Fortuna and the Republic

This chapter studies all the public temples of Fortuna at Rome in the Republican period. The main focal points of the chapter are the precise historical circumstances for the vow, construction, and dedication of each temple, and the connection between these circumstances and the epithets attributed to the goddess. One of the main points made by this chapter is that there is a very solid connection between Republican temples of Fortuna and the plebeian aristocracy, which suggests that Fortuna was characterized as a deity closely associated with the plebs. Another point concerns Fortuna Publica, a deity that during the Roman conquest of the Greek East was associated with Roman imperialism through her translation as Tyche, following a debate on the merits of Roman conquest of which we can read traces in Polybius.