Santuario della Fortuna Primigenia cronologia storica

Ultimo aggiornamento il 8 ottobre 2026

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Fine III sec. a.C. Si realizzano le fontane a grotta delle terrazze inferiori, i più antichi esempi del genere in Italia. A Preneste è attestato un doppio culto: quello della Fortuna e un altro in cui si credeva che da un ulivo stillasse del miele.
175 a.C. circa Comincia nel Lazio una serie di santuari monumentalizzati con grande sfarzo -- a Tivoli, a Nemi e a Terracina oltre che qui -- che prosegue fino al 50 a.C. circa.
Fine II sec. a.C. La monumentalizzazione del santuario della Fortuna Primigenia, opera di uno di quella generazione di grandi architetti attivi a Roma e in Italia fra la fine del II e l'inizio del I secolo a.C. I due culti sono fusi con maestria in un'unica struttura architettonica modulare: la Fortuna sulla terrazza degli emicicli, in particolare quello orientale con il pozzo, e il secondo centro di culto più in alto, al tempio principale. La motivazione fu probabilmente il desiderio di riconoscimento sociale di gruppi arricchitisi con lo sfruttamento dell'imperialismo romano dopo le guerre in Oriente.
80 a.C. circa Silla potrebbe aver commissionato un'ulteriore monumentalizzazione dopo avervi fondato una colonia, per ringraziare la Fortuna e celebrare la vittoria su Gaio Mario. Iscrizioni nel criptoportico ricordano un restauro di due magistrati locali in età sillana.
IV sec. d.C. L'oracolo, consultato per estrazione di sorti come descrive Cicerone, continua a essere interrogato in età cristiana finché Costantino il Grande non ne vieta la pratica; più tardi Teodosio I la vieta di nuovo e chiude il tempio.
1450 Nel Quattrocento gli arconi del criptoportico sono tamponati e il passaggio diventa una cisterna: ed è la ragione del pozzo che oggi sta nel teatro. Gli elementi del santuario cominciano a influenzare i giardini delle ville italiane sui terreni in pendenza.
1885 Il Vittoriano a Roma, avviato negli anni Ottanta dell'Ottocento, deve molto a questo sito: terrazze, scalinate e un elemento di coronamento letti direttamente da un santuario romano di pendio.

Verificato su Wikipedia, ottobre 2026.

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Verificato su Wikipedia — The lower two terraces of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, just south of via del Borgo, linked the Forum area to the upper Sanctuary area and were enlivened by many water displays; on the upper terrace are fountains imitating natural caves, dating from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd century BC and the oldest examples of the kind in Italy, while the lower terrace, supported by a wall in polygonal masonry, was decorated by another nymphaeum set inside an artificial cave, perhaps surrounded by a sacred wood, From about 175 to 50 BC a series of extravagantly monumentalised sanctuaries were built across Latium such as at Tibur, Nemi and Terracina, and the inspiration for this feat of integrated urbanistic design originally lay not in republican Rome but in the Hellenistic monarchies of the eastern Mediterranean, such as the sanctuaries of Delos and Kos; compared with these Hellenistic models, the Roman innovation was the massive use of opus caementicium which enabled the construction of enormous and daring buildings, The monumentalisation of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia dates to the late second century BC and was the work of one of that generation of great architects who worked in Rome and in Italy between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century BC; its motivation was probably due to the wish for social recognition of groups grown rich following exploitation of Roman imperialism after the wars in the East, and it foreshadowed the grandiose Imperial style of the following generation. Sulla may have commissioned further monumentalisation around 80 BC after he created a Colonia here, to give thanks to Fortuna and commemorate his victory over Gaius Marius, There was a double cult at the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, that of Fortuna and another where honey was believed to have oozed from an olive tree, and the sanctuary brilliantly merged the two at the end of the 2nd century BC in an architectonic and modular structure, the first cult located in the terrace of the hemicycles, particularly the eastern one with the well, and the second cult centre further up with the main temple. The goddess Fortuna here went by the epithet of Primigenia and was represented suckling two babes said to be Jupiter and Juno, and she was especially worshipped by matrons; the cult featured an oracle consulted by the picking of lots as described by Cicero, which continued to be consulted down to Christian times until Constantine the Great, and again later Theodosius I, forbade the practice and closed the temple, Along the northern end of the Cortina terrace, underneath the stairway of the cavea of the theatre as part of its substructure, is a cryptoporticus, a barrel vaulted passage integral to the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia which linked the two wings of Corinthian columns flanking three sides of the terrace and has six supporting arches; its mosaic floor, only partially preserved, was made of irregular tesserae alternating with chips of polychrome stones, on the outside of the supporting arches are Ionic semicolumns, and two big niches stood at the far ends of six arches slightly projecting from the portico front, not joined to the cryptoporticus behind but having waterfalls from their vault with traces of the piping system still visible. Inscriptions here mention restoration executed by two local magistrates in Sullan times, and in the 15th century the supporting arches were bricked up and the cryptoporticus transformed into a cistern, which explains the existence of the well today in the theatre, Features of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia influenced Roman garden design on steeply sloped sites through Antiquity and once again in Italian villa gardens from the 15th century, and the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome owes much to the site (ottobre 2026).

Santuario della Fortuna Primigenia cronologia storica

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