feasts celebrated in honour of Bacchus by the ancient Greeks and Romans; of which the two most remarkable were called the greater and lesser. The latter, called lena, from a word signifying a wine-pot, were a preparation for the former, and were held in the open fields about autumn; but the greater, called Dionysia, from one of the names of Bacchus, were celebrated in the city, about the spring-time. Both these feasts were accompanied with games, spectacles, and theatrical representations; and it was at this time the poets contended for the prize of poetry. Those who were initiated into the celebration of the feasts, represented, some Silenus, others Pan, others satyrs; and in this manner appeared in public night and day, counterfeiting drunkenness, dancing obscenely, committing all kinds of licentiousness and debauchery, and running over the mountains and forests, with horrible shrieks and howlings, crying out, Io Bacche. Livy informs us, that during the Bacchanalian feasts at Rome, such shocking disorders were practised under the cover of the night, and those who were initiated were bound to conceal them with an oath, attended with horrid imprecations, that the senate suppressed them first in Rome, and afterwards throughout all Italy.