The Roman Witch Hunt

There is almost no question that the lifeblood of the Roman state was war, and that the decisions made by Roman politicians were usually in the interest of keeping this blood flowing. Through all of the endless warfare Rome managed to conquer most of the territory surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and ruled most of this large swath of land by the proxy of co-opted local elites. Therefore it is difficult to imagine how Rome managed to keep its citizenry in check without instilling a powerful sense of fear in them. Despite being such a war like nation the Romans did not run a police state. They did brutally police their citizenry when they saw a threat to the state from within regarding cult like behavior from religions they would have considered strange.
Enter Livy and the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186BCE. Livy was an historian who was living during the Augustan period of Rome, and is widely considered the chief source of information when it comes to the Bacchanalia. Livy was clearly no big fan of the idea of Bacchanalia as he writes:
“To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature.”

Aside from the likely Roman sentiment toward Bacchanalia, Livy’s testimony gives some background into what the religion was like. They were probably a bunch of sex crazed drunkards whom lived with a very loose moral code. A religion like Bacchanalia that is based on wine and ...

... middle of paper ...

... crime other than getting them to admit it? Furthermore the litmus test was obviously weak or non-existent when it came to determining whether or not someone would be a Bacchanalian as well considering it involved a reward for all those whom were turned in.
Between Pliny’s letter and Livy’s account it’s pretty easy to get the impression that Romans were fairly tolerant of many different religions up until they got in the way. The Christians were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and doing the wrong things. The Bacchanalians were converting elites with a religion that the Romans considered unsavory to say the least. Both the Christians and the Bacchanalians suffered horrendously at the hands of the Roman authorities, and it goes to show that they were only going to tolerate so much from either group before going out on a witch hunt for them.