This name, or Liber pater, is frequently applied by the Roman poets to
the Greek Bacchus or Dionysus, who was accordingly regarded as identical with the Italian
Liber. Cicero (de Nat. Deor. 2.24), however, very justly distinguishes
between Dionysus (the Greek Liber) and the Liber who was worshipped by the early Italians in
conjunction with Ceres and Libera. Liber and the feminine Libera were ancient Italian
divinities, presiding over the cultivation of the vine and fertility of the fields; and this
seems to have given rise to the combination of their worship with that of Ceres. A temple of
these three divinities was vowed by the dictator, A. Postumius, in liberare; Servius (ad Virg. Georg. 1.7) indeed states
that the Sabine name for Liber was Loebasius, but this seems to have been only an obsolete
form for Liber, just as we are told that the ancient Romans said loebesus
and loebertas for the later forms liber(us) and libertas. (Paul. Diac. p.
121, ed. Miller.) Hence Seneca (de Tranq. Anim. 15) says, " Liber dictus
est quia liberat servitio curarum animi;" while others, who were evidently thinking of the
Greek Bacchus, found in the name an allusion to licentious drinking and speaking. (de Civ. Dei, 6.9; Paul. Diac.
p. 115.) Poets usually call him Liber pater, the latter word being very commonly added by the
Italians to the names of gods. The female Libera was identified by the Romans with Cora or de Nat.
Deor. 2.24) calls Liber and Libera children of Ceres; whereas Ovid (Dict.
of Ant. s. v. Liberalia; Hartung, Die Relig. der Röm. vol. ii.
p. 135, &c.; Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten, vol. ii. p. 750,
&c.)