ASCOLIASMUS, an amusement with which the Athenians diverted themselves during the Anthesteria and other festivals of Bacchus, to whom they sacrificed a he-goat, because that creature is destructive to vines; and after inflating its skin and smearing it with oil, they attempted to dance upon
Asconius it, thereby occasioning much merriment among the spectators. Virgil alludes to this custom:
inter pocula loci,
Mollibus in pratis unctos valles per utros. Georg. ii. 384.