Fortuna Primigenia

The sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, modern Palestrina east of Rome, was Latium's grandest oracular shrine. Six vast terraces climbed the hillside to a round temple holding a gilded bronze statue of the goddess as a young warrior. Matrons brought their first-born children to her for protection, and pilgrims consulted her oracle by drawing wooden lots.

The complex took its monumental form around 120 BC, and Sulla enlarged it after making Praeneste a colony about 80 BC. The oracle survived into Christian times until Constantine and Theodosius I forbade lot-divination and closed the temple.

In the Middle Ages the hill belonged to the Colonna: Pope Boniface VIII razed the town in 1298 and Eugenius IV destroyed it again in 1437. After the Barberini bought Palestrina in 1630, their palace rose over the ancient temple-theatre, preserving the round shrine within its walls.