Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/194

Rh 186 FONTEIUS. whether for apportioning knd, conducting a colony, or of the public treasur}', is unknown. He was quaestor between B. c. 86 — 83. In b. c. 83 he was legatus, with the title of Pro-quaestor in Further Spain, and afterwards legatus in Mace- donia, when he repressed the incursions of the Thracian tribes into the Roman province. The date of his praetorship is uncertain, but he governed, as his praetorian province, Narbonnese Gaul, be- tween B. c. 76 — 73, since he remaiiied three years in his government, and in 75 sent provisions, mili- tary stores, and recruits to Metellus Pius and Cn. Pompey, who were then occupied with the Serto- rian war in Spain. His exactions for this purpose formed one of the charges brought against iiim by the provincials. He returned to Rome in B. c. 73-2, but he was not prosecuted for extortion and mis- government until B. c, 69. M. Plaetorius was the conductor, M. Fabius subscriptor of the prosecution. With few exceptions, the principal inhabitants of Narbonne appeared at Rome as witnesses against Fonteius, but the most distinguished among them was Induciomarus, a chief of the AUobroges. The trial was in many respects important ; but our knowledge of the cause, as well as of the history of M. Fonteius himself, is limited to the partial and fragmentary speech of his advocate, Cicero. The prosecution was an experiment of the new law — Lex Aurelia de Judiciis — which had been passed at the close of B. c. 70, and which took away the judicia from the senate alone, and enacted that the judices be chosen equally from the senators, the equites, and the tribuni aerarii. It was also the year of Cicero's aedileship, and the prosecutor of Verres now came forward to defend a humbler but a similar criminal. Fonteius procured from every province which he had governed witnesses to his official character — from Spain and Ma- cedonia, from Narbo Martins and Marseille, from the camp of Pompey, and from the com- panies of revenue-farmers and merchants whom he had protected or connived at during his adminis- tration. He was chaiged, as far as we can infer from Cicero's speech {Fro Fonteio with defraud- ing his creditors while quaestor ; with imposing an exorbitant tax on the wines of Narbonne ; and with Belling exemptions from the repair of the roads of the province, so that both were the roads impassable, and those who could not afford to buy exemptions were burdened with the duty of the exempted. Cicero denies the charge of fraud, but of the complaints respecting the wine-tax and the roads, he says that they were grave, if true ; and that they were true, and that Fonteius was really guilty, are probable from the vague declamation in which his advocate indulges throughout his de- fence. Whether Fonteius were acquitted is not known ; but, as he would have been fined or ex- iled if pronounced guilty, and as we read of his purchasing, after his trial, a sumptuous house — the domus Rahiriana {Cic.adAtt. i. 6.), at Naples, B. c. 68, it is more probable that the sentence of the judices was favorable. (Cic. pro Font. ; Ju- lius Victor, in Font. Fragm. ; Drumann, Geseh. Rom. vol. v. pp. 329 — 334, by whom an analysis of Cicero's speech is given. The fragments we possess belong to the second speech for the defence. Each party spoke twice, and Cicero each time in reply. (Cic. pro Font. 13.) Quintilian (vi. 3 § 51) cites pro Font, 3. § 7, as an example of enigmatic allusion.) FORTUNA. 6. P. Fonteius, a youth of obscure family, whom P. Clodius Pulcher [Claudius, No. 40.] chose for his adopted father, when, in order to qualify himself for the tribunate of the plebs, he passed at the end of B. c. 60, from the patrician house of the Claudii to the plebeian Fonteii. The whole proceeding was illegal and absurd. Fon- teius was married and had three children, therefore there was no plea for adoption ; he was scarcely twenty j-ears old, while Clodius was thirty-five ; the rogation was hurried through, and the auspices were slighted. After the ceremony was completed, the first paternal act of Fonteius was to emancipate his adopted son. (Cic. pro Dom. 13, Harusp. Re- spons. 27.) FONTEIUS MAGNUS, a pleader of causes, and probably a native of Bithynia, who was one of the accusers of Rufiis Varenus for extortion while proconsul of Bithynia. Pliny the younger de- fended Varenus, and Fonteius spoke in reply to him. (Plin. Ep. v. 20, vii. 6.) [W. B. D.] FONTINA'LIS, an agnomen of A. Aternius, consul in B. c. 454. [Aternius ] FONT US, a Roman divinit)', and believed to be a son of Janus. He had an altar on the Jani- culus, which derived its name from his father, and on which Numa was believed to be buried. He was a brother of Volturnus. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 22 ; Arnob. iii. 29.) The name of this divinity is con- nected Vf'iih. fans., a well ; and he was the personi- fication of the flowing waters. On the 13th of October the Romans celebrated the festival of the wells, called Fontinalia, at which the wells were adorned with garlands, and flowers thrown into them. (Varro, de L. L. vi. 22 ; Festus, s. v. Fon- tinalia.) [L. S.] FORNAX, a Roman goddess, who is said to have been worshipped that she might ripen the corn, and prevent its being burnt in baking in the oven. (Fornax.) Her festival, the Fornacalia, was announced by the curio maximus. (Ov. Fad. ii. 525, &c. ; Festus, s. v. Fornacalia.) Hartung (die Relig. d. Rom. vol. ii. p. 107) considers her to be identical with Vesta. (Diet, of Ant. s. v. Forna- calia.) [L. S.] FORTU'NA, the goddess of chance or good luck, was worshipped both in Greece and Italy, and more particularly at Rome, where she was considered as the steady goddess of good luck, success, and every kind of prosperity. The great confidence which the Romans placed in her is ex- pressed in the story related by Plutarch (de For- titud. Rom. 4), that on entering Rome she put off her wings and shoes, and threw away the globe, as she intended to take up her permanent abode among the Ptomans. Her worship is traced to the reign of Ancus Martius and Servius Tullius, and the latter is said to have built two temples to her, the one in the fonim boarium, and the other on the banks of the Tiber. (Plut. I.e. 5, 10 ; Dionys. iv. 27 ; Liv. x. 46 ; Ov. Fast. vi. 570.) The Romans mention her with a variety of surnames and epithets, as publicuy privata, muliebris (said to have originated at the time when Coriolanus was prevented by the en- treaties of the women from destroying Rome, Plut. /. c), regina, co7iservatria; primige7iia, virilis, &c. Fortuna Virginensis was worshipped by newly- married women, who dedicated their maiden gar- ments and girdle in her temple. (Arnob. ii. 67 « Augustin. de Civ. Dciy iv. 11.) 0id {Font, iv.