On the Fortunes of the Romans (10-11)

And even the kings who succeeded Numa honoured Fortune as the head and foster-parent of

Rome and, as Pindar[*] has it, truly the Prop of the State. [*] And Servius Tullius, the man who of all the kings most increased the power of his people, and introduced a well-regulated government and imposed order upon both the holding of elections and military procedure, and became the first censor and overseer of the lives and decorum of the citizens, and held the highest repute for courage and wisdom, of his own initiative attached himself to Fortune and bound his sovereignty fast to her, with the result that it was even thought that Fortune consorted with him, descending into his chamber through a certain window which they now call the Porta Fenestella.[*] He, accordingly, built on the Capitoline a temple of Fortune which is now called the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia[*] (which one might translate as First-Born) and the Temple of Fortuna Obsequens,[*] which some think means obedient and others gracious. However, I prefer to abandon the Latin nomenclature, and shall endeavour to enumerate in Greek the different functions of the shrines of Fortune. There is, in fact, a shrine of Private Fortune on the Palatine, and the shrine of the Fowler’s Fortune which, even though it be a ridiculous name, yet gives reason for reflexion on metaphorical grounds, as if she attracted far-away objects and held them fast when they come into contact with her. Beside the Mossy Spring, as it is called, there is even yet a temple of Virgin Fortune; and on the Esquiline a shrine of Regardful[*] Fortune. In the Angiportus Longus there is an altar of Fortune of Good Hope; and there is also beside the altar of Venus of the Basket a shrine of the Men’s Fortune. And there are countless other honours and appellations of Fortune, the greater part of which Servius instituted; for he knew that Fortune is of great moment, or rather, she is everything in human affairs, [*] and particularly since he himself, through good fortune, had been promoted from the family of a captive enemy to the kingship. For, when the town of Corniculum was taken by the Romans, a captive maiden Ocrisia,[*] whose fortune could not obscure either her beauty or her character, was given to be a slave to Tanaquil, the wife of king Tarquin; and a certain dependent, one of those whom the Romans call clientes, had her to wife; from these parents Servius was born. Others deny this, but assert that Ocrisia was a maiden who took the first-fruits and the libations on all occasions from the royal table and brought them to the hearth; and once on a time when she chanced, as usual, to be casting the offerings upon the fire, suddenly, as the flames died down, the member of a man rose up out of the hearth; and this the girl, greatly frightened, told to Tanaquil only. Now Tanaquil was an intelligent and understanding woman, and she decked the maiden in garments such as become a bride, and shut her up in the room with the apparition, for she judged it to be of a divine nature. Some declare that this love was manifested by the Lar of the house, others that it was by Vulcan. At any rate, it resulted in the birth of Servius, and, while he was still a child, his head shone with a radiance very like the gleam of lightning. But Antias[*] and his school say not so, but relate that when Servius’s wife Gegania lay dying, in the presence of his mother he fell into a sleep from dejection and grief; and as he slept, his face was seen by the women to be surrounded by the gleam of fire. This was a token of his birth from fire and an excellent sign pointing to his unexpected accession to the kingship, which he gained after the death of Tarquin, by the zealous assistance of Tanaquil.[*] Inasmuch as he of all kings is thought to have been naturally the least suited to monarchy and the least desirous of it, he who was minded to resign the kingship,[*] but was prevented from doing so; for it appears that Tanaquil on her death-bed made him swear that he would remain in power and would ever set before him the ancestral Roman form of government. Thus to Fortune wholly belongs the kingship of Servius, which he received contrary to his expectations and retained against his will.

That we may not, however, appear to be retreating and withdrawing from illuminating and perspicuous testimonials into the dim past, as into a place of darkness, let us now leave the kings and transfer our discourse to the most notable deeds and the most celebrated wars. And in these wars, who would not acknowledge that much daring and courage was needed and also, as Timotheüs[*] has it,

Shame, the helpmate of warring Valour?

Yet the smooth flow of events and the impelling swiftness of Rome’s progress to so high a pinnacle of power and expansion demonstrates to all who reason aright that the progress of Rome’s sovereignty was not brought about by the handiwork and urging of human beings, but was speeded on its way by divine escort and the fair wind of Fortune. Trophy upon trophy arises, triumph meets triumph, and the first blood, while still warm on their arms, is overtaken and washed away by a second flood. They count their victories, not by the multitude of corpses and spoils, but by captive kingdoms, by nations enslaved, by islands and continents added to their mighty realm. In one battle Philip lost Macedonia, with one stroke Antiochus was forced to withdraw from Asia, by one defeat the Carthaginians lost Africa. One man[*] in the swift onset of one campaign added to the Roman dominion Armenia, Pontus, the Euxine, Syria, Arabia, the Albanians, the Iberians, and all the territory to the Caucasus and the Hyrcanians; thrice did the Ocean which encircles the inhabited world see him victorious, for in Africa he drove back the Numidians[*] to the strands of the southern sea; even as far as the Atlantic Ocean, he subdued Iberia,[*] which had joined in the distemper of Sertorius; the kings of the Albanians were pursued until he brought them to a halt near the Caspian Sea.[*] All these successes he won through enjoying the Fortune of the Roman commonwealth; then he was overthrown by his own fate.

But the great Guardian Spirit of Rome sent a favouring breeze, not for one day, nor at its height for a brief time only, like the Macedonian, nor but a land breeze, like the Spartan, nor but a sea breeze, like the Athenian, nor late to rise, like the Persian, nor quick to cease, like the Carthaginian[*]; but this Spirit, from its first creation, grew in maturity, in might, and

in polity together with the City, and remained constant to it on land and on sea, in war and in peace, against foreigners, against Greeks. This it was that dissipated and exhausted in the confines of Italy, like a mountain torrent, Hannibal the Carthaginian, since no fresh aid flowed to him from home because of jealousy and political enmities. This it was that separated and kept apart by great intervals of space and time the armies of the Cimbri and of the Teutons, that Marius[*] might avail to fight each of them in turn, and that three hundred thousand men of irresistible and invincible arms might not simultaneously invade and overwhelm Italy. Through the agency of this Spirit Antiochus was fully occupied while war was being waged against Philip,[*] and Philip had been vanquished and was falling when Antiochus was making his venture; the Sarmatian and Bastarnian wars restrained Mithridates[*] during the time when the Marsian war was blazing up against Rome; suspicion and jealousy kept Tigranes[*] from Mithridates while Mithridates was brilliantly successful, but he joined himself to Mithridates only to perish with him in defeat.