Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/355

 R. v. c. in. 2. ITALY. LATIUM. 341 would have nothing at all to do with the Albani. Collatia, Autemnae, Fidenre, Labicum, 1 and similar places are here alluded to, which then were small cities, but are now villages possessed by private individuals ; they are distant from Rome 30 or 40 2 stadia, or rather more. Between the fifth and sixth mile-stone which marks the distance from Rome there is a place named Festi ; this they say was at that time the limit of the Roman territory, and at the present day, both here and in numerous other places which they consider to have been boundaries, the priests offer the sacrifice denominated Am- barvia. 3 They say that, at the time of the foundation [of the 1 The sites of these places are much disputed. 2 Kramer considers this 40 an interpolation. 3 Usually Ambarvalia, sacrifices performed by the Fratres Arvales, who formed " a college or company of twelve in number, and were so call- ed, according to Varro, from offering public sacrifices for the fertility of the fields. That they were of extreme antiquity is proved by the legend which refers their institution to Romulus ; of whom it is said, that when his nurse, Acca Laurentia, lost one of her twelve sons, he allowed himself to be adopted by her in his place, and called himself and the remaining eleven Fratres Arvales. (Cell. vi. 7.) We also find a college called the Sodales Titii, and as the latter were confessedly of Sabine origin, and instituted for the purpose of keeping up the Sabine religious rites, (Tac. Ann. i. 53,) there is some reason for the supposition of Niebuhr, that these colleges corresponded one to the other the Fratres Arvales being connected with the Latin, and the Sodales Titii with the Sabine element of the Roman state ; just as there were two colleges of the Luperci, the Fabii and the Quinctilii, the former of whom seem to have belonged to the Sabines. The office of the Fratres Arvales was for life, and was not taken away even from an exile or captive. They wore, as a badge of office, a chaplet of ears of corn fastened on their heads with a white band. The number given on inscriptions varies, but it is never more than nine ; though, ac- cording to the legend and general belief, it amounted to twelve. One of their annual duties was to celebrate a three days' festival in honour of Dea Dia, supposed to be Ceres Of this the master of the college, appointed annually, gave public notice from the temple of Concord on the Capitol. On the first and last of these days, the college met at the house of their president, to make offerings to the Dea Dia ; on the second day they assembled in the grove of the same goddess, about five miles south of Rome, and there offered sacrifices for the fertility of the earth. An account of the different ceremonies of this festival is preserved in an inscription, which was written in the first year of the emperor Helioga- balus, (A. D. 218,) who was elected a member of the college under the name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius Felix. The same inscription con- tains a hymn, which appears to have been sung at the festival from the most ancient times. Besides this festival of the Dea Dia, the Fratres Arvales were required