early Christians & contemporaries named Dionysius

[MrMacSon]

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Dionysius / Dionysios / Dionysis, (Διονύσιος, Διονύσης; Νιόνιος = Nionios, modern Greek), Denis, Dennis, and Dénes (Hungarian) are names derived from the name of the Greek god Dionysus.

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Acts 17 records Paul giving a sermon at the Areopagus* in Athens (Acts 17:16-34). It finishes (KJV) -

• 32 "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
  
  33 "So Paul departed from among them.
  
  34 "Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."

* Areopagus literally meant the rock of Ares in the city of Athens, and was a center of temples, cultural facilities, and a high court. Robert Paul Seesengood has conjectured that it may have been illegal to preach a foreign deity in Athens, which would have thereby made Paul's sermon a combination of a "guest lecture" and a trial.

Eusebius, in Historia Ecclesiae III: iv, 11, has a Dionysius of Corinth, saying this Dionysius (ie. 'Dionysius the Areopagite') then became the first Bishop of Athens:

• "Besides these, that Areopagite, named Dionysius, who was the first to believe after Paul's address to the Athenians in the Areopagus (as recorded by Luke in the Acts) is mentioned by another Dionysius, an ancient writer and pastor of the parish in Corinth, as the first bishop of the church at Athens."

Seesengood thinks that Dionysius may have been a member of the Areopagus (ie. a member of the high court), and that the moniker [St] Dionysius the Areopagite may be a historical 'confusion' (see St Denis below; and the next post on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite).

See Seesengood, Robert Paul (2010) Paul: A Brief History (ISBN 1-4051-7890-6), page 120.

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Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, 2nd-century bishop

This Dionysius is only known to us through Eusebius [and Jerome via Eusebius]. Eusebius supposedly 'knew' a collection of seven of the Catholic Letters to the Churches of Dionysius, together with a letter to him from Pinytus, Bishop of Knossus, and a private letter of spiritual advice to a lady named Chrysophora.

Eusebius mentions (1) a letter to the Lacedaemonians, teaching orthodoxy, and enjoining peace and union; (2) Another letter was to the Athenians, stirring up their faith exhorting them to live according to the Gospel, since they were not far from apostasy. Dionysius spoke of the recent martyrdom of their bishop, Publius (in the persecution of Marcus Aurelius), and says that Dionysius the Areopagite was the first Bishop of Athens; (3) To the Nicomedians he wrote against Marcionism; (4) Writing to Gortyna and the other dioceses of Crete, he praised their bishop, Philip, for efforts on behalf of the church then warned him of the distortions of heretics; (5) To the Church of Amastris in Pontus he wrote at the instance of Bacchylides and Elpistus (otherwise unknown), mentioning the bishop's name as Palmas; he wrote in this letter of marriage and celibacy, and recommended the charitable treatment of those who had fallen away into sin or heresy; (6) In a letter to Pinytus, bishop of Knossus, he recommended that he should not lay the yoke of celibacy too heavily on his brethren, but consider the weakness most of them have. Pinytus replied, after polite words, that he hoped Dionysius would send strong meat next time so his people might not grow up on the milk of babes.

The most important letter is the seventh one, addressed to the Romans, and the only one from which extracts have been preserved (H.E. 2.26; 4.23).

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Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, 3rd-century Egyptian 'bishop' and Saint

• named "the Great," 14th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark* from December 28, 248 until his death on March 22, 264 after seventeen years as a bishop. He was the first Pope to hold the title "the Great" (before a Bishop of Rome even). This Dionysius's large surviving correspondence provides most of our information about him. Only one original letter survives to this day; the remaining letters are excerpted in the works of Eusebius.
  
  * from the List of Coptic Orthodox Popes of Alexandria

This 'Pope of Alexandria' also, coincidentally, overlaps a 'Pope Dionsysius of Rome' -viz. -

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Pope Dionysius, 259–268 - supposedly the Bishop or Pope of Rome from 22 July 259 to his death in 268

• (overlapping the period there supposedly was also a Pope / Bishop / Saint Dionysius of Alexandria; see above)

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Three 3rd century martyrs named Dionysius -

a. Dionysius, a lector and martyr of Alexandria put to death under Decius in 250 along with 10 others

b. Dionysius, 3rd-century Christian martyr and saint (crucified with Theodore & Philippa during the reign of Emperor Elagabalus, r. 218-222)

c. Saint Denis, Bishop of Paris, martyr (died ca. 250)

• The earliest document giving an account of his life and martyrdom, the "Passio SS. Dionysii Rustici et Eleutherii" dates from c. 600, is mistakenly attributed to the poet Venantius Fortunatus, and is legendary. Nevertheless, it appears from the Passio that Denis was sent from Italy to convert Gaul in the third century, forging a link with the "apostles to the Gauls" reputed to have been sent out with six other missionary bishops under the direction of Pope Fabian.
  
  It seems a ninth century writer identified this Saint Dionysius with Saint Dionysius the Areopagite - link to brief article

The confusion of the personalities of Saint Denis, Dionysius the Areopagite, and pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the author of the writings ascribed to Dionysius brought to France by Louis, was initiated through an Areopagitica written in 836 by Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, at the request of Louis the Pious. "Hilduin was anxious to promote the dignity of his church, and it is to him that the quite unfounded identification of the patron saint with Dionysius the Areopagite and his consequent connexion with the apostolic age are due."[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis#Con ... Areopagite

12 A. Hamilton Thompson, reviewing Sumner McKnight Crosby, The Abbey of Saint-Denis, 475-1122. Vol. I, in The English Historical Review 58 No. 231 (July 1943:357-359) p 358.

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[wiki]Dionysius (bishop of Milan)[/wiki], also called Dionysius of Milan, bishop of Milan 349-355, saint

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Dionysius Exiguus (c. 470–c. 540), monk from Scythia Minor who invented the Anno Domini era

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[MrMacSon]

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (Greek: Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης), aka 'Pseudo-Denys', was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century (writing before 532), probably Syrian, the author of the set of works commonly referred to as the Corpus Areopagiticum or Corpus Dionysiacum. The author pseudonymously identifies himself in the corpus as "Dionysios", portraying himself as the figure of Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of Paul of Tarsus mentioned in Acts 17:34.[1] This false attribution to the earliest decades of Christianity resulted in the work being given great authority in subsequent theological writing in both East and West, with its influence only decreasing in the West with the fifteenth century demonstration of its later dating.

• 1 "Various legends existed in the early surrounding the figure of Dionysius, who became emblematic of the spread of the gospel to the Greek world. A tradition quickly arose that he became the first bishop of Cyprus or of Milan, or that he was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. According to Eusebius, he was also said to be the first bishop of Athens. It is therefore not surprising that that author of these works would have chosen to adopt the name of this otherwise briefly mentioned figure. (See Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works , p22. (A translation of "La Hiérarchie Céleste, ed. Roques R, Heil G and Gandillac M, Sources Chrétiennes 58 (Paris: Les Éditions de Cerf, 1958)" by Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987))

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Di ... er_reading
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Dionysius, or Pseudo-Dionysius, as he has come to be known in the contemporary world, was a Christian Neoplatonist who wrote in the late fifth or early sixth century CE and who transposed in a thoroughly original way the whole of Pagan Neoplatonism, from Plotinus to Proclus, but especially that of Proclus and the Platonic Academy in Athens, into a distinctively new Christian context.


1. Dionysius: Persona
Since Pseudo-Dionysius represented himself as St. Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian member of the judicial council, the Areopagus, who was converted instantly by St. Paul, his work, strictly speaking, might be regarded as a successful “forgery”, providing him with impeccable Christian credentials that conveniently antedated Plotinus by over two hundred years. So successful was this stratagem that Dionysius acquired almost apostolic authority, giving his writings enormous influence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance ...


It must also be recognized that “forgery” is a modern notion. Like Plotinus and the Cappadocians before him, Dionysius does not claim to be an innovator, but rather a communicator of a tradition. Adopting the persona of an ancient figure was a long established rhetorical device (known as declamatio), and others in Dionysius' circle also adopted pseudonymous names from the New Testament. Dionysius' works, therefore, are much less a forgery in the modern sense than an acknowledgement of reception and transmission, namely, a kind of coded recognition that the resonances of any sacred undertaking are intertextual, bringing the diachronic structures of time and space together in a synchronic way, and that this theological teaching, at least, is dialectically received from another.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseu ... reopagite/
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[MrMacSon]

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There are references to Dionysius the son of Asclepiades, Dionysius the son of Dionysius, and 'Dionysian shows in the theatre', in a decree of the Athenians sent to Hyrcanus II, in sections of Josephus's Antiquities about (i) Antipater [the Idumean (d. 43 b.c., aka Antipas?, as was Antipater's father)], the father of Herod the Great, and (ii) Hyrcanus II in the mid 1st century BC/BCE (?).

Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, is said in a decree to have given a sentence at a 'council of the presidents' held in the theatre.

Jewish Antiquities, Book 14, Sections 149-153:

[143] When Antipater had made this speech, Caesar appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest, and gave Antipater what principality he himself should choose, leaving the determination to himself; so he made him procurator of Judaea. [144] He also gave Hyrcanus leave to raise up the walls of his own city, upon his asking that favour of him, for they had been demolished by Pompeius. And this grant he sent to the consuls to Rome, to be engraved in the capitol ...

[149] Hyrcanus also received honours from the people of Athens, as having been useful to them on many occasions. And when they wrote to him, they sent him this decree, as it here follows:

• "Under the prytaneia and priesthood of Dionysius, the son of Asclepiades, on the fifth day of the latter part of the month Panemus, this decree of the Athenians was given to their commanders, [150] when Agathocles was archon, and Eucles, the son of Menander of Alimusia, was the scribe. In the month Munychion, on the eleventh day of the prytaneia, a council of the presidents was held in the theatre. Dorotheus the high priest, and the fellow presidents with him, put it to the vote of the people. Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, gave the sentence. [151] Since Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, continues to bear good-will to our people in general, and to every one of our citizens in particular, and treats them with all sorts of kindness; and when any of the Athenians come to him, either as ambassadors, or on any occasion of their own, he receives them in an obliging manner, and sees that they are conducted back in safety, [152] of which we have had several former testimonies; it is now also decreed, at the report of Theodosius, the son of Theodorus, and upon his putting the people in mind of the virtue of this man, and that his purpose is to do us all the good that is in his power, [153] to honour him with a crown of gold, the usual reward according to the law, and to erect his statue in brass in the temple of Demus and of the Graces; and that this present of a crown shall be proclaimed publicly in the theatre, in the Dionysian shows, while the new tragedies are acting; and in the Panathenean, and Eleusinian, and Gymnastic shows also; [154] and that the commanders shall take care, while he continues in his friendship, and preserves his good-will to us, to return all possible honour and favour to the man for his affection and generosity; that by this treatment it may appear how our people receive the good kindly, and repay them a suitable reward; and he may be induced to proceed in his affection towards us, by the honours we have already paid him. [155] That ambassadors be also chosen out of all the Athenians, who shall carry this decree to him, and desire him to accept of the honours we do him, and to endeavour always to be doing some good to our city."

And this shall suffice us to have spoken as to the honours that were paid by the Romans and the people of Athens to Hyrcanus.

http://www.attalus.org/old/aj_14a.html

Note section 151-

• "Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, continues to bear good-will to our people in general, and to every one of our citizens in particular, and treats them with all sorts of kindness; and when any of the Athenians come to him, either as ambassadors, or on any occasion of their own, he receives them in an obliging manner, and sees that they are conducted back in safety"

and Note [154] "...he may be induced to proceed in his affection towards us, by the honours we have already paid him",

and also note the appeal at section 155 " That ambassadors be also chosen out of all the Athenians"

[MrMacSon]

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Other contemporary Dionysiuses worth mentioning -

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c. 60 BC – after 7 BC -

(Greek: Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνᾱσσεύς Dionysos Alexandrou Alikarnasseus; "Dionysios son of Alexandros of Halikarnassos"

... a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Atticistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.

Dionysius' opinion of the necessity of a promotion of paideia* within education, from true knowledge of Classical sources, endured for centuries in a form integral to the identity of the Greek elite.

• * upbringing and education of the intellectual elite of the polis in the idea of excellence, of perfection

At some time he moved to Rome after the termination of the civil wars, and spent twenty-two years studying Latin and literature and preparing materials for his history. During this period, he gave lessons in rhetoric, and enjoyed the society of many distinguished men.

Works
His great work, entitled Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἀρχαιολογία (Rhōmaikē archaiologia, Roman Antiquities), embraced the history of Rome from the mythical period to the beginning of the First Punic War. It was divided into twenty books, of which the first nine remain entire, the tenth and eleventh are nearly complete, and the remaining books exist in fragments in the excerpts of the Roman emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus and an epitome discovered by Angelo Mai in a Milan manuscript. The first three books of Appian, Plutarch's Life of Camillus and Life of Coriolanus also embody much of Dionysius ... [continued below]

Foundation Myth
Dionysius is one of the primary sources for the accounts of the Roman foundation myth and the myth of Romulus and Remus. He was heavily relied upon for the later publications of Livy and Plutarch. He writes extensively on the myth, sometimes attributing direct quotes to its figures. The myth spans the first 2 volumes of his Roman Antiquities, beginning with Book I chapter 73 and concluding in Book II chapter 56 ...


Works [continued]
His chief object was to reconcile the Greeks to the rule of Rome, by dilating upon the good qualities of their conquerors and also by arguing, using more ancient sources, that the Romans were genuine descendants of the older Greeks.[4][5] According to him, history is philosophy teaching by examples, and this idea he has carried out from the point of view of a Greek rhetorician. But he carefully consulted the best authorities, and his work and that of Livy are the only connected and detailed extant accounts of early Roman history.

Dionysius was also the author of several rhetorical treatises, in which he shows that he has thoroughly studied the best Attic models:

• The Art of Rhetoric (Τέχνη ῥητορική Téchne rhētorikē), which is rather a collection of essays on the theory of rhetoric, incomplete, and certainly not all his work;
• The Arrangement of Words (Περὶ συνθέσεως ὀνομάτων Perì synthéseōs onomátōn, De compositione verborum), treating of the combination of words according to the different styles of oratory;
• On Imitation (Περὶ μιμήσεως Perì mimēseōs), on the best models in the different kinds of literature and the way in which they are to be imitated—a fragmentary work;
• Commentaries on the Attic Orators (Περὶ τῶν Ἀττικῶν ῥητόρων Perì tôn Attikôn rhētórōn), which, however, only deal with Lysias, Isaeus, Isocrates and (by way of supplement) Dinarchus;
• On the Admirable Style of Demosthenes (Περὶ λεκτικῆς Δημοσθένους δεινότητος Perì lektikês Dēmosthénous deinótētos); and
• On the Character of Thucydides (Περὶ Θουκυδίδου χαρακτῆρος Perì Thoukydídou charaktêros).

The last two treatises are supplemented by letters to Gn. Pompeius and Ammaeus (two).[2]

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• Dionysian imitatio
  
  Dionysian imitatio is the literary method of imitation as formulated by Dionysius, who conceived it as the rhetorical practice of emulating, adapting, reworking, and enriching a source text by an earlier author.
  
  Dionysius' concept marked a significant departure from the concept of mimesis formulated by Aristotle in the 4th century BC, which was only concerned with "imitation of nature", and not "imitation of other authors". Latin orators and rhetoricians adopted Dionysius' method of imitatio and discarded Aristotle's mimesis.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius ... n_imitatio

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... the imitation literary approach is closely linked with the widespread observation that "everything has been said already"... The ideal aim of this approach to literature was not originality, but to surpass the predecessor by improving their writings and 'set the bar to a higher level'. A prominent Latin follower of Dionysius was Quintilian (c.35 – c.100 CE), who shared with him the view of imitatio as the practice that leads to an historical progress of literature over time. Both Dionysius and Quintilian discuss imitation exclusively from the point of view of rhetoric. In Quintilian, and in classical rhetoric in general, rhetoric drew much attention to the process of imitatio; the four operations of quadripartita ratio* that organize all the figures of speech: defined as a "ready-made framework" of "relatively mechanical procedures" for the emulation, adaptation, reworking and enrichment of a source text by an earlier author. This view of rhetoric was taken by Erasmus in De Copia Rerum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysian_imitatio

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* In classical rhetoric, figures of speech are classified as one of the four fundamental rhetorical operations or quadripartita ratio: addition (adiectio), omission (detractio), permutation (immutatio), and transposition (transmutatio).

The Latin Rhetorica ad Herennium (author unknown) from the 90s BCE, calls these four operations ἔνδεια, πλεονασμός, μετάθεσις and ἐναλλαγή. Philo of Alexandria (c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE), writing in Greek, listed the operations as addition (πρόσθεσις), subtraction (ἀφαίρεσις), transposition (μετάθεσις), and transmutation (ἀλλοίωσις). Quintilian (c. 35 – c. 100) mentioned them in Institutio Oratoria (ca 95 CE).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_operations
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Aelius Dionysius

(Greek: Αἴλιος Διονύσιος) -- a Greek rhetorician from Halicarnassus, who lived in the time of the emperor Hadrian.[1] He was a very skillful musician, and wrote several works on music and its history.[2] It is commonly supposed that he was a descendant of the elder Dionysius of Halicarnassus (author of Roman Antiquities, a history of Rome from its founding to the middle third century BCE).

Nothing further is known other than several works, now lost, that were attributed to him by the ancients:

• A dictionary of Attic words (Ἀττικὰ ὀνόματα) in five books, dedicated to one Scymnus. Photius speaks in high terms of its usefulness,[3] and states that Aelius Dionysius himself made two editions of it, the second of which was a great improvement upon the first. Both editions appear to have been extant in the time of Photius. It seems to have been owing to this work that Aelius Dionysius was called sometimes by the surname of Atticista.
• A history of music (Μουσικὴ ἱστορία) in 36 books, with accounts of citharoedi, auletae, and poets of all kinds.[2]
• Ῥυθμικά ὑπομνήματα, in 24 books.[2]
• Μουσικῆς παιδεία ἢ διατριβαί, in 22 books.[2]
• A work in five books on what Plato had said about music in his Πολιτεία.
  
  2 Suda, s.v. Διονύσιος

[MrMacSon]

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Dionysios / Dionysis, (Διονύσιος, Διονύσης; Νιόνιος Nionios Modern Greek), Denis, Dennis, and Dénes (Hungarian) are names derived from the name of the Greek god Dionysus.

Various scholars have noted parallels between the religion of the Greek god Dionysus and Christianity. The symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ is noteworthy, though Peter Wick has argued that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John, including the story of the Marriage at Cana at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.

Barry Powell argued precursors to the Catholic notion of transubstantiation can be found in Dionysian religion [Powell, B.B., Classical Myth, 2nd ed. (with new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998].

Scholars of comparative mythology identify both Dionysus and Jesus with the dying-and-returning god mythological archetype.[ Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, 1985 pp. 64, 132] There are differences [however] in the details of the event ...the resurrection of Christ was placed in a specific historical and geographical context. Moreover, it has been noted that the details of Dionysus death and rebirth are starkly different both in content and symbolism from Jesus, with Dionysus being (in the most common myth) torn to pieces and eaten by the titans, and "eventually restored to a new life" from the heart that was left over.[72][73]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus# ... ristianity

Both Dionysus and Jesus are arrested and put on trial. Another parallel can be seen in The Bacchae where Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity, comparable to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate. Different to Jesus' arrest, Dionysus was arrested by Pentheus after making the women of Thebes mad, and after complaining about the fact that the city of Thebes, and its king, have refused to honor him. Moreoever, the confrontation of Dionysus and Pentheus also ends with Pentheus dying, torn into pieces by the mad women, including his mother.

As a god of resurrection, Dionysus was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging".

Other animal and other icons associated with Dionysus are a serpent, tiger, ivy, satyrs, centaurs, sileni, a phallus, and he is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn by panthers, and he may also be recognized by the thyrsus he carries.

Plant and other symbols associated with Dionysus are the grapevine; its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant; the fig, a pinecone that tipped his thyrsus (linking him to Cybele); and wine.


There are a few versions of the birth of Dionysus:

1. His mother was a mortal woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus' wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant. Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood.

Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed. Therefore, he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals, however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the unborn Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimētōr (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born".

2. In the Cretan version of the same story, which Diodorus Siculus follows, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld. Diodorus' sources equivocally identified the mother as Demeter. A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his rightful sceptre. Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate him in his thigh, hence he was again "the twice-born" (Other versions claim that Zeus recreated him in the womb of Semele, or gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her).

The rebirth in both versions of the story is the primary reason why Dionysus was worshipped in mystery religions, as his death and rebirth were events of mystical reverence. This narrative was apparently used in several Greek and Roman cults.


The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus. On numerous vases (referred to as Lenaia vases), the god is shown participating in the ritual sacrifice as a masked and clothed pillar (sometimes a pole, or tree is used), while his worshipers eat bread and drink wine. Initiates worshipped Dionysus in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries

• In the Orphic Mysteries tradition of ancient Greece, he was referred to as Dionysus Zagreus, served as its patron god connected to death and immortality, and symbolized the one who guides reincarnation [Norman C. McClelland (2010) Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. McFarland. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-0-7864-5675-8].

The Dionysian Mysteries remained in existence (along with their carnivalesque Bacchanalian street processions) until at least the time of Augustine (AD 354–430) and were an institution in most Romanised provinces - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysian ... man_Empire

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