Highly important also is the strictly native Italian Janus, the two-faced lord of beginnings and endings, probably an ancient Sun-God; whom one should invoke at the opening of every fresh day, and in whose honor (quite appropriately) the month of January is named with New Year’s Day especially designated to his festival.[222] There is furthermore Saturn, a rural deity, who has been identified with the Greek Cronos (“Father Time”); there is Orchus who rules the underworld; there is Liber the masculine field god, consort of Ceres and sometimes confounded with the Greek Bacchus; there is Bona Dea (“Good Goddess”) a mistress of agriculture, possibly only another aspect of Ceres; there is Flora, the kindly patroness not merely of the flowers but of all the prosaic vegetable gardens; and there also is Robigus, a malevolent garden deity who must be propitiated with frequent offerings or he will mildew the crops. All these gods (except the evil Robigus) are near and dear to the average plebeian, and especially to the farmers. In addition there are the Lares and Penates. We have seen how they are guardian spirits of the households--never forgotten in any mansion or upon any social occasion. The state has its own “Public Lares and Penates” as well as private households; the former are the spirits of the gallant patriots of old like the first Brutus, Cincinnatus, Camillus, and Scipio Major. The second are the immortal “Twin Brethren”--Castor and Pollux, who have ridden to rescue Roman armies on many a hard-fought field. No public sacrifice can avail unless at least formal reference is made to the public Lares and Penates along with the special god receiving honor. Reënforcing these divinities is a whole host of special rural deities, who, in a country still very dependent on agriculture, receive special honor in all the profitable villas and farms crowding up to the gates of Rome; Faunus and Lupercus are herdsmen’s gods well matching the Hellenic Pan; Silvanus presides over the woodlands and timber-lots, Pales is a much beloved shepherd’s god, Pomona cares for the orchards, Vertumnus for the normal change of the seasons; Anna Perena is the goddess of the circling year; and Terminus takes care that the boundary stones (so important to farmers) are not disturbed. =352. Personified Virtues as Gods: Cold and Legalistic Character of the Roman Religion.=--However, these deities are increased by a great host of personified moral and civic qualities. Nothing is easier in Rome than to assume that every desirable virtue must have some kind of a numen (divine potence) behind it. Around the city one can find temples, _e.g._ to Honor, Hope, Good Faith, Modesty, Concord, Peace, Victory, Liberty, Public Safety, Youth, and Fame. This is only a minor part of the list. [Illustration: CIRCULAR TEMPLE, PROBABLY OF OLD ITALIAN GODDESS MATUTA: now Church of Sancta Maria del Sole, Rome.]