Fides

"Loyalty." The personification of fidelity or faithfulness.1 Numa is said to have built a temple to Fides publica, on the Capitol,2 and another was built there in the consulship of M. Aemilius Scaurus, 115 BCE.3

At her temple the Romans kept their treaties with allies or subjugates.

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Iconography

Fides was represented as a matron wearing a wreath of olive or laurel leaves, and carrying in her hand corn ears, or a basket with fruit.4

References

Notes

  1. Cicero. De Officiis iii, 29.
  2. Dionysius, ii, 75.
  3. Cicero. On the Nature of the Gods ii, 23, 31; iii, 18; De Legibus ii, 8, 11.
  4. Rasche, J. C. Lexicon Universae Rei Numariae Veterum Et Praecipue Graecorum Ac Romanorum ii, 1, p. 107.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.