Roman Britain Mother-Goddess 2nd C. BCE

"The addition to this account which has been made by certain writers, though neither true nor plausible, but invented by the multitude from some false report, does not deserve to be passed over without examination. For some report that after the three hundred and six Fabii had been slain, there was only one boy left out of the whole clan, thereby introducing a detail that is not only improbable, but even impossible; for it is not possible that all the Fabii who went out to the fortress were unmarried and childless. For not only did the ancient law of the Romans oblige all of the proper age to marry, but they were forced also to rear all their children; and surely the Fabii would not have been the only persons to violate a law which had been observed by their ancestor down to their time. But even if one were to admit this assumption, yet he would never make the further assumption that none of them had any brothers still in their childhood. Why, such institutions resemble myths and fictions of the stage! Besides, would not as many of their fathers as were still of an age to beget children, now that so great a desolation had come upon their clan, have begotten other children both willingly and unwillingly, in order that neither the sacrifices of their ancestors might be abandoned nor the great reputation of the clan be extinguished?"

-Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities, Book 9.22

Pipeclay figurine of a Mother-Goddess from a cemetery at Welwyn Grange, Hertfordshire. The figure sits in a wicker chair and is suckling a baby. Roman Britain, 2nd century CE. Ht.14.5 cm. British Museum, London. PE.

Source:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_terracotta_mother_goddess_1.JPG

 

Quote:

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/9A*.html#22