The acta Arvalium or acta fratrum Arvalium are the records of the rites performed by the Arval priests. These documents are the only known evidence to date of how the worship practices of Roman priests functioned.
The members of the priestly college of the Arvals drafted the acta first on codices, which were wax tablets kept in archives reserved for the exclusive use of the priests themselves. They then had a copy inscribed on the marble slabs of the Temple of the goddess Dia at the fifth mile of the Via Campana, corresponding to the area of modern Magliana Vecchia.
Today, the Arvalian tabulae that have survived consist of about 150 records with a meticulous description of the Arvals’ meetings, from 21-20 BC to 304 AD, mostly preserved between the Vatican Museums and the National Roman Museum at the Baths of Diocletian.
Around the end of the 2nd century AD, when there was no more available room on the base of the Temple of the goddess Dia, the Arvals began to use all the empty frames of older slabs. This is why today we find the acta of 213 under the epigraphs of 155; and those of 219 at the bottom of the ones from 90 AD. To gain even more space, the reports were sometimes even inscribed on furnishing decorative elements, such as the tops and legs of a table.
in the 16th century, three fragments had entered the epigraphic collections of Janus Corycius, Prothonotary of Luxembourg (high-ranking official or chief secretary in both ecclesiastical and civil contexts). In 1570, within the landed proprieties of the Prothonotary Fabrizio Galletti near the Tiber, 9 inscribed bases were found that mentioned the title of Arval Brother, along with busts of emperors whose heads were adorned with wraith of corn, identifying the members of the confraternity. In the same period, two other epigraphs were found, with the acta of 224 AD. Interest in the epigraphs later was less intense, and started again only in the 18th century following the discovery of the 218 AD report during works on the new sacristy of the Vatican, which included a copy of the famous carmen arvale (Arval Hymn).
Wilhelm Henzen, the then secretary of the Institute of Archaeological Correspondence, pushed the Ceccarelli brothers, owners of a vineyard located exactly in the area of the Arval Grove, to start an excavation campaign. Many fragments of the acta Arvalium were discovered, and among them many were reused in the Catacomb of Generosa, which was established near the temple in the 4th century: the reused slabs feature the acta fratrum Arvalium on one side and Christian epigraphs on the other.
Other fragments were found over time, such as those beneath the church of San Crisogono in Trastevere in 1914, which concerned the rites of the year 240 AD. Another was found during the demolition works to renovate the Theatre of Marcellus in the 1920s.
Excavations started in 1974, in collaboration between the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome and the École française de Rome, directed by Henri Broise and John Scheid, two of the leading experts on the subject, who have dedicated numerous studies and publications to it.
Thanks to these new archaeological campaigns, it was possible to cross-reference the buildings mentioned in the acta with the archaeological evidence still present in a territory undergoing major urban transformation since the 1920s. This work allowed for the creation of a map outlining the buildings with existing remains, such as the foundation of the Temple of the goddess Dia, located beneath the La Tavernaccia restaurant in Via del Tempio degli Arvali, or the thermal baths in Via della Magliana 567 under Casa Agolini.
Thanks to this matching information, we know in detail where, when, and how the Arvals met and what rites they performed.
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