Fortune is often depicted with a governor, a ball or Company of Fortune, and a cornucopia.
She could bring good luck or bad luck: she could be depicted as hidden and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, except that Fortune does not maintain balance.
Fortune has become a symbol of the capriciousness of life.
She was also the goddess of fate: as Aatrox Fortuna, she took the young lives of Princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius, potential heirs to the Empire.
It is said that Fortune's father was Jupiter, and like him, she could also be generous.
As Annonaria, she protected grain supplies.
June 11 was dedicated to her: June 24 was dedicated to her at the Force Fortuna festival.
Fortuna's name seems to be derived from Vortumna.
Roman writers disagreed as to whether her cult was brought to Rome by Servius Tullius or Ancus Marcius.
The two earliest temples mentioned in Roman calendars were located outside the city, on the right bank of the Tiber.
The first temple dedicated to Fortuna is attributed to the Etruscan Servius Tullius, and the second is known to have been built in 293 BC.
The date for the consecration of her temples was June 24, or the Summer Solstice, when celebrants from Rome annually sailed to the temples downstream from the city.
After undisclosed rituals, they swam back, garlanded and intoxicated.
Fortuna also had a temple in the Forum Boarium.
Here Fortuna was twinned with the cult of Mother Matuta, and paired temples were discovered during excavations near the church of Sant'Omobono: the cults are indeed archaic in time.
The Fortuna Primigenia of Praeneste was adopted by the Romans in the late 3rd century BC in the important cult of the Fortuna Publica Populi Romani on the Quirinal outside Porta Collina.
However, not a single temple in Rome could compete in splendor with the Praenestine sanctuary.
The personality of Fortune as the personification of random events was closely associated with virtus.
State officials who lacked virtue brought misfortune upon themselves and Rome: Sallust cites the notorious Catiline as an example: “Truly, when instead of work there is idleness, instead of the spirit of moderation and justice, caprice and pride invade