgations of his mother on the one side and his stepfather on the other, he was finally, with the assistance of four slaves, driven out of the house. ³ The youth betook himself to his aunt Aebutia, and explained why he had been expelled from his home, and at her suggestion laid the matter privately before the consul the following day. ⁴ Postumius told him to come again in three days' time, and in the meantime inquired of Sulpicia, his mother-in-law, a grave and judicious woman, whether she knew an old woman called Aebutia living in the Aventine quarter. ⁵ She replied that she knew her to be a woman of respectable and strictly moral character; on which the consul said that it was important that he should have an interview with her, and Sulpicia must send for her to see her. ⁶ Aebutia came to Sulpicia, and the consul coming in as though by accident turned the conversation on to her brother's son. The woman burst into tears and began to lament the youth's misfortunes, robbed as he had been of his fortune by those who ought to have been the very last to do so. ⁷ He was, she said, at her house at the time, "he had been driven away by his mother because the honest and respectable youth refused-may the gods forgive me-to be initiated into what were commonly believed to be impure and obscene mysteries."

11. postquam domum venit, et mater mentionem intulit, quid eo die, quid deinceps ceteris, quae ad sacra pertinerent, faciendum esset, negat eorum se quicquam facturum nec initiari sibi in animo esse. aderat sermoni vitricus. ² confestim mulier exclamat Hispalae concubitu carere eum decem noctes non ^{p. 248} posse; illius excetrae1 delenimentis et venenis2 imbutum nec parentis nec vitrici nec deorum verecundiam habere. iurgantes hinc mater, hinc vitricus cum quattuor eum servis domo exegerunt. ³ adulescens inde ad Aebutiam se amitam contulit, causamque ei, cur esset a matre eiectus, narravit, deinde ex auctoritate eius postero die ad consulem Postumium arbitris remotis rem detulit. ⁴ consul post diem tertium redire ad se iussum dimisit; ipse Sulpiciam gravem feminam, socrum suam, percunctatus est, ecquam anum Aebutiam ex Aventino nosset. ⁵ cum ea nosse probam et antiqui moris feminam respondisset, opus esse sibi ea conventa dixit: mitteret nuntium ad eam, ut veniret. ⁶ Aebutia accita ad Sulpiciam venit et consul paulo post, velut forte intervenisset, sermonem de Aebutio fratris eius filio infert. ⁷ lacrimae mulieri obortae et miserari casum adulescentis coepit, qui spoliatus fortunis, a quibus minime oporteret, apud se tunc esset, eiectus a matre, quod probus adulescens—dii propitii essent— obscenis, ut fama esset, sacris initiari nollet.

12. As the consul considered that he had ascertained all that was necessary about Aebutius, and that the evidence was trustworthy, he dismissed Aebutia and asked his mother-in-law to send for Hispala, a freedwoman, who was well known round the Aventine, as there were some questions he wished to put to her. ² Hispala was alarmed at the message, and at being summoned into the presence of a woman of such high rank and character, without knowing the reason, and when she saw the lictors and the consul's attendants in the vestibule, she nearly fainted. ³ She was conducted into an inner apartment where the consul and his mother-in-law were present, and the consul told her that there was nothing to be afraid of if she could make up her mind to speak the truth; she might trust the pledged word of such a woman as Sulpicia and his own promise of safety, but she must give him a description of what 4?? usually went on at the nocturnal Bacchic rites in the grove of Simila. ⁵ On hearing this, the woman was seized with such a fright and a trembling in all her limbs that she could not open her lips. ⁶ At last she recovered her nerves, and said that when quite a girl she had been initiated, together with her mistress, but since she had been manumitted, now some years ago, she knew nothing of what went on there. The consul commended her for having confessed that she had been initiated and begged her to be equally truthful in the rest of her story. ⁷ She avowed that she knew nothing further, on which the consul warned her that she 8?? would not receive the same consideration and forbearance if she were confuted by some one else, as she would if she made a free confession, for the person who had heard these things from her had disclosed everything to him.

12. satis exploratum de Aebutio ratus consul non vanum auctorem esse, Aebutia dimissa socrum rogat ut Hispalam indidem ex Aventino libertinam, non ignotam viciniae, arcesseret ad sese: eam quoque esse quae1 percunctari vellet. ² ad cuius nuntium ^{p. 250} perturbata Hispala, quod ad tam nobilem et gravem2 feminam ignara causae arcesseretur, postquam lictores in vestibulo turbamque consularem et consulem ipsum conspexit, prope exanimata est. ³ in interiorem partem aedium abductam socru adhibita consul, si vera dicere inducere in animum posset, negat perturbari debere; fidem vel a Sulpicia, tali femina, vel ab se acciperet; ⁴ expromeret sibi, quae in luco Stimulae3 Bacchanalibus in sacro nocturno solerent fieri. ⁵ hoc ubi audivit, tantus pavor tremorque omnium membrorum mulierem cepit, ut diu hiscere non posset. ⁶ tandem confirmata puellam admodum se ancillam initiatam cum domina ait: aliquot annis, ex quo manumissa sit, nihil quid ibi fiat scire. ⁷ iam id ipsum consul laudare, quod initiatam se non infitiaretur: sed et cetera eadem fide expromeret. ⁸ neganti ultra quicquam scire, non eandem dicere, si coarguatur ab alio, ac per se4 fatenti veniam aut gratiam fore; eum sibi omnia exposuisse, qui ab illa audisset.

The woman being convinced, and quite rightly, that Aebutius was the informer, flung herself at Sulpicia's feet and implored her not to let a conversation between a freedwoman and her lover be treated so seriously as to amount to treason. ² What she had told him was for the purpose of frightening, not because she really knew anything. ³ Postumius was very angry, and told her that she must be imagining that she was joking with her lover, and not speaking in the house of a grave and august lady and in the presence of the consul. Sulpicia raised the terrified woman from the floor, spoke soothingly to her and tried to quiet her. ⁴ At length she became calm, and after bitterly reproaching Aebutius for the return he had made after all she had done for him, and declared that while she stood in great fear of the gods, whose occult mysteries 5?? she was revealing, she stood in much greater fear of men who would tear her to pieces if she turned informer. ⁶ So she begged Sulpicia and the consul to remove her to some place outside the borders of Italy where she could pass the rest of her days in safety. The consul bade her be under no apprehension; he would see to it that she found a safe home in Rome. ⁷ Then Hispala gave an account of the origin of these rites.

13. 13. mulier haud dubie, id quod erat, Aebutium indicem arcani rata esse, ad pedes Sulpiciae procidit, ² et eam primo orare coepit, ne mulieris libertinae cum amatore sermonem in rem non seriam modo sed ^{p. 252} capitalem etiam verti vellet: se terrendi eius causa, non1 quod sciret quicquam, ea locutam esse. ³ hic Postumius accensus ira tum quoque ait eam cum Aebutio se amatore cavillari credere, non in domo gravissimae feminae et cum consule loqui. et Sulpicia attollere paventem, simul illam2 adhortari, simul iram generi lenire. ⁴ tandem confirmata, multum incusata perfidia Aebutii, qui optime de ipso3 meritae talem gratiam rettulisset, ⁵ magnum sibi metum deorum, quorum occulta initia enuntiaret, maiorem multo dixit hominum esse, qui se indicem manibus suis discerpturi essent. ⁶ itaque hoc se Sulpiciam, hoc consulem orare, ut se extra Italiam aliquo ablegarent,4 ubi reliquum vitae degere tuto posset. ⁷ bono animo esse iubere eam consul et sibi curae fore dicere ut Romae tuto habitaret.

9. When she had finished giving her evidence, she fell on her knees and again begged the consul to send her abroad. ² He asked his mother-in-law to set apart some portion of her house where she could take up her abode. An upper room was assigned to her which was approached by a flight of steps from the street; these were blocked up and an entrance made from inside the house. ³ All Fecenia's effects were at once transferred, and her household slaves brought in, and Aebutius was ordered to take up his quarters with a client of the consul's. As both his informants were now in his hands, Postumius reported the affair to the senate. Everything was explained as it occurred, the information which he had first received, and then that which he had obtained in answer to his questions. ⁴ The senate were greatly alarmed for the public safety; these secret conspiracies and nocturnal gatherings were a danger to the State; and they were alarmed for themselves, lest their own relations and friends might be involved. ⁵ They passed a vote of thanks to the consul for having conducted his investigations so carefully and without creating any public disturbance. ⁶ Then, arming the consuls with extraordinary powers, they placed in their hands the inquiry into the proceedings at the Bacchanalia and the nocturnal rites. They were to take care that Aebutius and Fecenia suffered no injury for the information they had given, and they were to offer rewards to induce other informers to come forward. ⁷ Those who presided over these mysteries were to be sought out not only in Rome, but everywhere where people were in the habit of assembling, so that they might be delivered up to the consuls. ⁸ Edicts were published in Rome and throughout Italy forbidding any who had been initiated from meeting together to celebrate their mysteries or performing any rites of a similar character, and above all, strict inquiry was to be made in the case of those who attended gatherings in which crime and debauchery had occurred. These were the measures which the senate decreed. The consuls sent orders to the curule aediles to search out all the priests of those rites and, when they were arrested, to keep them in such custody as they thought best until their trial. ⁹ The plebeian aediles were to see that no rites were performed in open day; ¹⁰ the police commissioners were instructed to post watches throughout the City and take care that no nocturnal gatherings took place; and as a precaution against fires, five men were appointed to assist the commissioners and take charge of the buildings assigned to them on this side the Tiber.

14. peracto indicio advoluta rursus genibus preces easdem, ut se ablegaret, repetivit. ² consul rogat socrum ut aliquam partem aedium vacuam faceret ^{p. 256} quo Hispala immigraret. cenaculum super aedes1 datum est, scalis ferentibus in publicum obseratis, aditu in aedes verso. ³ res omnes Feceniae extemplo translatae et familia arcessita, et Aebutius migrare ad consulis clientem iussus.

ita cum indices ambo in potestate essent, rem ad senatum Postumius defert, omnibus ordine expositis, quae delata primo. quae deinde ab se inquisita forent. ⁴ patres pavor ingens cepit, cum publico nomine, ne quid2 eae coniurationes coetusque nocturni fraudis occultae aut periculi importarent, tum privatim suorum cuiusque3 vicem, ne quis adfinis ei noxae esset. ⁵ censuit autem senatus gratias consuli agendas quod eam rem et cum singulari cura et sine ullo tumultu investigasset. ⁶ quaestionem deinde de Bacchanalibus sacrisque nocturnis extra ordinem consulibus mandant; indicibus Aebutio ac Feceniae ne fraudi ea res sit curare et alios indices praemiis invitare iubent;4 ⁷ sacerdotes eorum sacrorum, seu viri seu feminae essent, non Romae modo sed per omnia fora et conciliabula conquiri, ut in consulum potestate essent; edici praeterea in urbe Roma et per totam Italiam edicta mitti, 8? ne quis qui Bacchis initiatus esset coisse aut convenisse sacrorum causa velit, neu quid talis rei divinae fecisse. ante omnia ut quaestio ^{p. 258} de iis habeatur, qui coierint coniuraverintve, quo5 stuprum flagitiumve inferretur. ⁹ haec senatus decrevit. consules aedilibus curulibus imperarunt ut sacerdotes eius sacri omnes conquirerent, comprehensosque libero conclavi ad quaestionem servarent; aediles plebis viderent6 ne qua sacra in operto fierent. ¹⁰ triumviris capitalibus mandatum est ut vigilias disponerent per urbem servarentque ne qui nocturni coetus fierent, utque ab incendiis caveretur; adiutores triumviris quinqueviri uti cis7 Tiberim suae quisque regionis aedificiis praeessent.

15. When the various officials had been told off to their duties, the consuls convened the Assembly and mounted the Rostra. After the usual prayers with which proceedings are opened before the magistrates address the people, the consul began thus: "In no meeting of the Assembly has this solemn appeal to the gods been so appropriate and, I would add, so necessary. ² For it reminds you that it is these gods whom your ancestors ordained that we should worship, reverence, and pray to; not those who have driven the minds of people enslaved by foul and foreign superstitions, as though by goading furies, into every form of crime and every kind of lust. ³ I am at a loss to know how far I ought to keep silence, and how far I ought to go, in what I have to say. ⁴ I fear, if you remain in ignorance of anything, that I may leave an opening for neglect, whilst, if I disclose everything, I may create too much alarm. Whatever I say, you may be certain that it does not come up to the enormity and horror of the thing. ⁵ We shall make it our business to say enough to put you on your guard. ⁶ That the Bacchanalia have for some time been going on throughout Italy and are now practiced in many parts of the City you have, I am sure, learnt not only by report, but also by the nightly noises and yells which resound all over the City; but I do not think you know what it all means. Some of you fancy that it is a particular form of worship; others think that it is some permissible kind of sport and dalliance; its real nature is understood by few. ⁷ As to their numbers, you would inevitably be very much alarmed if I were to say that there are many thousands of them, unless I went on to explain who and what sort of people they are.

15. ad haec officia dimissis magistratibus consules in rostra escenderunt, et contione advocata cum sollemne carmen precationis, quod praefari, priusquam populum adloquantur, magistratus solent, peregisset consul, ita coepit. ² "Nulli umquam contioni, Quirites, tam non1 solum apta sed etiam necessaria haec sollemnis deorum comprecatio fuit, quae vos admoneret hos esse deos, quos colere venerari precarique maiores vestri instituissent, 3? non illos, qui pravis et externis religionibus captas mentes velut furialibus stimulis ad omne scelus et ad omnem libidinem agerent. ⁴ equidem nec quid taceam nec quatenus ^{p. 260} proloquar invenio. si aliquid ignorabitis, ne locum2 neglegentiae dem, si omnia nudavero, ne nimium terroris offundam vobis vereor. ⁵ quidquid dixero, minus quam pro atrocitate et magnitudine rei dictum scitote esse: ut ad cavendum satis sit, dabitur opera a nobis. ⁶ Bacchanalia tota iam pridem Italia et nunc per urbem etiam multis locis esse, non fama solum accepisse vos sed crepitibus etiam ululatibusque nocturnis, qui personant tota urbe, certum habeo, ceterum quae ea res sit, ignorare: ⁷ alios deorum aliquem cultum, alios concessum ludum et lasciviam credere esse, et, qualecumque sit, ad paucos pertinere.

 ¹³ Do you consider, Quirites, that young men who have taken this unhallowed oath are to be made into soldiers? That after the training they have received in that shrine of obscenity they are to be entrusted with arms? ¹⁴ Shall these men, reeking with their impurity and that of those round them, wield their swords in defence of the chastity of your wives and children?

¹³ si quibus aetatibus initientur mares sciatis, non misereat vos eorum solum, sed etiam pudeat. hoc sacramento initiatos iuvenes milites faciendos censetis, Quirites? ¹⁴ his6 ex obsceno sacrario eductis arma committenda? hi cooperti stupris suis alienisque pro pudicitia coniugum ac liberorum vestrorum ferro decernent? 

"The mischief would not be serious, if they had only lost their manhood through their debauchery-the disgrace would fall mainly upon themselves-and had kept from open outrage and secret treason. ² Never has there been such a gigantic evil in the commonwealth, or one which has affected greater numbers or caused more numerous crimes. Whatever instances of lust, treachery, or crime have occurred during these last years, have originated, you may be perfectly certain, in that shrine of unhallowed rites. They have not yet disclosed all the criminal objects of their conspiracy. ³ So far, their impious association confines itself to individual crimes; it has not yet strength enough to destroy the commonwealth. But the evil is creeping stealthily on, and growing day by day; it is already too great to limit its action to individual citizens; it looks to be supreme in the State. Unless, Quirites, you take precautions, this Assembly legally convened by a consul in the daylight will be confronted by another assembly gathered together in the darkness of the night. ⁴ Now they, disunited, fear you, a united Assembly, but when you are dispersed to your homes and your farms they will hold their assembly and plot their own safety and your ruin. It will then be your turn, scattered as you will be, to fear them in their united strength.

16. “minus tamen esset si flagitiis tantum effeminati forent—ipsorum id magna ex parte dedecus erat—a facinoribus manus, mentem a fraudibus abstinuissent: ² numquam tantum malum in re publica fuit, nec ad plures nec ad plura pertinens. quidquid his annis libidine, quidquid fraude, quidquid scelere peccatum est, ex illo uno sacrario scitote ortum esse. ³ necdum1 omnia in quae coniurarunt edita facinora habent. adhuc privatis noxiis, quia nondum ad rem publicam2 opprimendam satis virium est, coniuratio sese impia tenet. crescit et serpit cotidie malum. iam maius est quam ut3 capere id privata fortuna possit: ad summam rem publicam spectat. ⁴ nisi praecavetis, Quirites, iam huic diurnae, legitime ab consule vocatae, par nocturna contio esse poterit. nunc illi vos singuli universos contionantes timent: iam ubi vos dilapsi domos et in rura vestra eritis, illi coierint, ^{p. 264} consultabunt de sua salute simul ac vestra pernicie: tum4 singulis vobis universi timendi erunt.