Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult

H. H. J. Brouwer's Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult is a specialist scholarly monograph systematically assembling the surviving literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence for the Roman goddess Bona Dea and her exclusively female cult practices, published by Brill in its recognized classical studies series. Its authority rests on comprehensive primary-source compilation, gathering scattered ancient testimony that no single ancient author preserved in full. Because so much of what is known about Bona Dea's rites comes from outsider accounts, notably Cicero's hostile reporting on the Clodius scandal, Brouwer's own study is careful to flag where the ancient evidence itself is fragmentary, secondhand or polemically motivated rather than firsthand description by an initiated participant.