The Bacchanalia was a festival to honor Bacchus, the Roman equivalent of Dionysus. In Greece, tragic drama grew out of the dithyrambic choruses at the Dionysia. As the worship of Dionysus spread, the celebration of the Bacchic festival assumed a more wild and dissolute character. In 186 BC, the Senate in Rome banned the festival in all of Italy.
Cease and Desist
Wearily-Blearily
Rites Dionysian
Practiced in Rome left the
Senate agog;
Once they recovered, the
Post-Bacchanalian
Revelers needed a
Hair of the dog!