Editing Roma (personification) (section)

== In arts, craft and literature of the Imperial era ==
[[File:TitusNorthDetail.jpg|thumb|Roma escorting the emperor in a chariot on the Arch of Titus.]]
[[Lucan]]'s poem, ''Pharsalia'', depicts Roma as a strong woman who represents Roman values. The poem follows the civil war between [[Julius Caesar]] and the forces of the Roman Senate, led by [[Pompey|Pompey the Great]]. Caesar, having repudiated Roma and her values, ends up with a mistress in Egypt ([[Cleopatra]]), having set his own destiny on a path to eventual self-destruction.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last1=Mulhern |first1=E. V. |title=Roma(na) Matrona |journal=The Classical Journal |date=2017 |volume=112 |issue=4 |pages=432–459 |doi=10.5184/classicalj.112.4.0432 |jstor=10.5184/classicalj.112.4.0432 |s2cid=165100052 }}</ref> The poet identifies Roma (the {{lang|la|[[res publica]]}}) with the idealised Roman matrona. A man who rejects either one cannot be truly Roman.<ref name=":2"/>

Roma is represented as a major character on the silver [[Boscoreale Treasure|Boscoreale cup]]. She stands helmeted, prepared for war, vigilant but at peace. Her foot rests on a "weapon pile"; trophies of past conflict. She converses with a young, standing male usually identified as the [[genius]] of the Roman people, who appears to be waiting to speak with the seated emperor (probably [[Augustus]]).<ref>Kuttner, Ann L., ''Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The Case of the Boscoreale Cups''. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1995 1995. [https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft309nb1mw&chunk.id=d0e676&toc.depth=100&brand=ucpress;query=Jerusalem Background]</ref> In the [[Gemma Augustea]] sculpture by Dioscurides, Roma sits beside [[Augustus]] in military apparel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Galinsky |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Galinsky |date=1996 |title=Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction |url= |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=120 |isbn=}}</ref>

On the [[Arch of Titus]] (1st-century CE), the [[arch of Septimius Severus]] and the [[arch of Constantine]], Roma accompanies the emperor in his chariot, as his escort.

Figures of Roma are rare in a domestic context, throughout the Empire, and in the provinces they may have been associated with Roman residents. In [[Corinth]], a statuette of Roma was found, along with those of other deities, in a domestic shrine in the Panayia Domus, tentatively dated to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. The deities were smaller than life but all were well-crafted and most had traces of gilding: the Roma figure sits on a backless chair, and wears a triple-crested war-helmet and a peplum. She has one breast exposed and wears shin-high openwork boots, based on a "draped Amazon", warlike type. Sterling speculates an official connection between the owners of this Roma figure and the nearby Corinthian Temple 1.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sharpe |first1=Heather F. |title=Bronze Statuettes from the Athenian Agora: Evidence for Domestic Cults in Roman Greece |journal=Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |date=2014 |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=143–187 |doi=10.2972/hesperia.83.1.0143 |jstor=10.2972/hesperia.83.1.0143 |s2cid=55944091 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stirling |first1=Lea M. |title=Pagan Statuettes in Late Antique Corinth: Sculpture from the Panayia Domus |journal=Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |date=2008 |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=89–161 |doi=10.2972/hesp.77.1.89 |jstor=25068051 |s2cid=192223610 }}</ref>