Page "Liber" Paragraph 2

Liber entered Rome's historical tradition soon after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the establishment of the Republic and the first of many threatened or actual plebeian secessions from Rome's patrician authority.

According to Livy, the dictator A. Postumius vowed games ( ludi ) and a joint public temple to a Triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera on Rome's Aventine Hill, c. 496 BC.

In 493 the vow was fulfilled: the new Aventine temple was dedicated and ludi scaenici ( religious dramas ) were held in honour of Liber, for the benefit of the Roman people.

These early ludi scaenici have been suggested as the earliest of their kind in Rome, and may represent the earliest official festival to Liber, or an early form of his Liberalia festival.

The formal, official development of the Aventine Triad may have encouraged the assimilation of its individual deities to Greek equivalents: Ceres to Demeter, Liber to Dionysus and Libera to Persephone or Kore.