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And thus, having made a seasonable beginning in
defence of Fortune, we may now call in, for witnesses in
this cause, the Romans themselves, who attributed more
to Fortune than to Virtue. For the temple of Virtue was
but lately built by Scipio Numantinus, a long time after
the building of the city. And after that, Marcellus dedicated a temple to Virtue and Honor; and Aemilius Scaurus, who lived in the time of the Cimbrian war, founded
another to the Mind, when now, by the subtilties of sophisters and encomiastics of orators, these things began to be
mightily extolled. And to this very day there is no temple
built to Wisdom, nor to Temperance, Patience, Magnanimity, or Continence. On the contrary, the temples dedicated to Fortune are splendid and ancient, almost as old as
the first foundations of Rome itself. The first that built
her a temple was Ancus Marcius, born of the sister of
Numa, being the third king from Romulus; and he seems
to have made Fortune surname to Fortitude, to which she
contributes very much for obtaining victory. The Romans
built the temple of Feminine Fortune before the time of
Camillus, when by the help of the women they turned
back Marcius Coriolanus, leading up the Volsci against the
city of Rome; for the women being sent ambassadors to
him, together with his mother and wife, prevailed with the
man to spare the city at that time and to draw off the
army of the barbarians. It is said that this statue of Fortune, when it was consecrated, uttered these words: It was
piously done, O ye city matrons, to dedicate me by the law
[p. 204]
of your state. But (which is more remarkable) Furius
Camillus, having quenched the flame of the Gallic war,
and rescued Rome from the balance and scales in which
her price was weighed to them in gold, did not upon this
occasion found a temple to Prudence and Fortitude, but to
Fame and Presage; which he built hard by the New Way,
in that very place where (it is said) Marcus Caedicius walking in the night-time heard a prophetical voice, commanding him shortly to expect a war from the Gauls. And the
Fortune whose temple is near the river they call Fortis
(that is, stout, or valiant, or manly), as having the power
of conquering all things.1 And her temple is built in
those very gardens which were left by Caesar as a legacy
to the people, because they thought that he also was raised
to the height of power by the favor of Fortune.
1 The temple built in Caesar's gardens was a temple of Fors Fortuna; and as this name appeared most frequently in the genitive, Fortis Fortunae, Plutarch probably mistook the title for Fortis, which he translates by ἀνδρεία. As the gardens of Caesar were trans Tiberinm, Plutarch cannot refer to the temple still standing in the Forum Boarium, generally called that of Fortuna Virilis(?). See Becker's Römische Alterthümer, I. pp. 478-480, note. (G.)
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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