by Marcus Calidius Gracchus on Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:45 am
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SALVETE OMNES,
HODIE EST ANTE DIEM III KALENDAS SEXTILES
Fortuna Huiusce Diei is the Roman Goddess of Fate, Fortuna, in Her aspect as "Fortune of the Present Day", who has the power to bring good things and good luck right now.
Her temple in Rome was located in the Campus Martius, the "Field of Mars", and though the precise location is still debated, it is most probably the little round temple ("Temple B") in the modern Area Sacra di Largo Argentina in Rome, which when uncovered included some fragments of a female cult-statue. The temple, Aedes Fortunae Huiusce Diei, a temple devoted to the "Luck of the Current Day", was vowed by the general Quintus Lutatius Catulus during the battle of Vercellae, July 30th, 101 BCE (Plutarch, Marius 26.2) who was obviously happy that the fortune of that day included his survival . He used the spoils of the defeated Celtic tribe, the Cimbri, to build the temple, which was dedicated (officially opened) on a later anniversary of the battle and indeed the Fasti Pinciani and Fasti Alifani record a sacrifice to the fortuna huiusque diei in campo on a.d. III Kal. Sex. (Alas, his good fortune did not last: he later chose the wrong side in the civil war and was persuaded to commit suicide.) The fragments of the colossal white marble cult-statue from Temple B, a circular temple with six columns remaining, include the head of a matronly-looking goddess, her hair bound up in a conservative style. She has majestic features (and incidentally, pierced ears), and her mouth is slightly open.
Fortuna Huiusce Diei likely had a shrine or altar on the Palatine, as there was a street on that hill called the Vicus Huiusce Diei, supposedly named for it. According to Pliny the Elder, this shrine was supposed to have contained a statue of Athene made by the famous Greek sculptor Phidias, who also made the great chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athene for the Parthenon in Athens. This statue was dedicated by Aemilius Paulus, who took it as spoils from a battle in Greece, and who died in 160 BCE, which would make this temple to Fortuna Huiusce Diei an earlier and different temple than the one in the Campus Martius.
Her festival was held on the anniversary of her temple's dedication, July 30th.
Also called: Fortuna Huiusque
Alternate meanings of Her name: "Good Fortune for Today", "Luck of the Day"
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