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Matuta was the patroness of matrons, no maid being suffered to enter her temple. The married was always held to be the only honourable state for woman, during the times of pagan antiquity. Epist. Fast. Lib.
The town was demolished and burnt; only they kept the fire from the temple of Mother Matuta. The entire plunder was given up to the soldiers. The four thousand who had surrendered were considered exclusive of the spoil; these the consul when triumphing drove before his chariot in chains; afterwards by selling them he brought a great sum of money into the treasury.
This is how it was that Bacchus was deified, the offspring of Semele; and from the same illustrious fame we receive Castor and Pollux as Gods, who are reported not only to have helped the Romans to victory in their battles, but to have been the messengers of their success. What shall we say of Ino, the daughter of Cadmus? Is she not called Leucothea by the Greeks, and Matuta by us?
But when he rode through the city in a chariot drawn by white horses, men said, "This becometh not a citizen, nor indeed a man, how great soever he be. He maketh himself equal to Jupiter or Apollo." Afterwards, having contracted for the building of a temple to Queen Juno on Mount Aventine, and dedicated the temple to Mother Matuta, he resigned the dictatorship.
Youth from foreign states also, Latins and Hernicians, came, promising their service for the war: after the dictator returned them thanks in the senate, all preparations being now completed for the war, he vowed, according to a decree of the senate, that he would, on the capture of Veii, celebrate the great games, and that he would repair and dedicate the temple of Mother Matuta, which had been formerly consecrated by King Servius Tullius.
Nor is this unusual: for "the ecclesiastical day is considered to begin with the evening or Vesper service, according to the Jewish reckoning, as alluded to in the text. The office of Matin so called from Matuta or Aurora consists at Tenebræ of three nocturns. Each of these is composed of three appropriate psalms with their anthems, followed by three lessons taken from scripture or the fathers.
In a state where the greatest anxiety prevailed, in consequence of the very critical situation in which the war stood, and where all events, prosperous or adverse, were attributed to the interposition of the gods, accounts of many prodigies were received; that the temple of Jupiter at Tarracina, and that of Mater Matuta at Satricum, had been struck by lightning.
The resentment and rage of the Latins, because they were neither able to damage the Romans in war, nor to retain the Volscians in arms, vented itself in setting fire to the city of Satricum, which had been their first place of retreat after their defeat; nor did any other building in that city remain, since they cast firebrands indiscriminately into those sacred and profane, except the temple of Mother Matuta.
In the temples of Fortune, Mater Matuta, and Hope, which latter stood without the gate, the fire, spreading to a wide extent, consumed much both sacred and profane. The same year, the two Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, as affairs were now in a prosperous state in Spain, and they had recovered many ancient allies, and attached fresh ones to them, extended their views even to Africa.
And in the first place he made vows unto the gods, that, if they would grant a happy conclusion of the war, he would celebrate to their honor the great games, and dedicate a temple to the goddess whom the Romans call Matuta the Mother, though, from the ceremonies which are used, one would think she was Leucothea.
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