Acquired two headed RR for my
collection. Nice and practical coin if you like to play heads or tails. You will always win. Forget your old pocket piece and get one of these.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73772From Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and
Mythology. William Smith, Boston, 1867.
Liber: this name, or
Liber pater, is frequently
applied by the
Roman poets to the Greek
Bacchus or
Dionysus, who was accordingly regarded as identical with the
Italian Liber.
Cicero (de
Nat.
Deor. ii. 62), however, very justly distinguishes between
Dionysus (the Greek Liber) and the Liber who was worshipped by the early Italians in conjunction with
Ceres and Libera. Liber and the feminine Libera were ancient
Italian divinities, presiding over the cultivation of the vine and
fertility of the fields; and this seems to have given rise to the combination of their worship with that of
Ceres. A temple of these three divinities was vowed by the
dictator, A. Postumius, in BC 496, near the
Circus Flaminius; it was afterwards
restored by
Augustus, and dedicated by
Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. ii. 49; Dionys. vi. 17.) The most probable etymology of the name Liber is from liberare; Servius (ad Virg. Georg. i. 7) indeed states that the
Sabine name for Liber was Loebasius, but this seems to have been only an
obsolete form for Liber, just as we are told that the ancient
Romans said loebesus and loebertas for the later forms liber(us) and
libertas. (Paul. Diac. p. 121, ed. Müller.) Hence Seneca (de Tranq. Anim. 15) says, "Liber dictus est quia liberat servitio curarum animi;" while others, who were evidently thinking of the Greek
Bacchus, found in the name an allusion to licentious drinking and speaking. (Macrob.
Sat. i. 18; August, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9 ; Paul. Diac. p. 115.) Poets usually call him
Liber pater, the latter word being very commonly added by the Italians to the names of gods. The female Libera was identified by the
Romans with Cora or
Persephone, the daughter of Demeter (
Ceres), whence
Cicero (de
Nat.
Deor. ii. 62) calls
Liber and Libera children of
Ceres; whereas Ovid (Fast, iii. 512) calls
Ariadne Libera. The festival of the Liberalia was celebrated by the
Romans every year on the 17th of March.