In the following three years Rome had been plagued by a number of ill omens and prodigies ( prodigia), such as severe storms, pestilence, and "showers of blood," which had required a series of expiations ( supplicationes). Felicitas was at issue when the suovetaurilia sacrifice conducted by Cato the Elder as censor in 184 BC was challenged as having been unproductive, perhaps for vitium, ritual error.
In archaic Roman culture, felicitas was a quality expressing the close bonds between religion and agriculture. The continued magical association of sexual potency, increase, and general good fortune in productivity is indicated by the inscription Hic habitat Felicitas ("Felicitas dwells here") on an apotropaic relief of a phallus at a bakery in Pompeii. The word derives from Indo-European *dhe(i)l, meaning "happy, fruitful, productive, full of nourishment." Related Latin words include femina, "woman" (a person who provides nourishment or suckles) felo, "to suckle" in regard to an infant filius, "son" (a person suckled) and probably fello, fellare, "to perform fellatio", with an originally non-sexual meaning of "to suck". In its religious sense, felix means "blessed, under the protection or favour of the gods happy." That which is felix has achieved the pax divom, a state of harmony or peace with the divine world. Phallic relief with the inscription "Felicitas dwells here" The English word "felicity" derives from felicitas. Her primary attributes are the caduceus and cornucopia. Felicitas continued to play an important role in Imperial cult, and was frequently portrayed on coins as a symbol of the wealth and prosperity of the Roman Empire. She appears with several epithets that focus on aspects of her divine power.įelicitas had a temple in Rome as early as the mid-2nd century BC, and during the Republican era was honored at two official festivals of Roman state religion, on July 1 in conjunction with Juno and October 9 as Fausta Felicitas. Felicitas, however, always had a positive significance. Fortuna was unpredictable and her effects could be negative, as the existence of an altar to Mala Fortuna ("Bad Luck") acknowledges.
Although felicitas may be translated as "good luck," and the goddess Felicitas shares some characteristics and attributes with Fortuna, the two were distinguished in Roman religion. The divine personification of Felicitas was cultivated as a goddess. Felicitas could encompass both a woman's fertility and a general's luck or good fortune. In ancient Roman culture, felicitas (from the Latin adjective felix, "fruitful, blessed, happy, lucky") is a condition of divinely inspired productivity, blessedness, or happiness. Felicitas Augusta holding a caduceus and a cornucopia, two symbols of health and wealth, on the reverse of an aureus issued under the emperor Valerian
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