ARVALES FRATRES

ARVALES FRATRES,were Priests in ancient Rome, who assisted in the Sacrifices of the Ambarvalia offered every Year to Ceres and Bacchus for the Prosperity of the Fruits of the Earth, viz. of the Corn and Wine. See PRIEST and AMBARVALIA, &c. They were instituted by Romulus, and were twelve in Number; all of them Persons of the first Distinction; the Founder himself having been of the Body.—They made a College, called Collegium Fratrum Arvalium. See COLLEGE. The Mark of their Dignity, was a Garland, composed of Ears of Corn, tied with a white Ribbon, which Pliny says, was the first Crown in Use at Rome. See CROWN. The Word is originally Latin, and is formed from arvum, a Field; because, in their Ceremonies, they went in Procession around the Fields: Others say, because they were appointed Arbitrators of all Differences relating to the Limits of Fields and Land-Marks. According to Fulgentius, Acca Laurentia, Romulus’s Nurse, was the first Founder of this Order of Priests: She, it seems, had twelve Sons, who used to walk before her in the Sacrifice; one of whom dying, Romulus, in favor of his Nurse, promised to take his Place; and hence, says he, came this Sacrifice, the Number twelve, and the Name of Brother.—Pliny seems to indicate the same thing, when he mentions that Romulus instituted Priests of the Fields, after the Example of Acca Laurentia his Nurse.