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Might one, then, after proffering this as a suitable
introduction, bring on the Romans once more as
witnesses in behalf, of Fortune, on the ground that
they assigned more to Fortune than to Virtue? At
least, it was only recently and after many years that
Scipio Numantinus built a shrine of Virtue in Rome ;
later Marcellus1 built what is called the Temple of
Virtue and Honour2; and Aemilius Scaurus,3 who lived
in the time of the Cimbrian Wars, built the shrine of
Mens (Mind) so-called, which might be considered
a Temple of Reason. For at this time rhetoric,
sophistry, and argumentation had already found their
way into the City ; and people were beginning to
[p. 337]
magnify such pursuits. But even to this day they
have no shrine of Wisdom or Prudence or Magnanimity or Constancy or Moderation. But of Fortune
there are splendid and ancient shrines,4 all but coeval
with the first foundations of the City. For the first
to build a temple of Fortune was Ancus Marcius, the
grandson of Numa5 and king fourth in line from
Romulus. He, perchance, it was who added the title
of Fortis to Fortuna
6; for in Fortune Manly Fortitude
shares most largely in the winning of victory. They
erected a temple of Fortuna Muliebris
7 before the
time of Camillus, when, through the offices of their
women, they had turned back Marcius Coriolano,
who was leading the Volsci against the City. For a
delegation of women, together with his mother and
his wife, went to the hero and besought him and
gained their request that he spare the City and lead
away the foreign army. It is said that at this time,
when the statue of Fortune was consecrated, it spoke
and said, ‘Women of the city, you have dedicated
me by the holy law of Rome.’
And it is a fact that Furius Camillus likewise, when
he had quenched the Gallic conflagration and had
removed Rome from the balance and scales when her
price was being weighed in gold,8 founded no shrine
[p. 339]
of Good Counsel or of Valour, but a shrine of Report
and Rumour9 by New Street, where, as they assert,
before the war there carne to Marcus Caedicius, as he
was walking by night, a voice which told him to
expect in a short time a Gallic war.
The Fortune whose temple is by the river they call
Fortis,10 that is, strong or valiant or manly, as having
the power to conquer everything. And her temple
they have built in the Gardens bequeathed by Caesar
to the People,11 since they believed that he also
reached his most exalted position through good
fortune, as he himself has testified.
1 Life of Marcellus, chap. xxviii. (314 c); Livy, xxvii. 25, xxix. 11; Valerius Maximus, i. 1. 8; Cicero, Verrine Orations, iv. 54 (121); De Natura Deorum, ii. 23 (61).
2 The following passage is repeated in the mss. with some changes infra, 322 c-e, where see the note.
3 Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 23 (61).
4 Cf. 281 e, supra.
5 Cf. Life of Numa, chap. xxi. (74 b).
6 Contrast Life of Coriolanus, chap. i. (214 b). W. W. Goodwin's suggestion, that Plutarch misunderstood Fors Fortuna in an oblique case (e.g. Fortis Fortunae), is not unlikely; see e.g. Tacitus, Annals, ii. 41, where the mistake would be easy for a foreigner.
7 The Women's Fortune: cf. Life of Coriolanus, chap. xxxvii. (231 f ff.); Livy, ii. 40. 12; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, viii. 56. 2; Valerius Maximus, i. 8. 4; 5. 2.
8 Cf. Life of Camillus, chap. xxix. (143 e).
9 Perhaps an attempted translation of Aius Locutius; cf. Livy, v. 32. 6; 50. 5; Life of Camillus, chap. xxx.
10 See note c on p. 337.
11 Cf. Suetonius, Divus Julius, 83; Dio Cassius, xliv. 35. 3.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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