=The Bacchanals.=--The Greeks had adopted an oriental god, Bacchus,
the god of the vintage, and the Romans began to adore him also. The
worshippers of Bacchus celebrated his cult at night and in secret.
Only the initiated were admitted to the mysteries of the Bacchanals,
who swore not to reveal any of the ceremonies. A woman, however, dared
to denounce to the Senate the Bacchanalian ceremonies that occurred in
Rome in 186. The Senate made an inquiry, discovered 7,000 persons, men
and women, who had participated in the mysteries, and had them put to
death.
=Oriental Superstitions.=--Already in 220 there was in Rome a temple
of the Egyptian god Serapis. The Senate ordered it to be demolished.
As no workman dared to touch it, the consul himself had to come and
beat down the doors with blows of an axe.
Some years after, in 205, during the war with Hannibal, it was the
Senate itself that sent an ambassador to Asia Minor to seek the
goddess Cybele. The Great Mother (as she was called) was represented
by a black stone, and this the envoys of the Senate brought in great
pomp and installed in Rome.
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