Around 186 BCE, a former slave turned courtesan named Hispala Faecenia fell in love with a young upper-middle class Roman man named Publius Aebutius. Then she learned his mother and stepfather planned to have Aebutius initiated into the Mysteries of Bacchus, a religious cult that, legend holds, featured drunken orgies and frenzied women tearing young men limb from limb.

Hispala objected strenuously, fearing her lover's reputation would be ruined or he would be injured or killed. And she questioned the parents' motives—with good reason. Apparently Aebutius's mother had squandered the young man's inheritance and he was about to come of age, thereby exposing her financial mismanagement.