IV.  Near this place was a fig-tree, which they called Ruminalius, either from Romulus, as most persons imagine, or because cattle came to ruminate in its shade, or, more probably, because of the suckling of the children there, for the ancients called the nipple rouma.  Moreover, they call the goddess who appears to have watched over the children Roumilia, and to her they sacrifice offerings without wine, and pour milk as a libation upon her altar.

It is said that while the infants were lying in this place, the she-wolf suckled them, and that a woodpecker came and helped to feed and watch over them.  Now these animals are sacred to the god Mars; and the Latins have a peculiar reverence and worship for the woodpecker.  These circumstances, therefore, did not a little to confirm the tale of the mother of the children, that their father was Mars, though some say that she was deceived by Amulius himself, who, after condemning her to a life of virginity, appeared before her dressed in armour, and ravished her.  Others say that the twofold meaning of the name of their nurse gave rise to this legend, for the Latins use the word lupa for she-wolves, and also for unchaste women, as was the wife of Faustulus, who brought up the children, Acca Laurentia by name.  To her also the Romans offer sacrifice, and in the month of April the priest of Mars brings libations to her, and the feast is called Laurentia.

V. The Romans also worship another Laurentia, for this reason:  The priest of Hercules, weary with idleness, proposed to the god to cast the dice on the condition that, if he won, he should receive something good from the god, while if he lost, he undertook to provide the god with a bountiful feast and a fair woman to take his pleasure with.  Upon these conditions he cast the dice, first for the god, and then for himself, and was beaten.  Wishing to settle his wager properly, and making a point of keeping his word, he prepared a feast for the god, and hired Laurentia, then in the pride of her beauty, though not yet famous.  He feasted her in the temple, where he had prepared a couch, and after supper he locked her in, that the god might possess her.  And, indeed, the god is said to have appeared to the lady, and to have bidden her go early in the morning into the market-place, and to embrace the first man she met, and make him her friend.  There met her a citizen far advanced in years, possessing a fair income, childless, and unmarried.  His name was Tarrutius.  He took Laurentia to himself, and loved her, and upon his death left her heiress to a large and valuable property, the greater part of which she left by will to the city.  It is related of her, that after she had become famous, and was thought to enjoy the favour of Heaven, she vanished near the very same spot where the other Laurentia lay buried.  This place is now called Velabrum, because during the frequent overflowings of the river, people used there to be ferried over to the market-place; now they call ferrying velatura.  Some say that the road from the market-place to the circus, starting from this point, used to be covered with sails or awnings by those who treated the people to a spectacle; and in the Latin tongue a sail is called velum.  This is why the second Laurentia is honoured by the Romans.