Laverna

, the godde of thieves and dishonest persons at Rome. She did not only preside over robbers, called from her Laverniones , but she protected such as deceived others, or performed their secret machinations in obscurity and silence. Her worship was very popular, and the Romans raised her an altar near one of the gates of the city, which from that circumstance was called the gate of Laverna. She was generally represented by a head without a body. Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 16 , li. 60 .— Varro , de Lingua Latina , bk. 4 .――A place mentioned by Plutarch , .