Bonus Eventus

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Bonus Eventus ("Good Outcome") was a divine

agriculture,[1] paired with Lympha, the goddess who influenced the water supply. The original function of Bonus Eventus may have been agricultural,[2] but during the Imperial era, he represents a more general concept of success and was among the numerous abstractions who appeared as icons on Roman coins
.

Cult and inscriptions

Religion in
ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius sacrificing
Marcus Aurelius (head covered)
sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
Priesthoods
Deities

Deified leaders:

Other deified persons:

Related topics

Bonus Eventus had a

Corinthian capitals "of extraordinary size" that were uncovered in the 19th century may have belonged to the portico, which was located in the Gardens of Agrippa.[3]

The epithet Bonus, "the Good," is used with other abstract deities such as Bona Fortuna ("Good Fortune"), Bona Mens ("Good Thinking" or "Sound Mind"), and Bona Spes ("Valid Hope," perhaps to be translated as "Optimism"), as well as with the mysterious and multivalent Bona Dea, a goddess whose rites were celebrated by women.[4]

Inscriptional evidence for the god is found at several locations, including in the

intaglios, appearing on 25 percent of the 127 found.[8] These usages point to a protective or tutelary function for the god, as well as the existence of a religious community to which the jeweller marketed his wares.[9]

Iconography

Coins featuring Bonus Eventus were issued during the turmoil of the

Year of Four Emperors (69 AD) and the reigns of Galba, Vespasian, Titus, Antoninus Pius, and Septimius Severus.[10] On these coins and on gems, Bonus Eventus is a standing male nude, usually with one leg bent and his head turned away toward a libation bowl in his outstretched hand. Sometimes he is partially clad in a chlamys that covers his back, or in an over-the-shoulder himation with the ends framing his torso. Poppies and stalks of grain are common attributes.[11]

In his book on sculpture,

Agathos Daimon, since he was accompanied by a "Bona Fortuna," presumably a translation of the Greek Agathē Tychē. Euphranor's bronze is sometimes taken as the type on which the iconography of coins and gems was based, since the figure held poppies and grain. These attributes suggest an Eleusinian deity, and while the Greek original is most often taken as Triptolemus, no extant depictions of Triptolemus show the combination of poppies and grain, which is associated with Demeter (Roman Ceres).[14]

References

  1. Varro, De re rustica 1.1.4–6; Clifford Ando
    , The Palladium and the Pentateuch: Towards a Sacred Topography of the Later Roman Empire, Phoenix 55 3.4 (2001), p. 383.
  2. ^ Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 60.
  3. ^ Richardson, New Topographical Dictionary, p. 60.
  4. ^ Hendrik H.J. Brouwer, Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult pp. 245–246.
  5. ^ J.J. Wilkes, "The Roman Danube: An Archaeological Survey," Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005), p. 142.
  6. ^ J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), p. 935; Martin Henig, "Roman Religion and Roman Culture in Britain," in A Companion to Roman Britain (Blackwell, 2004), p. 227. The mosaic inscription is RIB 2448.2. The couple were a Cornelius Castus and Julia Belismicus, at Caerleon (RIB 318).
  7. ^ Henig, "Roman Religion and Roman Culture in Britain," p. 227.
  8. ^ Alexandra Croom, "Personal Ornament," in A Companion to Roman Britain, p. 296. Most of the intaglios depict the same four devices, with Ceres (20 percent), Fortuna (13 percent) and a parrot (12 percent) the most popular after Bonus Eventus.
  9. ^ Henig, "Roman Religion and Roman Culture in Britain," pp. 227–228; Croom, "Personal Adornment," pp. 295–296.
  10. ^ Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," pp. 897, 900–901, 903–904.
  11. ^ Olga Palagia, Euphranor (Brill, 1980), p. 35.
  12. ^ Pliny, Natural History 36.23.
  13. ^ Palagia, Euphranor, p. 35.
  14. ^ Palagia, Euphranor, p. 35.
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