21.1
The Sabines, then, adopted the Roman months, about which I have written sufficiently in my Life of Numa. Chapters xviii. and xix. Romulus, on the other hand, made use of their oblong shields, and changed his own armour and that of the Romans, who before that carried round shields of the Argive pattern. Feasts and sacrifices they shared with one another, not discarding any which the two peoples had observed before, but instituting other new ones. One of these is the Matronalia, which was bestowed upon the women to commemorate their putting a stop to the war; and another is the Carmentalia.
21.2
This Carmenta is thought by some to be a Fate presiding over human birth, and for this reason she is honoured by mothers. Others, however, say that the wife of Evander the Arcadian,Cf. Plutarch’s Roman Questions, 56 ( Morals, p. 278 b, c), and Livy, i. 7. 8. who was a prophetess and inspired to utter oracles in verse, was therefore surnamed Carmenta, since carmina is their word for verses, her own proper name being Nicostrate. As to her own name there is general agreement, but some more probably interpret Carmenta as meaning bereft of mind, because of her ecstasies under inspiration, since carere is the Roman word for to be bereft, and mens for mind.
