The people hoot and hiss them, the lower classes sing songs in derision of them, and play them all manner of tricks, and the whole scene is one of incredible noise, uproar, and confusion, more worthy of some pagan bacchanalia than a procession of Christian people.
"The Memoires of Casanova, Complete The Rare Unabridged London Edition Of 1894, plus An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons"
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
Besides this superstitious fetichism it involved ceremonies that were both sensual and ribald, including all the wild and mystic rites of the bacchanalia which the public authorities were to prohibit a few years later.
"The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism"
Franz Cumont
The bacchanalia of Athens were enthusiastically imitated in Jerusalem, and, as a matter of course, in Alexandria.
"Jewish Literature and Other Essays"
Gustav Karpeles