The Lar of the household
The guardian god kept at a Roman family's hearth. Romans believed the Lares protected the house and family, and greeted them with prayer and offerings.
How to run a farm
Cato the Elder, On Farming (mid-second century BCE), in the edition of Georg Goetz after Heinrich Keil (Leipzig, 1922) · mid-second century BCE, late in Cato’s life
Pater familias ubi ad villam venit, ubi larem familiarem salutavit, fundum eodem die, si potest, circumeat; si non eodem die, at postridie. ubi cognovit, quo modo fundus cultus siet operaque quae facta infectaque sient, postridie eius diei vilicum vocet, roget, quid operis siet factum, quid restet, satisne temperi opera sient confecta, possitne quae reliqua sient conficere, et quid factum vini, frumenti aliarumque rerum omnium.
When the master arrives at the farmhouse, he should first greet the god of the household. Then he should walk around the farm that same day if he can, or if not, the next day. Once he has seen how the farm has been worked and which jobs have and have not been done, he should call in the overseer on the following day. He should ask what work is done and what is left, whether the jobs were finished on time, and whether the rest can be finished. He should ask how much wine, grain, and everything else has been produced.