Editing Dis Pater (section)

==Worship==
In 249&nbsp;BC and 207&nbsp;BC, the [[Roman Senate]] under [[senator]] Lucius Catellius ordained special festivals to appease Dis Pater and Proserpina. Every hundred years, a festival was celebrated in his name. According to legend, a round marble altar, ''Altar of Dis Pater and Proserpina'' ({{langx|la|Ara Ditis Patris et Proserpinae}}), was miraculously discovered by the servants of a [[Sabine]] called Valesius, the ancestor of the first [[consul]]. The servants were digging in the [[Tarentum (Campus Martius)|Tarentum]] on the edge of the [[Campus Martius]] to lay foundations following instructions given to Valesius's children in dreams, when they found the altar {{convert|20|ft|0}} underground. Valesius reburied the altar after three days of games. Sacrifices were offered to this altar during the [[Secular games|''Ludi Saeculares'']] or ''Ludi Tarentini''. It may have been uncovered for each occasion of the games, to be reburied afterwards, a clearly [[chthonic]] tradition of worship. It was rediscovered in 1886–1887 beneath the Corso Vittorio Emanuele in [[Rome]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Nash |first=Ernest
 |year=1961–1962
 |title=Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome
 |volume=1  |page=57
 |place=London, UK
 |publisher=A. Zwemmer Ltd.
 |isbn=0-8018-4300-6
 |oclc=14110024
}}
{{isbn|978-0-87817-265-8}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last=Richardson |first=L. Jr.
 |title=A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
 |date=1 October 1992  |edition=illustrated
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newtopographical0000rich/page/110 110&ndash;111]
 |place=London, UK / Baltimore, MD
 |publisher=Thames and Hudson / Johns Hopkins University Press
 |isbn=0-8018-4300-6
 |url=https://archive.org/details/newtopographical0000rich/
}}
{{ISBN|978-0-8018-4300-6}}
</ref>