- The Collaborative Numismatics Project
  Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! NumisWiki Is An Enormous Unique Resource Including Hundreds Of Books And Thousands Of Articles Online!!! The Column On The Left Includes Our "Best of NumisWiki" Menu If You Are New To Collecting - Start With Ancient Coin Collecting 101 NumisWiki Includes The Encyclopedia of Roman Coins and Historia Nummorum If You Have Written A Numismatic Article - Please Add It To NumisWiki All Blue Text On The Website Is Linked - Keep Clicking To ENDLESSLY EXPLORE!!! Please Visit Our Shop And Find A Coin You Love Today!!!

× Resources Home
Home
New Articles
Most Popular
Recent Changes
Current Projects
Admin Discussions
Guidelines
How to
zoom.asp
Index Of All Titles


BEST OF

AEQVITI
Aes Formatum
Aes Rude
The Age of Gallienus
Alexander Tetradrachms
Ancient Coin Collecting 101
Ancient Coin Prices 101
Ancient Coin Dates
Ancient Coin Lesson Plans
Ancient Coins & Modern Fakes
Ancient Counterfeits
Ancient Glass
Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Ancient Oil Lamps
Ancient Pottery
Ancient Weapons
Ancient Wages and Prices
Ancient Weights and Scales
Anonymous Follis
Anonymous Class A Folles
Antioch Officinae
Aphlaston
Armenian Numismatics Page
Augustus - Facing Portrait
Brockage
Bronze Disease
Byzantine
Byzantine Denominations
A Cabinet of Greek Coins
Caesarean and Actian Eras
Campgates of Constantine
Carausius
A Case of Counterfeits
Byzantine Christian Themes
Clashed Dies
Codewords
Coins of Pontius Pilate
Conditions of Manufacture
Corinth Coins and Cults
Countermarked in Late Antiquity
Danubian Celts
Damnatio Coinage
Damnatio Memoriae
Denomination
Denarii of Otho
Diameter 101
Die Alignment 101
Dictionary of Roman Coins
Doug Smith's Ancient Coins
Draco
Edict on Prices
ERIC
ERIC - Rarity Tables
Etruscan Alphabet
The Evolving Ancient Coin Market
EQVITI
Fel Temp Reparatio
Fertility Pregnancy and Childbirth
Fibula
Flavian
Fourree
Friend or Foe
The Gallic Empire
Gallienus Zoo
Greek Alphabet
Greek Coins
Greek Dates
Greek Coin Denominations
Greek Mythology Link
Greek Numismatic Dictionary
Hellenistic Names & their Meanings
Hasmoneans
Hasmonean Dynasty
Helvetica's ID Help Page
The Hexastyle Temple of Caligula
Historia Numorum
Holy Land Antiquities
Horse Harnesses
Illustrated Ancient Coin Glossary
Important Collection Auctions
Islamic Rulers and Dynasties
Julian II: The Beard and the Bull
Julius Caesar - The Funeral Speech
Koson
Kushan Coins
Later Roman Coinage
Latin Plurals
Latin Pronunciation
Legend
Library of Ancient Coinage
Life in Ancient Rome
List of Kings of Judea
Medusa Coins
Maps of the Ancient World
Military Belts
Military Belts
Mint Marks
Monogram
Museum Collections Available Online
Nabataea
Nabataean Alphabet
Nabataean Numerals
The [Not] Cuirassed Elephant
Not in RIC
Numismatic Bulgarian
Numismatic Excellence Award
Numismatic French
Numismatic German
Numismatic Italian
Numismatic Spanish
Parthian Coins
Patina 101
Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew Script Styles
People in the Bible Who Issued Coins
Imperial Mints of Philip the Arab
Phoenician Alphabet
Pi-Style Athens Tetradrachms
Pricing and Grading Roman Coins
Reading Judean Coins
Representations of Alexander the Great
Roman Coin Attribution 101
Roman Coin Legends and Inscriptions
Roman Keys
Roman Locks
Roman Militaria
Roman Military Belts
Roman Mints
Roman Names
romancoin.info
Rome and China
Sasanian
Satyrs and Nymphs
Scarabs
Serdi Celts
Serrated
Siglos
The Sign that Changed the World
Silver Content of Parthian Drachms
Star of Bethlehem Coins
Statuary Coins
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
Syracusian Folles
Taras Drachms with Owl Left
The Temple Tax
The Temple Tax Hoard
Test Cut
Travels of Paul
Tribute Penny
Tribute Penny Debate Continued (2015)
Tribute Penny Debate Revisited (2006)
Tyrian Shekels
Uncleaned Ancient Coins 101
Vabalathus
Venus Cloacina
What I Like About Ancient Coins
Who was Trajan Decius
Widow's Mite
XXI

   View Menu
 

Fortuna




Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.


    FORTUNA.  Fortune, a goddess to whose worship the Romans were devoutly attached. The common people regarded her as a divinity who distributed good and evil among mankind according to her caprice and without any regard to merit. The more sensible of the ancients either denied the existence of this deity or understood by Fortune nothing more than Divine Providence whose decrees being unknown to mortals made human events appear to happen by chance.
   The Romans who were, at the earliest period of their history content to consult Sors et Fortuna at Antium, afterwards adopted the goddess into the number of their tutelaries and consecrated nearly thirty temples to her in the different districts of the city. Servius Tullius set the first example which was followed by Ancus Martius and it was largely adopted in the time of the Republic. The Emperor Nero built a temple to Fortune of transparent stones.
   The Romans mystically believed that Fortune after deserting the Persians and Assyrians took flight over Macedonia and saw Alexander perish as she passed into Egypt and into Syria. At last arriving on Mount Palatine she threw aside her wings and casting away her wheel, entered Rome where she took up her abode for ever.
   Fortune was Sulla 's favorite divinity. To her and not to himself or his own wisdom, was he accustomed to ascribe all the glory of his many achievements. In allusion to this he assumed the name of Felix.
   The Romans gave many different names to this versatile goddess. The following are those which appear on coins, viz: Antiatina, Bona, Felix, Fors, Mala, Muliebris, Manens, Obsequens, Primigenia, Redux and lastly Fortuna Augusta (or Augusti) and Fortuna Populi Romani (see those names, suis locis).

           

   Fortune appears on a great number of imperial coins (in each metal and size and from Augustus to Diocletian) with the legend FORTVNA, but more frequently FORTVNA AVG and AVGVSTI. She is shown wearing the stola, standing or seated, holding in her right hand a rudder, resting on the prow of a ship and in her left hand, a cornucopia. In some types a wheel appears at her feet or under her chair as in Albinus, Gordian III, etc. On other specimens we see her with the rudder planted on a globe as in Verus, Commodus, etc., but the cornucopia is her invariable attribute.
   Fortune is seated with a young boy before her on a coin of Julia Domna; standing with a caduceus in L. Aelius; with her arm resting on a column as in Hadrian; in a temple of six columns on a coin of Trebonianus Gallus.
   Fortune also appears with Hope on first brass of Hadrian and of Aelius Caesar. She is seen in a chair opposite to the emperor who is sacrificing as in Sept. Severus. The sedent goddess is said to denote the emperor 's fortune to be firm and stable. Sometimes Fortuna sedens holds with her right hand a short staff or tiller at the top of the rudder as in Antoninus Pius, Albinus, etc. And on a well known coin of Commodus (see further on) she sits holding a horse by the bridle. On a coin of Geta she is recumbent on the ground with a wheel and cornucopia by her side.
   Fortuna Mala and Fortuna Bona were both worshipped in their respective temples at Rome. Vaillant is of the opinion that the two busts on a coin of the Rostia gens (Fortunae Antiates) were intended to personify Good and Ill Fortune.

   - See GENIUS.


View whole page from the Dictionary Of Roman Coins
All coins are guaranteed for eternity