Bacchanalia

Were Roman festivals in honour of the Bacchus, the god of wine, intoxication, freedom and ecstasy. They were part of the rites for a mystery cult based on the Greek cult of Dionysus and as they were held in secret, with the initiates sworn to secrecy, very little is known about them, but came to be popular throughout central and southern Italy from 200 BC onwards.

Their purported wild and orgiastic nature has probably been greatly exaggerated, but in 186 BC Roman authorities did seek to regulate them probably from a need for the Senate to assert its civic and religious authority over Rome.

The supposed reputation of the bacchanalia has enabled artists from the Renaissance onwards to depict uninhibited drunken revelries featuring satyrs and a large amount of nudity, usually in a landscape setting.