re: #291 zombie

According to Roman legend (Livy), a problem arose when a number of people joined the worship of Bacchus. The religion was based on taking an oath to do all things that were forbidden. People joined for the sex and wine, which still sounds good today.

But murder is also forbidden. And the Romans felt that an oath to a God was unbreakable. So an oath to commit murder was treated the same as actually committing murder.

The solution was to use torture to determine who all of the members were, and then to put them to death.

Many Bacchus worshipers were the children of the rich and famous. And many pleas were made for their release. “They are just children, and did not know what they were doing.” But the judges decided that an oath was binding, and so all were killed.