Arval Brethren

Arval Brethren (Fratres Arvales), a college of twelve priests in ancient Rome, who yearly made offerings to the field Lares for the increase of the fruits of the field. Its institution was ascribed to Romulus, from which we may at least argue its extreme antiquity. Niebuhr suggested that it was originally connected with the Latin element of the Roman state, just as its sister college, that of the Sodales Titii, was confessedly instituted for the purpose of keeping up the specially Sabine religious rites. The office was held for life—its badge was a chaplet of ears of corn worn on the head with a white band. One account of the ceremonies at their principal festival, that of three days in honour of Dea Dia, supposed to be Ceres, is preserved in an inscription written in the first year of the Emperor Elagabalus (218 A.D.). The same inscription contains a hymn, which appears to have been sung at the festival from the earliest times. Later inscriptions show that the college was still in existence about the middle of the fourth century.