Various authors

“ The Bacchanalia are rigidly prohibited: if any one, Roman, Latin or ally, considers himself under a religious obligation bacanal habere, he can only do so by obtaining permission from the praetor urbanus, confirmed by a vote of the senate in which not less than 100 have taken part. No priest, president, or common purse is allowed, nor any kind of common vow. Not more than two men or three women (five in all) should celebrate the rites, except by special permission. ”

“ Men flung themselves about as if possessed, and uttered frantic prophecies; women dressed as Bacchanals, with dishevelled locks, ran down to the Tiber, and plunged into the water torches, which, composed of a mixture of sulphur and lime, were not extinguished in the waves. ”

“ Possibly Virgil is thinking of the same, when (Aen. 7.385) he speaks of the Bacchic rites as existing in Italy in the time of Aeneas. In any case it is hardly conceivable that the corrupt Etruscan cult should have so much changed its character in passing into Rome, as Livy's account would require us to believe. He goes on to say (100.13) how a certain Pacullia Annia, a Campanian priestess, claiming to be acting under the inspiration of the gods, changed the whole character of the worship. She was the first to admit men, by initiating her own sons ”