Editing Roma (personification) (section)

==Imperial era==
[[File:Statuette of Roma or Virtus, front - Getty Museum (84.AB.671).jpg|thumb|left|Bronze statuette of Roma or [[Virtus]]. She originally held a spear in her left hand and if Roma, a figure of Victory in her right, c. 50–75 AD. [[Getty Villa]]]]
The [[assassination]] of [[Julius Caesar]] led to his [[apotheosis]] and cult as a State {{lang|la|[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#divus|divus]]}} in Rome and her Eastern [[Colony|colonies]]. Caesar's adopted heir [[Augustus]] ended Rome's civil war and became [[princeps]] ("leading man") of the Republic, and in 30/29 BC, the {{lang|grc|[[koinon|koina]]}} of Asia and Bithynia requested permission to honour him as a living {{lang|la|divus}}. Republican values held monarchy in contempt, and despised Hellenic honours – Caesar had fatally courted both – but an outright refusal might offend loyal provincials and allies. A cautious formula was drawn up: non-Romans could only offer him cult as {{lang|la|divus}} jointly with {{lang|la|dea}} Roma.<ref>For a summary of modern viewpoints on the religious sincerity of Ruler cult see Harland, P. A., "Introduction", ''Imperial Cults within Local Cultural Life: Associations in Roman Asia'', 2003. Originally published in ''Ancient History Bulletin'' / ''Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' 17 (2003):85–107. Available online: {{cite web |url=http://www.philipharland.com/publications/articleAHB.html |title=Imperial Cults within Local Cultural Life: Associations in Roman Asia (Philip A. Harland) |access-date=2009-05-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530070951/http://www.philipharland.com/publications/articleAHB.html |archive-date=2009-05-30 }}</ref> Roma had an Imperial role as consort to the emperor and mother of the entire Roman people. In Greek city-states her iconography would have merged with that of the local [[Tyche]]; this usually included a mural crown and [[cornucopia]]. Roma's seated pose, seen in more than half the known depictions, was also used for [[Athena]], the Hellenic equivalent of Roman [[Minerva]]. Like Athena, Roma represents "manly" female virtues, a personification of an empire built on conquest.<ref name=Joyce2014/> From here on, Roma increasingly took the attributes of an Imperial or divine consort to the Imperial {{lang|la|divus}}, but some Greek coin types show her as a seated or enthroned authority, and the Imperial {{lang|la|divus}} standing upright as if her supplicant or servant.<ref name="Mellor, 972"/><ref>[[Clifford Ando|Ando, Clifford]], ''Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire'', illustrated, University of California Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0-520-22067-6}} p. 45</ref>

In the western part of the Empire, the foundation of the [[Sanctuary of the Three Gauls|Imperial cult centre]] at [[Lugdunum]] introduced Roman models for provincial and municipal assemblies and government, a Romanised lifestyle, and an opportunity for local elites to enjoy the advantages of Roman citizenship through election to Imperial cult priesthood. Its {{lang|la|ara}} (altar) was dedicated to Roma and Augustus.{{efn|The cult altar was inaugurated in 10 or 12 BC: Fishwick favours 12 BC as both practical and a particularly auspicious date for Augustus.}} Thereafter, Roma's presence is well attested by inscriptions and coinage throughout the Western provinces. Literary sources have little to say about her, but this may reflect her ubiquity rather than neglect: in the early Augustan era, as in Greece, she may have been honoured above her living Imperial consort.{{efn|Emperors were not deified until their death. Fishwick sees the persistence of Roma's Hellenic seniority as {{lang|la|dea}} (over the Augustan {{lang|la|divus}}) in Western Imperial cult.}}{{efn|Mellor finds Roma an essential companion to the Augustan and later Imperial divi, based on the surmise of Imperial cult as less one of obedience than a Romano-Hellenic framework for co-operation and acculturation: emperors of the Principate claimed to represent and sustain the "[[senate and people of Rome]]", not to dominate them.<ref>Mellor 1991, pp. 990–993</ref>}}{{efn|Priests at the Lugdunum complex were known by the Greek title of {{lang|la|sacerdos}}. Most others were {{lang|la|[[flamen]]}} who – contrary to Roman tradition – served a number of deities. In general, female Imperial cult honorands (such as the living or deceased and deified Empress and state goddesses) were served by a priestess. Some were wife to the cult priest, but most may have been elected in their own right. One priestess is rather confusedly {{lang|la|flamina sive sacerdos}} –  Western Imperial cults show remarkably liberal interpretations of cult and priesthood: some appear to be unique. However, with only one possible exception (at Toulouse) {{lang|la|dea}} Roma was served by priests, as in her Hellenic cult.<ref>Fishwick vol. 1, 1, 101 and vol. 3, 1, 12–13, & Mellor 1991, pp. 998–1002</ref>}}

In [[Africa (Roman province)|provincial Africa]], one temple to Roma and Augustus is known at [[Leptis Magna]] and another at [[Maktar|Mactar]]. On the Italian peninsula, six have been proven – [[Latium]] built two, one of them privately funded. During the reign of Tiberius, [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]] built a grand municipal temple to Roma and Augustus.<ref>Mellor 1991, 1002–03.</ref>

In the city of Rome itself, the earliest known state cult to {{lang|la|dea}} Roma was combined with cult to Venus at the [[Hadrian]]ic [[Temple of Venus and Roma]]. This was the largest temple in the city, probably dedicated to inaugurate the reformed festival of {{lang|la|[[Parilia]]}}, which was known thereafter as the {{lang|la|Romaea}} after the Eastern festival in Roma's honour. The temple contained the seated, fully draped, Hellenised and highly influential image of {{lang|la|dea}} Roma – the [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]] in her right hand symbolised Rome's eternity.<ref>Beard ''et al.'' 1998, pp. 257–259.</ref><ref name="mellor960" /> In Rome, this was a novel realisation. Greek interpretations of Roma as a dignified deity had transformed her from a symbol of military dominance to one of Imperial protection and {{lang|la|gravitas}}.

{{Coin image box 1 double
| header =
| image = Image:Philip the Arab - AR antoninianus.jpg
| caption_left = '''[[Obverse and reverse|O:]]''' draped and [[cuirass]]ed bust with [[radiate crown]]
[[Imperator|IMP]] [[Marcus (praenomen)|M]] [[Julius (nomen)|IVL]] [[Philip the Arab|PHILIPPVS]] [[Augustus (honorific)|AVG]]
| caption_right = '''[[Obverse and reverse|R:]]''' Roma seated left on [[shield]], holding [[Victory (mythology)|Victory]] and [[scepter]]
ROMAE AETERNAE
| width = 300
| footer = [[silver]] [[antoninianus]] struck by [[Philip the Arab]] in [[Rome]], AD 247; ref.: RIC 44b
| position = right| margin = 4}}
Following the defeat of [[Clodius Albinus]] and his allies by [[Septimius Severus]] at Lugdunum, Roma was removed from the Lugdunum cult {{lang|la|ara}} to the temple, where along with the Augusti she was co-opted into a new formulation of Imperial cult. Fishwick interprets the reformed rites at Lugdunum as those offered any {{lang|la|[[paterfamilias]]}} by his slaves.<ref>Fishwick, Vol. 3, 1, 199.</ref> It is not known how long this phase lasted, but it appears to have been a unique development.
In a later, even more turbulent era, a common coin type of [[Marcus Aurelius Probus|Probus]] shows him in the radiate [[solar crown]] of the [[Dominate]]: the reverse offers Rome's Temple of Venus and dea Roma. While Probus' image shows his monarchic Imperium, Roma displays his claims to restoration of Roman tradition and Imperial unity.<ref>[http://dougsmith.ancients.info/probus.html Examples of Probus' coin types are shown at Doug Smith's website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091224173302/http://dougsmith.ancients.info/probus.html |date=2009-12-24 }}</ref>