The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text - University of ...

interpreted by Jones as characteristics of Plutarch’s “earliest writings.” Indeed, as
I will discuss below, the pro-Roman subject matter and specific descriptions of
Fortuna cult and Rome sustain that Plutarch had become familiar with Rome and
probably had visited the city earlier. 326 This means that if Plutarch visited Rome
before his own stated visit during Domitian’s reign, it could have been as early as
the Neronian period. 327
In contrast, Forni argues that On the Fortune of the Romans was
composed at a later date than that proposed by Jones. 328 Although he admits that
the rhetoric, style, nature of the argument, and type of composition reflect
Plutarch’s youthful aspirations (i.e., his early training as a rhetorician), 329 Forni
argues that Plutarch distances himself from his “rhetorician” past because of two
specific statements that he made in the treatise. According to Forni, these
statements indicate that he is writing after his conversion to philosophy.
The first statement is in passage 318E, when Plutarch explains that the
Temple of Mens (Reason) was constructed when rhetoricians, sophists, and gossip
arrived in Rome:
326 Recently, Swain has noted many “errors” in Plutarch’s accounts of Rome and the cults of
Virtus and Fortuna, suggesting that Plutarch was not as familiar with Rome and Roman religion as
previous scholars have asserted. See Swain (1989a) 510-511. Nevertheless, Plutarch’s
examination of both famous and obscure Roman Fortuna cults indicates that he had researched the
Fortuna cult, probably after having visited Rome, to present a specific rather than a generic
account of Fortuna cult in Rome. I will discuss the “errors” below.
327 Barrow (1967) 127-128, Jones (1971) 67-71, Swain (1989a) 504 fn. 3.
328 Forni (1989) 9-12.
329 Forni (1989), 9-11.
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