ARVAL BROTHERS (Fratres Arvales), in Roman Antiquities, a college or priesthood (sacerdotes arvorum), consisting of twelve members, elected for life from the highest ranks in Rome, and always apparently, during the empire, including the emperor. Their chief duty was to offer annually public sacrifice for the fertility of the fields (ut fruges ferant area). The origin of the brotherhood was traced to Acca Larentia, the foster-mother of Romulus, who, with her twelve sons, had instituted sacrifices of this kind, and probably this legend arose from the connection of Acca Larentia, as mater Larum, with the Lares who had a part in the religions ceremonies of the arvales. But apart from this, there is proof of the high antiauity of the college in the verbal forms of the song with which, down to late times, a part of the ceremonies was accompanied, and which is still preserved (Becker, Handbuch der Rom. Alterthlimer, iv. p. 407). It is clear also that, while the members were themselves always persons of distinction, the duties of their office were held in high respect. And yet it is singular that no mention of them occurs in Cicero or Livy, and that altogether literary allusions to them are very scarce. On the other hand, we possess a long series of what may be called the minutes of their proceedings, drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on stone. At the time of Marini (Gli Atti e Monunzenti de' Fratelli Arvuli, Roma, 1795) 67 of these sets of records were known, beginning at 14 A.D. and extending to the time of Gordian. Since then several others have been discovered. The college consisted of a master (magister), a vice-master (promagister), a jlamen, and a prwtor, with eight ordinary members, attended by various servants, and in particular by four boys, sons of senators, having both parents alive. These officers were elected annually in May, but did not enter on their duties till the 17th December. Each wore a wreath of grain, a white fillet, and the prmtexta. The great annual festival which they had to conduct was held in honour of the Dea Dia, who appears to have resembled the goddess Ops, the wife of Saturn. It occupied three days, and fell either on the 17th, 19th, 20th, or the 27th, 29th, 30th of May. The ceremony of the first day of the May festival took place in Rome itself, in the house of the magister or his deputy, or in Palatio Divorum, where after sunrise the peculiar ceremony was gone through of " touching " (tangere fruges) samples of the old and the young grain. On the second and principal day of the festival the ceremonies were conducted in loco Dece that is, in a grove just beyond the fifth milestone from Rome on the Via Portuensis. The first act was to sacrifice two young pigs (porcilice piaculares) to purify the grove, which, it was held, was liable to be defiled in a religious sense by the felling of trees, and by the presence in it of any iron tool or instrument, such as was required by the lapidary who engraved on stone the records of the proceedings. Then, after the sacrifice of a white cow, the inagister drew up a minute of what had been done, and all retired to their tents. At midday they again met, settled and confirmed the minutes, and the public being now excluded, went into the depth of the grove to sacrifice a fat sheep. Returning to the temple, the thesauri, which seem to have been money collected from the people present, were placed on the altar, and the arvales arranged themselves in a line, with an attendant at each end. The attendant at one end received from the public the samples of grain and fruits which they had brought to be " touched," or blessed, and handed them to the brother next him, who passed them on till they reached the attendant at the other end, who restored them to the owners. The arvales now entered the temple, and with closed doors proceeded to dance and sing the song of the brotherhood, which is known to have been sung by them in its ancient form down to the 3d century A.D. This was followed by the election of officers for the next year, a banquet, and races. On the third day the sacrifice took place in Rome, and was of the same nature as that offered on the first day. Among the many minor occasions on which the arvales had to offer sacrifice were the birthday of an emperor, the beginning of a consulate, an escape from danger, the starting for or return from a journey, or other event of importance to the imperial family, but especially on the 3d of January, on which clay a particular form of prayer for the ruling emperor was recited, and sacrifice offered to a series of deities, male animals to male deities, and female to female. In the British Museum is a bust of Marcus Aurelius in the dress of a Frater Arvalis. (Henzen in the Hermes, ii. p. 37; De Rossi, Annali d. Inst. Arch. Rom., 1858, p. 58.)