H. Peter, in his additional notes to Ovid’s _Fasti_[666], has one so
lucid on the subject of the temples of Fors Fortuna mentioned in this
passage that I cannot do better than reproduce it. ‘We find three
temples of the goddess mentioned, all of which lay on the further side
of the Tiber. The first was that of Servius Tullius mentioned by Varro
in the following passage[667]: “Dies Fortis Fortunae appellatus ab
Servio Tullio rege, quod is fanum Fortis Fortunae secundum Tiberim extra
urbem Romam dedicavit Iunio mense.” The second is one stated by
Livy[668] to have been built by the consul Spurius Carvilius in 460 B.C.
near the temple of Servius. The third is mentioned by Tacitus[669] as
having been dedicated at the end of the year 17 A.D. by Tiberius, also
on the further side of the Tiber in the gardens of Caesar. Of these
three temples the third does not concern us in dealing with Ovid’s
lines, because it was completed and dedicated long after the composition
of the sixth book of the _Fasti_, perhaps at a time when Ovid was
already dead; we have to do only with the first two. Now we find in the
_Fasti_ of Amiternum[670] the following note on the 24th of June: “Forti
Fortunae trans Tiberim ad milliarium primum et sextum”; and this taken
together with Ovid suggests that either besides the temple of Carvilius
there were two temples of Fors Fortuna attributed to Servius, or (and
this appears to me more probable) the temple of Carvilius itself was
taken for a foundation of Servius as it had the same dedication-day and
was in the same locality. In this way the difficulties may be solved.’ I
am disposed to accept the second suggestion of Peter’s; for, as Mommsen
has remarked[671], it is quite according to Roman usage that Carvilius
should have placed his temple close to a much more ancient _fanum_ of
the same deity; i. e. the principle of the locality of cults often held
good through many centuries.
Many cults of Fortuna were referred to Servius Tullius, but especially
this one, because, as Ovid says, it was particularly a festival of the
plebs of which he was the traditional hero; and also because it was open
to slaves, a fact which was naturally connected with the supposed
servile birth of this king. The jollity and perhaps looseness of the
occasion seemed to indicate a connexion between the lower stratum of
population and the worship of Fortuna: ‘On foot and in boats,’ says
Ovid, ‘the people enjoyed themselves even to the extent of getting
drunk.’ We are reminded in fact of the plebeian license of the festival
of Anna Perenna in March[672]. It is perhaps worth noting that on June
18 the calendar of Philocalus has the note _Annae Sacrum_, which
unluckily finds no corroboration from any other source. Whether it was
an early popular cult, whether it was connected in any way with that of
Fors Fortuna, and whether both or either of them had any immediate
relation to the summer solstice, are questions admitting apparently of
no solution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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