Fortuna Huiusce Diei
Fortuna Huiusce Diei ("The Fortune of This Day" or "Today's Fortune"
Temple
The Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei in the Area Sacra was
Colloquially, the temple was known as the aedes Catuli, "Catulus's temple," an indication of how public works served as monuments to their builders.[9] In building this temple and the portico known as the Porticus Catuli, Catulus was competing with his co-commander and consular colleague Gaius Marius. Although the two had celebrated a joint triumph, they became bitter political rivals, and Catulus felt that Marius had received disproportionate credit for the outcome of the war. Public buildings were a form of "self-advertisement" in the competition among the ruling elite of Rome. The choice of Fortuna as the deity honored by Catulus links his self-presentation to that of Sulla, who served under him and later took the name Felix, "Lucky."[10]
Modern scholarly consensus identifies the temple with the site known as Temple B in the
The temple is raised on a low
moldings.[16]
The cella was taken down and rebuilt at a later period to install an "enormous" base for a colossal cult statue.[17]
Cult statue
A colossal acrolith was discovered in the Area Sacra between the temples known as B and C. In the 1st century BC, colossal statues at Rome were few in number, and with rare exceptions represented deities, not people.[18] Standing nearly 8m tall, the acrolith was likely the cult statue of Fortuna Huiusce Diei.[19] Her head, arms, and feet appear to be made of Parian marble.[20] The drapery was probably of bronze, but the position of the marble parts outside the temple suggests that the statue had been dragged down and the metal scavenged after the Roman Empire came under Christian rule.[21] Comparison of the attitude of the surviving parts with other cult statues suggests that the goddess was shown standing, but arguments have also been made for a seated position. Marks on her right arm suggest she was holding something, probably a cornucopia, a common attribute of Fortuna.[22]
Art works
The temple housed a number of statues by leading
In the 6th century AD, one temple of Fortuna in Rome held a stone replica of the
The Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei was among several that had a secondary function as art museums, visited for the art works displayed within them.[29] Cicero recommends this temple in particular as a place for viewing fine art by those not wealthy enough to own collections.[30] None of the works thought to have been displayed there has been found and identified, with the exception of the main cult statue.
On the calendar
The Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei was dedicated on July 30, the anniversary of the Battle of Vercellae[31] and the day when Catulus made his vow.[32] Its dies natalis was celebrated annually with a public sacrifice for the goddess,[33] and its place on the official calendar indicates that while the temple was privately vowed and sponsored, the cult of Fortuna Huiusce Diei was part of state religion.[34] From 45 BC onward, the festival day coincided with the last day of the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris, ten days of games (ludi) held in honor of Julius Caesar.[35]
Palatine shrine
A shrine to Fortuna Huiusce Diei on the Palatine Hill is suggested by a neighborhood named Vicus Huiusce Diei, but the absence of any other evidence and of the name Fortuna leaves the question open.[36] It may have been a private shrine located in the Portico of Catulus, Regio X. A minority view has held that this was an earlier temple to Fortuna Huiusce Diei dedicated by L. Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus after Pydna, and that he had dedicated the Athena of Phidias there.[37]
Interpretations
The 19th-century comparativist
References
- ^ Gary Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History (Routledge, 2012), p. 19.
- ^ Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 156.
- De legibus 2.28: nam valet in omnis dies; Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, p. 19; Anna Clark, Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 130.
- ^ Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, p. 19; Clark, Divine Qualities, pp. 129–130.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Marius 26.2.
- ^ If modern scholars are right to dismiss an earlier temple on the Palatine; Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 129.
- ^ William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 343.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 130; Mario Torelli, "Topography and Archaeology of Rome," translated by Helen Fracchia, in A Companion to the Roman Republic (Blackwell, 2010), p. 95.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 130.
- ^ Harriet I. Flower, Roman Republics (Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 167–168.
- ^ Michael Lipka, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), p. 22.
- ^ Hilary Becker, "The Economic Agency of the Etruscan Temple: Elites, Dedications and Display," in Votives, Places and Rituals in Etruscan Religion: Studies in Honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa (Brill, 2009), p. 92.
- ^ Varro, De re rustica 3.5.12; also aedes in Pliny the Elder, Natural History 34.54.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156; Lipka, Roman Gods, p. 91.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Paul Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius, edited by John C. Younger (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), p. 41.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 129.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 130.
- ^ Hanz Günther Martin, Römische Tempelkultbilder: eine archäologische Untersuchung zur späten Republik («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1987), p. 111.
- ^ Martin, Römische Tempelkultbilder, pp. 108, 111.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 34.54, 34.60.
- ^ As summarized by Brunella Germini, Statuen des strengen Stils in Rom: Verwendung und Wertung eines griechischen Stils im römischen Kontext («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 2008), pp. 23–24. Coarelli's identification is based in part on a passing reference in Tatian, Oratio ad Graecos 34 (cited by Germini as 54), to sculpture by Pythagoras depicting Polynices and Eteocles, the warring brothers of Thebes.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156; Martin, Römische Tempelkultbilder, p. 106.
- ^ Peter Stewart, Statues in Roman Society: Representation and Response (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 151.
- ^ Procopius, Bell. Goth. 1.15.11.
- ^ As pointed out by Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 177.
- ^ Cicero, Verres 4.126; Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 178.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 130.
- ^ According to the Fasti Pinciani and Fasti Allifani = Degrassi (1963) 47 and 179 = Inscriptiones Italicae XIII.2, 47, 178 with 488.
- ^ Eric M. Orlin, Temples, Religion, and Politics in the Roman Republic (Brill, 1997), p. 195.
- H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 169.
- ^ Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 156.
- ^ Summary of views by Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 129, note 37.
- ^ Max Müller, "Fors, Fortuna," Lecture XVII of The Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1888, in Collected Works (1899), vol. 1, p. 475.
- ^ Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 164–165.
- ^ Clark, Divine Qualities, p. 130; Torelli, "Topography and Archaeology of Rome," pp. 92–93.