Figure of the goddess Fortuna or Tyche. Gold, Eastern Roman Empire, 1st or 2nd century CE

Figure of cast gold, with gold suspension loop on the back.

This small gold pendant was identified as Greek when it was purchased by the Museum from the Webb Collection, along with other examples of Ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman jewellery.

Historical significance: This cast gold pendant, probably from an earring, shows the continuing influence of Greek (Hellenistic) jewellery types on Roman examples.

This small cast figure is identifiable as the Roman personification of Fortuna (or Tyche, in Greek culture) from the horn of plenty which she holds in one hand. Her other hand, now broken away, almost certainly held a rudder, symbolic of her role as the divinity who guided and conducted the affairs of the world. A complete figure of similar size, carrying a horn of plenty and a rudder, is in the British Museum's collections of Antique Jewellery, where it is identified as Roman and dated from between the 2nd century BCE and the end of the 4th century CE. (See Marshall, Catalogue of the Jewellery, no.3014 and plate LXIX.)
The figure was probably one of a pair, each originally attached to an earring. Surviving examples of Ancient Greek jewellery include similar cast figures dangling from disc-shaped earrings (see for example the images in Wolf Rudolph, ed., A Golden Legacy, 28.B.1-2 (pp.132-3); I am grateful to Martin Henig for his suggestion, in correspondance, that this figure was originally attached to an earring).
By the time this pendant was made, Rome had already been established as the dominant military and political force across the Mediterranean for two centuries. Some Greek goldsmiths had moved to Rome, but most jewellery that circulated in the Roman Empire continued to be made locally, in different regions. Greek motifs, therefore, continued to circulate. Although rings, bracelets, necklaces and brooches were worn by wealthy Romans, they were less inclined than their Greek predecessors to display their status by way of gold jewellery, as such ostentation went against contemporary notions of virtue and decorum.

This small gold figure of a woman carrying a horn of plenty represents Tyche (to the Ancient Greeks) or Fortuna (to the Ancient Romans), and is a personification of chance or luck. She probably held a rudder (symbolic of her role as the divinity who guided and conducted the affairs of the world) in her other hand, now missing. The figure was probably made in the Eastern Roman Empire, in the 1st or 2nd centuries of the Christian Era, and was probably one of a pair, each worn suspended from an earring. Its form and function recall Ancient Greek models. Although rings, bracelets, necklaces and brooches were worn by wealthy Romans, they were less inclined than their Greek predecessors to display their status by way of gold jewellery, as such ostentation went against contemporary notions of virtue and decorum.

8792-1863