Editing Arval Brethren (section)

==Structure and duties==

The Arval Brethren formed a college of twelve priests, although archaeologists have found only up to nine names at a time in the inscriptions. They were appointed for life and did not lose their status even in [[exile]]. According to Pliny the Elder, their sign was a white band with the chaplet of sheaves of grain (''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' 18.2).

The Brethren assembled in the [[Regia]]. Their task was the worship of [[Dea Dia]], an old fertility goddess, possibly an aspect of [[Maia (mythology)|Maia]] or [[Ceres (Roman mythology)|Ceres]].  On the three days of her May festival, they offered sacrifices and chanted secretly the ''[[Carmen Arvale]]'' inside the temple of the goddess, at her ''[[lucus]]''. The ''magister'' (master) of the college selected the exact three days of the celebration by an unknown method.

The celebration began in Rome on the first day, was transferred to a sacred grove outside the city wall on the second day and ended back in the city on the third day.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}  Their duties included ritual propitiations or thanksgivings such as the ''Ambarvalia'', the sacrifices done at the borders of Rome at the fifth mile of the ''Via Campana'' or the ''Salaria'' (a place now on the hill Monte delle Piche at [[Magliana]] Vecchia on the right bank of the Tiber). Before the sacrifice, the sacrificial victim was led three times around a grain field where a chorus of farmers and farm-servants danced and sang praises for Ceres and offered her libations of milk, honey and wine.

Archaic traits of the rituals included the prohibition of the use of iron, the use of the ''olla terrea'' (a jar made of unbaked earth) and of the sacrificial burner of Dea Dia made of silver and adorned with grassy clods.
[[File:CILVI-2051tab1-ActaArvalium69AD.jpg|thumb|1st-century inscription of the ''Acta Arvalium'']]