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ARVAL See also:BROTHERS (Fratres Arvales)
, in See also:Roman antiquities, a See also:college or priesthood, consisting of twelve members, elected for See also:life from the highest ranks in See also:Rome, and always apparently, during the See also:empire, including the See also:emperor
.
Their See also:chief See also:duty was to offer annually public See also:sacrifice for the fertility of the See also:fields (See also:Varro, L
.
L. v
.
85)
.
It is generally held that the college was founded by See also:Romulus (see Acca LARENTIA)
.
This See also:legend probably arose from the connexion of Acca Larentia, as mater Larum, with the See also:Lares who had a See also:part in the religious ceremonies of the Arvales
.
But apart from this, there is See also:proof of the high antiquity of the college, which was said to have been older than Rome itself, in the verbal forms of the See also:song with which, down to See also:late times, a part of the ceremonies was accompanied, and which is still preserved
.
It is clear also that, while the members were them-selves always persons of distinction, the duties of their See also:office were held in high respect
.
And yet it is singular that no mention of them occurs in See also:Cicero or See also:Livy, and that altogether See also:literary allusions to them are very scarce
.
On the other See also:hand, we possess a See also:long See also:series of the actor or minutes of their proceedings, See also:drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on See also:
The brotherhood .appears to have languished in obscurity during the See also:republic, and to have been revived by See also:Augustus
.
In his See also:time the college consisted of a See also:master (magister), a See also:vice-master (promagister), a See also:flamen, and a See also:praetor, with eight See also:ordinary members, attended by various servants, and in particular by four See also:chorus boys, sons of senators, having both parents alive
.
Each wore a See also:wreath of See also:corn, a See also: On the third day the sacrifice took place in Rome, and was of the same nature as that offered on the first day . The Arvales also offered sacrifice and See also:solemn vows on behalf of the imperial See also:family on the 3rd of See also:January and on other extraordinary occasions . The brotherhood is said to have lasted till the time of See also:Theodosius . The See also:British Museum contains a bust of See also:Marcus Aurelius in the See also:dress of a See also:Frater Arvalis . See also:Marini, Atti e Monumenti de' Fratri Arvali (1795) ; See also:Hoffmann, See also:Die A.' (1858) ; Oldenberg, De Sacris Fratrum A . (1875); See also:Bergk, Das Lied der Arvalbruder (1856) ; See also:Breal, " Le See also:Chant See also:des See also:Arvals " in Minn de to See also:Soc. de Linguistique (1881) ; Edon, Nouvelle Etude sur le Chant Limural (1884); Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vi . 2023-2119; Henzen, Acta Fratrum Arvalium (1894) . |
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