It is safer to take Volcanus as an ancient Roman deity whose cult was closely connected with that of Maia, or the Bona Dea, and was prominent in this month as well as in August. The Flamen Volcanalis sacrificed to the Bona Dea on May 1; and Maia was addressed in invocations as Maia Volcani[486]. The coincidence of this festival of his with the Tubilustrium I take to have been accidental; but it led naturally, as the Romans became acquainted with Greek mythology, to the erroneous view represented by Ovid that Volcanus was himself a smith[487]. VIII KAL. IUN. (MAY 25). C. FORTUNAE P[UBLICAE] P[OPULI] R[OMANI] Q[UIRITIUM] IN COLLE QUIRIN[ALI]. (CAER.) FORTUN[AE] PUBLIC[AE] P[OPULI] R[OMANI] IN COLL[E]. (ESQ.) FORTUN[AE] PRIM[IGENIAE] IN COL[LE]. (VEN.) This was the dedication-day of one of three temples of Fortuna on the Quirinal; the place was known as ‘tres Fortunae[488].’ The goddess in this case was Fortuna Primigenia, imported from Praeneste—of whom something will be said later on[489]. The temple was vowed after the Second Punic War in B.C. 204, and dedicated ten years later[490]. Our consideration of Fortuna may be postponed till the festival of Fors Fortuna, an older Roman form of the cult, on June 24. KAL. IUN. (MAY 29). C. The Ambarvalia, originally a religious procession round the land of the early Roman community, the object of which was to purify the crops from evil influences, does not appear in the Julian calendars, not being _feriae stativae_; but it is indicated in the later rustic calendars by the words, _Segetes lustrantur_. Its date may be taken as May 29[491]: and this fixity will not appear incompatible with its character as a _sacrum conceptivum_, if we accept Mommsen’s explanation of the way in which some feasts might be fixed to a day according to the usage of the Italian farmer, but of varying date according to the civil calendar[492].