Fortuna Redux was a form of the goddess
Fortuna in the
Roman Empire who oversaw a return, as from a long or perilous journey. Her attributes were Fortuna's typical
cornucopia, with her specific function represented by a
rudder or
steering oar sometimes in conjunction with a globe.
[Carlos F. Noreña, Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power (Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 140.][Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 157.]
Origins
The cult of Fortuna Redux was introduced to Roman religion in 19 BC, creating a new holiday
(feriae) on October 12 that originally marked the return of
Augustus to Rome from Asia Minor in 19 BC. From that time, she received annual sacrifices from the pontiffs and
Vestals at an altar dedicated to her
(Ara Fortunae Reducis). After the death of Augustus, the holiday was known as the
Augustalia, and was a major development in the complex of religious observances involving Imperial cult.
[John Scheid, "To Honour the Princeps and Venerate the Gods: Public Cult, Neighbourhood Cults, and Imperial Cult in Augustan Rome," translated by Jonathan Edmondson, in Augustus (Edinburgh University Press, 2009), p. 288, and "Augustus and Roman Religion: Continuity, Conservatism, and Innovation," in The Cambridge Companion to Augustus (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 190.]
Places of worship
The altar of Fortuna Redux was inaugurated on October 12, and dedicated on December 15.
[Scheid, "To Honour the Princeps," pp. 288–289.] It was probably adjacent to the Temple of Honor and Virtue near the
Porta Capena.
The altar is pictured on several coins, and appears to have been "relatively modest".
built a temple for the goddess, following a
Roman triumph from war in Germany in 93 AD.
[Martial 8.65] The temple most likely stood on the slope of the
Capitoline Hill overlooking the Porta Triumphalis. It has been identified with a temple on a panel depicting an arrival ceremony
(adventus) on the Arch of Marcus Aurelius. The pictured temple has symbols of Fortuna in the
pediment, and a
tetrastyle and
prostyle design of the
Corinthian order. There is some possibility that it is the tetrastyle temple on a fragment of the
Forma Urbis.
Coins indicate that the cult statue was standing, and held the rudder and cornucopia that are her usual attributes.
Cult
Fortuna Redux was widely disseminated in the Western Empire as the
tutelary deity of the emperor's safe return to the city when he traveled abroad, an event that reaffirmed Rome as the center of the Imperial world.
[Noreña, Imperial Ideals in the Roman West, pp. 138, 140.] In
Cirta,
Numidia, an inscription preserved a dedication to
Fortuna Redux Augusta by a local official, with the epithet
Augusta marking the goddess's relation to Imperial cult.
[.][Noreña, Imperial Ideals in the Roman West, p. 261.] She was the most common manifestation of Fortuna depicted on Imperial coins.
In 211 AD, for instance, coinage with Fortuna Redux commemorated the return of
Caracalla and Geta from
Roman Britain.
[Erika Manders, Coining Images of Power: Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, A.D. 193–284 (Brill, 2012), p. 249.] She also appears on coins issued by Septimius Severus,
, and other emperors.
[Manders, Coining Images of Power, p. 301.]
Although her cult was established as part of state religion in Rome, the goddess received personal devotion from individuals elsewhere in the Empire, as indicated by inscriptions in fulfillment of a vow (votum) expressing gratitude for a safe return. An inscription from Glanum records a votive altar dedicated by a military veteran of the Legio XXI Rapax for Fortuna Redux along with the Celtic deities Glanis.[ AE 1954, 0103; see also 1959, 0009.]
Related divinities
A form of Jupiter was also cultivated with the
epithet Redux.
[Robert E.A. Palmer, "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122 (1978), p. 234.] The rudder and cornucopia appear as attributes likewise of the syncretized
Isis-Fortuna.
See also
-
List of Ancient Roman temples
