The worship of the Goddess of Chance, _Fortuna_, was introduced among
the Romans from Greece during the reign of Servius Tullius, and soon
became very popular. Indeed, at one period Fortuna was the chief Italian
divinity, and the plebeians and slaves held an annual festival on the
twenty-fourth day of June in honor of her who could bestow riches and
liberty. Pliny wrote that the Chance or Fortune by means of which we
acquire so much is a divine power; and Plutarch, in his work on the
Fortune of the Romans, attempts to show that the great achievements of
that people were to be attributed to good luck rather than to sagacity
or prowess. As an example he cites their escape from invasion by the
opportune death of Alexander the Great at Babylon, B. C. 323, at a time
when he was preparing to overwhelm Italy with his armies.
The Roman biographer, Cornelius Nepos, in speaking of the Greek general,
Emenes the Cardian (B. C. 361-317), said that, even if the favors shown
him by Fortune had been commensurate with his great abilities, he would
not for that reason have been more eminent; for great men should be
measured by their qualities, and not by their good or bad fortune. The
Dutch _savant_, Desiderius Erasmus, wrote that Diogenes was wont to
rebuke with asperity those who blamed the goddess when their affairs
did not prosper; and he also severely criticised the prevalent habit
of craving at the hands of Mistress Fortune, not such things as were
substantially good, but rather such as seemed to be so in the fancy of
the petitioners. Philip of Macedon, on the receipt of the news of great
victories won by his generals, thanked Fortune for her great goodness,
modestly beseeching of her only some “light and shrewd turn again at
another season.” And Erastus, commenting on Philip’s moderation and
good sense in not being unduly elated by prosperity, quaintly remarked
that this great king, having profound wisdom and experience, did not
insolently leap and skip about on the receipt of joyful tidings, but
rather mistrusted the pampering of Fortune, whom he knew to be a fickle
jade.