Hecto

Who exactly were the Lares ? I read here and on the net about families having 1 Lar deity in there household (for the floor? where the dead were buried). But from the legend, Mercury had 2 sons named Lares. So just to be sure I understand correctly, in a roman household, there is a little shrine dedicated to one Lar, but there is more then one "god of the household". Also, is the Lar, like the Penates, named after another minor or major god? This really bothers. Any help is welcome since I am a bit lost studying all these different gods. If it helps, I am mainly studying practices during the republic.

Hello UNRV, I have a question for all Latin erudit, what would be the best translation for the word "Slave-dealer"? Slave being Servus, is it similar? Thank you, Hecto

Thank you very much for your answer. I still have not found much more except some bits and pieces concerning the 17th of March and the liberalia. Still thx a lot.

Hello fellow Roman enthousiast, I have a simple question concerning the coming of age ceremony for boys, yet the answer eludes me. At what age exactly does it happen? It seems to hav change throughout the centuries but it tickles me since it seems to have been really important during the Republic and yet I have never found a clear answer. From the multiple website I found, it seems the ceremony happened on march 17 during the Liberalia (but not exclusively?). Oh and did it have to be in Rome ? Or for exemple, could a family (of roman citizen) in a province organize the ceremony there?

Here is my question, why is it that in some writings (IE: Cicero's letter "M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets Cn. Pompeius, son of Cneius, Imperator.") a "Cn." appears which, from the way I understand nomenclature, would stand for "Cneius" but in recent writings, it is pictured as "Gnaeus" ?

I am currently starting a research on the use of religion/myths in writings and day-to-day speech(and life) in the late republic and I was wondering if any of you could suggest me a few ancient authors who might have worked and/or described these topics. For example, I am reading Ceasar's Bello Gallico but there isn't much to work with at the moment. Ceasar makes religious references mostly when he transcripts speeches, which is excellent information but quite thin at the moment. Help to direct my lectures would be greatly appreciated. If it tickles your curiosity, my work is centered around "social imagination" ("imaginaire social" in french). A concept originating from the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis but now used in recent literary research (mainly for the 19th century). Hecto