Bonus Eventus ("Good Outcome") was a divinepersonification inancient Roman religion. TheLate Republican scholarVarro lists him as one of the twelve deities who presided overagriculture,[1] paired withLympha, the goddess who influenced the water supply. The original function of Bonus Eventus may have been agricultural,[2] but during theImperial era, he represents a more general concept of success and was among the numerous abstractions who appeared as icons onRoman coins.
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Bonus Eventus had atemple of unknown date in theCampus Martius. It is mentioned only byAmmianus Marcellinus, in connection to a newportico(Porticus Boni Eventūs) built by theurban prefect Claudius in 374 AD. FiveCorinthian capitals "of extraordinary size" that were uncovered in the 19th century may have belonged to the portico, which was located in theGardens of Agrippa.[3]
TheepithetBonus, "the Good," is used with other abstract deities such asBona Fortuna ("Good Fortune"),Bona Mens ("Good Thinking" or "Sound Mind"), andBona Spes ("Valid Hope," perhaps to be translated as "Optimism"), as well as with the mysterious and multivalentBona Dea, a goddess whose rites were celebrated by women.[4]
Inscriptional evidence for the god is found at several locations, including in theprovinces. Senior officials atSirmium,Pannonia, dedicated a shrine to Bonus Eventus for the wellbeing of high-ranking members of the city council.[5] InRoman Britain, themosaic floor of a villa atWoodchester bore the reminderWorship Bonus Eventus duly. Adedication made by a married couple to Bonus Eventus along withFortuna indicates that the god's sphere of influence had expanded beyond both agriculture and the embodiment of imperial virtues.[6] Images of Bonus Eventus appear regularly onengraved gems,[7] and in ajeweller'shoard fromSnettisham, Bonus Eventus was the most frequent device onintaglios, appearing on 25 percent of the 127 found.[8] These usages point to a protective ortutelary function for the god, as well as the existence of a religious community to which the jeweller marketed his wares.[9]
Coins featuring Bonus Eventus were issued during the turmoil of theYear of Four Emperors (69 AD) and the reigns ofGalba,Vespasian,Titus,Antoninus Pius, andSeptimius Severus.[10] On these coins and on gems, Bonus Eventus is a standing male nude, usually with one leg bent and his head turned away toward alibation bowl in his outstretched hand. Sometimes he is partially clad in achlamys that covers his back, or in an over-the-shoulderhimation with the ends framing his torso.Poppies and stalks of grain are common attributes.[11]
In his book on sculpture,Pliny describes two statues of "Bonus Eventus" which were in fact renamed images ofGreek gods. One was a bronze byEuphranor and the other a marble byPraxiteles. The latter stood in theCapitolium with a statue of Bona Fortuna, and the former somewhere between the repurposedAthena below the Capitol and theLeto in theTemple of Concord.[12] It is unclear from Pliny's description whether both Greek statues had originally represented the same Greek deity.[13] Theclassicalart historianAdolf Furtwängler conjectured that Praxiteles had depicted anAgathos Daimon, since he was accompanied by a "Bona Fortuna," presumably a translation of the GreekAgathē Tychē. Euphranor's bronze is sometimes taken as the type on which the iconography of coins and gems was based, since the figure held poppies and grain. These attributes suggest anEleusinian deity, and while the Greek original is most often taken asTriptolemus, no extant depictions of Triptolemus show the combination of poppies and grain, which is associated withDemeter (RomanCeres).[14]
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