Fides embodies everything that is required for "honour and credibility, from fidelity in marriage, to contractual arrangements, and the obligation soldiers owed to Rome."[4] Fides also means reliability, "reliability between two parties, which is always reciprocal." and "bedrock of relations between people and their communities",[5] and then it was turned into a Roman deity and from which we gain the English word, 'fidelity'.[6]
Under the name Fides Publica Populi Romani ("Public Trust of the Roman People"),[7] she may be exemplified in Marcus Atilius Regulus, "who refuses to save himself at the expense of the Republic. Regulus defied his own best interests for those of his country. In this act alone, he acted with fides."[4]
Iconography
Fides is represented as a young woman crowned with an olive or laurel wreath,[2] holding in her hand a turtle-dove,[1] fruits or grain,[2] or a military ensign. She wears a white veil.[1]
According to tradition, Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, instituted a yearly ceremony on 1 October devoted to Fides Publica, in which the three flamines maiores (major priests)—the Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis—were to be borne to her temple in a covered arched chariot drawn by two horses.[1] There they should conduct her services with their heads covered and right hands wrapped up to the fingers to indicate absolute devotion to her and to symbolise trust.[9]
^Adams, John Paul (May 2009). "The Roman Concept of Fides". Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures College of Humanities, California State University Northridge.