LIBER, LIBERALIA. — According to tradition, when in 495 BC, following a famine, the Sibylline Books ordered the introduction into Rome of Greek deities, a triad was accepted: Ceres, Liber and Libera, already considered by the ancients as a translation of the Greek: Demeter, Dionysus (q.v.) and Persephone (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 6.17). In the same year, a temple (aedes Cereris, Liberi Liberaeque) was built for the new gods by Greek artists, at the base of the Aventine near the Circus Maximus, whose *dies natalis* fell on 19 April, the feast of the Cerealia.
But, contrary to tradition, there can be no doubt as to the Italic origin of Liber, for the following reasons. First, his festival (the Liberalia) was already recorded in the ancient "Numan" calendar (17 March), a sign of great antiquity; second, the frequent epithet "pater" given to Liber, as it was also attributed to the other two indigenous and archaic deities: Jupiter and Mars; and finally, the fact that Liber appears as an epithet of Jupiter among numerous peoples such as the Vestini, Frentani, Sabines, at Capua and even at Rome itself (in a fragment of the Arval calendar, on 10 September: cf. CIL, I, 11, p. 214), which might suggest an overlapping of Jupiter upon a pre-existing local god Liber, or Loebasius (according to one of the most ancient forms of the name: cf. Varro, *De lingua lat.*, VI.2; Servius, *ad Georg.*, I.7; Paul the Deacon, 108). On the other hand, for the earliest period, Liber can claim autonomy with respect to Dionysus by demonstrating the lack of any connection with the vine, since his festival fell at a time (March) far removed from the vintage. Instead, he appears to be more clearly linked with the fertility of fields and animals: thus the phallic processions performed in various parts of Italy, especially at Lavinium, where an entire month was dedicated to Liber "for the averting of evil influences from the fields" and "to repel enchantment from the crops," ceremonies in which "most shameful words" were widely used (Augustine, *De civ. Dei*, 7.21; cf. Athenaeus, 622c), all elements of undoubted archaic character; and finally the well-known association of Liber with Ceres (also among the Sabines, cf. Servius, *loc. cit.*), the goddess of grain.
In later times, when the cult of Dionysus began to penetrate Rome, the Greek god was gradually interpreted as Liber on account of some cultic similarities, such as the phallic festivals, the use of hanging *oscilla* in honor of the god, etc., so that Liber ended up becoming a god of the vine, the vintage, and the like.
On the day of the Liberalia (17 March), old women (called "sacerdotes Liberi") crowned with ivy were seen throughout the city, selling cakes of flour, honey, and oil (*libum*), of which they would throw a small portion onto the tiny altar (*foculus*) placed before them, in honor of the god and for the benefit of the buyer. On this same day, young men assumed the toga virilis.