The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, Vol. 2

some say, king Romulus, but according to others the Roman people, heirs of her effects. On this account, public sacrifice was offered her by the Flamen Quirinalis, and a day of the public festivals was called after her name. But Sabinus Massurius, in his first book of Memorials, following some historians, says that Acca Larentia was the nurse of Romulus. This woman, says he, lost one of twelve male children by death; in his room, Romulus gave himself as son to Acca Larentia, calling himself and the other brothers Fratres Arvales3 (Field Brothers). From this time there was a society of Fratres Arvales, twelve in number; of which priesthood the distinction is a garland of corn and white fillets.

3 Fratres Arvales,] or rather Fratres Ambarvales. They offered sacrifice to Ceres and Bacchus to obtain fertility for their lands. They were called Ambarvales because they carried the victim around the fields. See also Pliny, Book 18, Chapter 2, who relates the same story with his usual gravity.