FIG. 10. ROMAN PRIEST
We have several interesting objects related to special cults. A goddess revered by both Greeks and Romans was Tyche or Fortuna. A small bronze statuette (Seventh Room, Case H 2) represents the Fortune of Antioch seated on a rock, crowned with turrets, and holding in her hand a sheaf of grain. Fortuna had many temples in Rome, where she was worshipped under different titles. The popular belief in her power is attested by Caesar, who tells of the confidence felt by his men in him and in his success because they believed him to be a favorite of Fortune. A rather rude statuette of this divinity stands on the second shelf of Case 1.
FIG. 11. CAMILLUS
The worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis gradually spread from Egypt into Asia Minor and thence into Greece and Rome. The bronze sistrum or rattle was used in her rites, and she is often represented holding it in her hand (Case 1, [fig. 14]).
An especially interesting memorial of an Eastern cult established in Rome is the statuette of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, on her processional car drawn by lions (Case M in the Eighth Room, [fig. 12]). The worship of Cybele, a very ancient one, was introduced into Rome during the Second Punic War at a time of great danger and anxiety. Our statuette represents not the goddess herself but her cult statue, and probably commemorates one of the annual festivals at which the image on its car was taken to the river Almo to receive a ritual bath. The god-companion of Cybele, Attis, was not worshipped at Rome before the time of Claudius, though his cult was diffused over many parts of the East. A little terracotta from Cyprus shows him in Phrygian dress on a horse (Case 1).
FIG. 12. STATUE OF CYBELE ON ITS CAR
