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ACCA LARENTIA (not Laurentia)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ACCA LARENTIA (not Laurentia) , in See also:

Roman See also:legend, the wife of the shepherd Faustulus, who saved the lives of the twins See also:Romulus and Remus after they had been thrown into the See also:Tiber. She had twelve sons, and on the See also:death of one of them Romulus took his See also:place, and with the remaining eleven founded the See also:college of the Arval See also:brothers (Fratres Arvales). The tradition that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a See also:wolf has been explained by the See also:suggestion that Larentia was called lupa (" courtesan," literally " she-wolf ") on See also:account of her immoral See also:character (See also:Livy i. 4; See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, iii. 55). According to another account, Larentia was a beautiful girl, whom See also:Hercules won in a See also:game of See also:dice (See also:Macrobius i. so; See also:Plutarch, Romulus, 4, 5, Quaest. Rom. 35; Aulus See also:Gellius vi. 7). The See also:god advised her to marry the first See also:man she met in the See also:street, who proved to be a wealthy See also:Etruscan named Tarutius. She inherited all his See also:property and bequeathed it to the Roman See also:people, who out of gratitude instituted in her See also:honour a yearly festival called Larentalia (Dec. 23).

According to some, Acca Larentia was the See also:

mother of the See also:Lares, and, like See also:Ceres, Tellus, See also:Flora and others, symbolized the fertility of the earth—in particular the See also:city lands and their crops. See See also:Mommsen, " See also:Die echte and die falsche Larentia," in Romische Forschungen, ii. 1879; E. Pais, See also:Ancient Legends of Roman See also:History (Eng. trans. 1906), whose views on the subject are criticized by W. W. See also:Fowler in W. H. D. Rouse's The See also:Year's See also:Work in Classical Studies (1907) ; C. See also:Pascal, Studii di antichita e Mitologia (1896).

End of Article: ACCA LARENTIA (not Laurentia)

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