Roman goddess of good fortune and prosperity
Felicitas
Felicitas is the Roman goddess of good luck, happiness and prosperity, the personification of a state blessed by the gods. Her cult gained prominence under the Empire, when her image appeared often on coins as a symbol of Rome's wealth.
The myth
Felicitas was less a character of stories than a deified abstraction. Her name comes from the Latin adjective felix, meaning fruitful, blessed or lucky, and in ancient Rome it described both a woman's fertility and a victorious general's good fortune.
Ancient writers stress that she was not the same as Fortuna. Fortuna was unpredictable and could bring harm, as the altar to Mala Fortuna shows, while Felicitas always had a positive meaning. Cicero counted her among the qualities of the ideal general, alongside military knowledge, valor and authority, and gave a special felicitas to Pompey the Great.
Worship and religion
According to the sources, her cult is documented from the mid-2nd century BC, when Lucius Licinius Lucullus dedicated a temple to her in the Velabrum using booty from his campaign in Spain. That temple was destroyed by fire under Claudius and was never rebuilt. In the Republic she was honored on July 1 alongside Juno and on October 9 as Fausta Felicitas, and under the Empire she played a key role in the imperial cult.
Legacy
Her name gave rise to the English word "felicity" and to the Spanish "felicidad". She appears on many Roman coins as an emblem of the Empire's prosperity.
Ancient sources: Cicero lists her among the virtues of the ideal general, and the Acts of the Arval Brothers from the 1st century AD prescribe a cow as her sacrifice.