ount of Tellus is in Wissowa, _R.K._
p. 159 foll.

[229] _R.F._ p. 71; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 631 foll. This
was a festival of the populus as a whole, and also of
each Curia, like the Fornicalia in February. Both were
clearly agricultural in origin, though the Curia as we
know it was probably an institution of the city. I must
own that I am quite uncertain as to what the thing was
which was originally meant by the word Curia; my friend
Dr. J. B. Carter may have something to say on the
subject in his book on the Roman religion in the Jastrow
series.

[230] Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, pp. 11 and 73 foll.

[231] Virg. _Aen._ iv. 166, "prima et Tellus et pronuba
Iuno Dant signum"; commenting on which Servius wrote,
"quidam sane etiam Tellurem praeesse nuptiis tradunt;
nam et in auspiciis nuptiarum invocatur: cui etiam
virgines, vel cum ire ad domum mariti coeperint, vel iam
ibi positae, diversis nominibus vel ritu sacrificant."
There is little doubt that Tellus is frequently
concealed under the names of Ceres, Dea Dia, etc. For
Ceres and Juno in marriage rites, see Marquardt,
_Privatleben_, p. 49.

[232] See below, p. 206 foll.; Macrob. iii. 9. 11;
Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 66 foll.

[233] See De Marchi, _La Religione_, _etc._, i. p. 188
and reff. (The reference to Gellius should be iv. 6. 7,
not iv. 67.) Like some other operations of the Roman
religion, this became a form, and was used as a kind of
insurance, whether or no there had been any omission;
Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 160.

[234] That Ceres represented the _fructus_ is shown by
the fact that in the XII. Tables the man who raided a
field of standing corn at night was made _sacer_ to her;
Pliny, _N.H._ xviii. 12.

[235] Cato, _R.R._ 134. De Marchi, _op. cit._ p. 135.
Janus, Jupiter, and Juno are concerned in this rite,
Ceres coming last. Varro has preserved the part of
Tellus for us: "quod humatus non sit, heredi porca
praecidanea suscipienda Telluri et Cereri, aliter
familia non pura est" (_ap. Nonium_, p. 163).

[236] The verses are quoted by Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_,
p. 75, among others from Buecheler's _Anthology of Roman
Epitaphs_, Nos. 1544 and 1476. The story is told in
Suetonius' _Life of Tib._ c. 75, and again of Gallienus
by Aurelius Victor (_Caes._ c. 33).

[237] Ma