Editing Roma (personification)

{{Short description|Female deity in ancient Roman religion, personification of Rome}}
[[File:Altare della Patria-July 2016 (59).jpg|thumb|[[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Italy)|Tomb of the Italian Unknown Soldier]], under the statue of Roma, at [[Victor Emmanuel II Monument#Altar of the Fatherland|Altare della Patria]], [[Rome]]. Above it can be seen the equestrian statue of [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy]], the first king of a [[Italian unification|unified Italy]]]]

In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], '''Roma''' was a female [[deity]] who [[National personification|personified]] the city of [[Rome]] and, more broadly, the Roman state.<ref>Mellor 1991, 956.</ref> She was created and promoted to represent and propagate certain of Rome's ideas about itself, and to justify its rule. She was portrayed on coins, sculptures, architectural designs, and at official games and festivals. Images of Roma had elements in common with other goddesses, such as Rome's [[Minerva]], her Greek equivalent [[Athena]] and various manifestations of Greek [[Tyche]], who protected Greek city-states; among these, Roma stands dominant,  over piled weapons that represent her conquests, and promising protection to the obedient. Her [[Amazons|"Amazonian"]] iconography shows her "manly virtue" ([[virtus]]) as fierce mother of a warrior race, augmenting rather than replacing local goddesses. On some coinage of the Roman Imperial era, she is shown as a serene advisor, partner and protector of ruling emperors. In Rome, the Emperor [[Hadrian]] built and dedicated a gigantic [[Temple of Venus and Roma|temple]] to her as ''Roma Aeterna'' ("Eternal Rome"), and to ''[[Venus (mythology)#Epithets|Venus Felix]]'' ("Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune"), emphasising the sacred, universal and eternal nature of the empire.<ref name="mellor960">Mellor 1991, pp. 960–964</ref>

Roma's official cult served to advance the propagandist message of Imperial Rome. In [[Roman art]] and coinage, she is usually depicted in military form, with helmet and weapons. In Rome's eastern provinces, she was often shown with [[mural crown]] or [[cornucopia]], or both.<ref>Mellor 1991, pp. 60-63.</ref> Her image is rarely found in a commonplace or domestic context.<ref name=Joyce2014>{{cite journal |last1=Joyce |first1=Lillian |title=Roma and the virtuous breast |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |date=2014 |volume=59/60 |pages=1–49 |jstor=44981971 }}</ref> Roma was probably favoured by Rome's high-status Imperial representatives abroad, rather than the Roman populace at large. She was depicted on silver cups, arches, and sculptures, including the base of the [[column of Antoninus Pius]]. She survived into the Christian period as a personification of the Roman state. Her depiction seated with a shield and spear later influenced that of [[Britannia]], personification of Britain.

==Republican era==
===Identity and iconography===
[[File:0135_-_Roma_-_Piazza_del_Campidoglio_-_Dea_Roma_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall'Orto,_7-Apr-2008.jpg|thumb|Roma in the Piazza del Campidoglio; adapted from a statue of [[Minerva]] by the addition of weapons, in the modern era]]

A helmeted figure on Roman coins of 280–276 and 265–242 BC is sometimes interpreted as Roma but the identification is contestable.<ref>[http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s0025.t.html "Sear Roman Coins & their Values (RCV 2000 Edition) #25"], ''Wildwinds'' (accessed 22 June 2009): but see Mellor 1991, pp. 974–75 for a more tentative approach to early helmeted figures: other possible identities have been speculated, such as [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] or the Trojan captive Rhome, who may be a mythic-poetic personification of Greek {{lang|grc|ρώμη}} {{lang|grc-Latn|rhome}} (strength). (For Rhome, see Hard, R., Rose, H. J., [https://books.google.com/books?id=XfGw5uYrDMYC&dq=Rhome+Trojan&pg=PA586 ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology''], 2003, p. 586.</ref> Other early Roman coinage shows a warlike "[[Amazons|Amazon]]" type, possibly Roma but in Mellor's opinion, more likely a {{lang|la|[[Genius (mythology)|genius]]}} than {{lang|la|[[Religion in ancient Rome|dea]]}} (goddess). During the late [[Second Punic War]] and the [[Pyrrhic War]], Rome issued coins with a [[Phrygian helmet]]ed head; some are stamped {{lang|la|Roma}}. In later coin issues, Roma wears varieties of the [[Attic helmet]], the standard pattern for Roman army officers. In cases where clear coin legends are lacking, identification has been unresolved.  Other female members of Rome's official pantheon were also helmeted, including [[Bellona (goddess)|Bellona]], and [[Minerva]], the latter being equivalent to Greek [[Athena]], who is believed by some scholars to be Roma's original.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burnett |first1=Andrew |title=The iconography of Roman coin types in the third century BC |journal=Numismatic Chronicle |date=1986 |volume=146 |issue=146 |pages=67–75 |jstor=42667455 }}</ref>

The earliest, more-or-less unequivocal coin identification of Roma is a silver [[stater]] of c. 275 BC issued by Rome's ethnically Greek allies at [[Locri]], on the Italian peninsula. It shows an enthroned woman with shield and other war-gear, clearly labelled as Roma. Another woman, labelled as [[Pistis]] (Greek equivalent to Roman [[Fides (deity)|Fides]], or "good faith"), stands before Roma with a crown of leaves raised above her head. A Roman denarius of 114/115 shows Roma with [[Romulus]], [[Remus]] and the [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-Wolf]], the mythological beast who fostered them, and nourished them with her milk; the coin image implies that Roma has protected and nourished Rome since its very foundation. Her "Amazonian" appearance recalls the fierce, barbaric, bare-breasted Amazons who fought in the [[Trojan War]] alongside the Trojans, supposed ancestors of the Romans. In the late Republican and early Imperial era, Roman literature presents Roma as one of the Roman people's several "Great Mothers", who included [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Cybele]].<ref name=Joyce2014/> [[Ennius]] personified the "Roman fatherland" as Roma: for [[Cicero]], she was the "Roman state", but neither of these are {{lang|la|dea}} Roma.<ref>Mellor 1991, pp. 963; 1004–05.</ref> Though her Roman ancestry is possible – perhaps merely her name and the ideas it evoked, according to Mellor – she emerges as a Greek deity, whose essential iconography and character were already established in Italy, [[Magna Graecia]] and Rome.<ref name=Joyce2014/>

===Earliest cults===
[[File:Roman - Coin with Denarius with Roma - Walters 59763 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Roma on a [[denarius]], 93–92 BC ([[Walters Art Museum]])]]

The earliest certain cult to {{lang|la|dea}} Roma was established at [[Smyrna]] in 195 BC, probably to mark Rome's successful alliance against [[Antiochus III]].<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'', 4.56</ref> Mellor has proposed her cult as a form of religio-political diplomacy which adjusted traditional Graeco-Eastern divine monarchic honours to Republican mores: divine honours to the divine personification of the Roman state acknowledged the authority of its offices, Republic and city, but did not displace local, Greek cult to individual Roman benefactors.{{efn|The Hellenophile general [[Titus Quinctius Flamininus|Flamininus]] was given divine honours jointly with Roma for his military achievements on behalf of Greek allies: Plutarch, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Flamininus*.html ''Flamininus''], 16 (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago, accessed December 24, 2022), gives the ending lines of what he describes as a lengthy [[Chalcidian League|Chalcidian]] hymn to [[Zeus]], Roma and Flamininus.}}

Democratic city-states such as [[Classical Athens|Athens]] and [[Rhodes]] accepted Roma as analogous to their traditional cult personifications of the {{lang|grc|demos}} (ordinary people). In 189 BC, [[Delphi]] and [[Lycia]] instituted festivals in her honour. Roma as "divine sponsor" of athletics and pan-Hellenic culture seems to have dovetailed neatly into a well-established and enthusiastic festival circuit, and temples to her were outnumbered by her civic statues and dedications.<ref>Mellor 1991, p. 967.</ref> In 133 BC, [[Attalus III]] bequeathed the people and territories of [[Pergamon]] to Rome, as to a trusted ally and protector. The Pergamene bequest became the new Roman province of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]], and Roma's cult spread rapidly within it.<ref>Mellor 1991, pp. 958–959.</ref>

In contrast to her putative "[[Amazons|Amazonian]]" Roman original, Greek coinage reduces the ferocity of her image, and depicts her in the "dignified and rather severe style" of a Greek goddess, often wearing a [[mural crown]], or sometimes a [[Phrygian helmet]]. She is occasionally bareheaded.<ref name="mellor960" /> In this and later periods, she was often associated with [[Zeus]] (as guardian of oaths) and [[Fides (mythology)|Fides]] (the personification of mutual trust).{{efn|The Roman cult to Fides was instituted in the Late Republic: Cicero, {{lang|la|De Natura Deorum}}, 2. 61.}} Her Eastern cult appealed for Rome's alliance and protection. A panegyric to her survives, in five [[Sapphic stanza]]s attributed to the Greek poet [[Melinno]], who claims that she is the daughter of [[Ares]] and celebrates her fierce commitment to her offspring and proteges.<ref>English and Greek versions in Powell, Anton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlSCexW2L4QC&dq=Hail,+Roma,+daughter+of+Ares&pg=RA1-PA369 ''The Greek World''], Routledge, 1997, p. 369.</ref>

<blockquote> Hail, Roma, daughter of Ares, golden-belted warlike queen, you whose earthly home is Olympus the eternally unshattered. Ancient Fate gave to you alone the unbroken glory of royal command, so that the strength to rule is in your hands. Under your strong-strapped yoke the chests of the earth and the gray sea are harnessed. You safely steer the cities of the people. And though mighty time strikes down all things and reshapes life into many different forms, for you alone the wind that blows to the uttermost ends of power does not shift. For indeed you bear the strongest great warriors of all, just like the bountiful crop yielded by Demeter's fields.<ref>Melinno, Hymn to Rome, quoted in Stobaeus, Anthology 3.7.12</ref></blockquote>

At this time, her cult in Republican Rome and its Eastern {{lang|la|coloniae}} was virtually non-existent.<ref name="Mellor, 972">Mellor 1991, p. 972.</ref> In her "Amazonian" type, her usually single bare breast signifies the same boldness and fiercely maternal, nurturing virtues.<ref name=Joyce2014/> In [[Hellenistic]] religious tradition, gods were served by priests and goddesses by priestesses but Roma's priesthood was male, perhaps in acknowledgment of the virility of Rome's military power. Priesthood of the Roma cult was competed among the highest ranking local elites.{{efn|In the East – as later in the provincial West – Roma's priests were probably elected.<ref>Mellor 1991, pp. 965–966</ref>}}

==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>

== 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>

==In the Book of Revelation==
In the [[Book of Revelation]], the letter to the church in Pergamum (2:12–17) warns against Christian involvement in eating food sacrificed to idols, potentially a reference to the [[Roman imperial cult]] which was popular in Pergamum in the era and worshipped the deified Augustus and the goddess Roma.<ref>Nancy McDarby, [https://books.google.com/books?id=i962jBEOJVYC&pg=PA344 ''The Collegeville Bible Handbook''], p. 344</ref>  Later, the book introduces a villainous character called the [[Whore of Babylon]], generally considered a reference to Rome, the dominant power of the era, and potentially an outright [[caricature]] of Roma:<ref name="ehrman" />
{{quote|The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations." And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. (...) The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.|author=Revelation 17:4-6; 18 (NRSV)<ref name="Rev17">{{Bibleverse|Revelation|17|NRSV}}</ref>}}

Additionally, the Whore of Babylon is described as riding a beast with seven heads, and the book says that "the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated," typically understood as the [[seven hills of Rome]].<ref>Davis, C. A. (2000). Revelation. The College Press NIV commentary (322). Joplin, Missouri: College Press Pub.</ref><ref>Beard ''et al'' 1998, p. 283</ref><ref>David M. Rhoads, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4rGPq4fKncIC&pg=PA174 ''From Every People and Nation: The Book of Revelation in Intercultural Perspective''], 174 ff</ref>  An image of Dea Roma on a [[sestertius]] of Emperor [[Vespasian]] shows her reclining on Rome's seven hills with various accoutrements; in this interpretation, the readers of the Book of Revelation, familiar with the iconography of Roman coins, would understand who was being referred to.<ref>Larry Joseph Kreitzer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VNQlTGRm-bEC&pg=PA61 ''Gospel Images in Fiction and Film: On Reversing the Hermeneutical Flow''], Bloomsbury, 2002, p. 62.</ref>  Rather than Roma's depiction as an elegant and regal woman bedecked in jewels and taming a wild animal in conquest in Roman art, the author of Revelation sees Roma as a corrupt and evil force "drunk with blood."<ref name="ehrman">{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart |author-link=Bart Ehrman |date=2023 |title=Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=150&ndash;151  |isbn=978-1-9821-4801-0 }}</ref>

While most scholars recognize that Babylon is a cipher for Rome, they also say that Babylon represents more than just the Roman city of the first century. Craig Koester writes that "the whore is Rome, yet more than Rome".<ref name="koester" /> It "is the Roman imperial world, which in turn represents the world alienated from God".<ref name="koester">{{Cite book|last=Koester|first=Craig R.|chapter=Revelation |title=Anchor Yale Bible 38A|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2014|location=New Haven, Connecticut|pages=506; 684}}</ref>

==Modern times==
[[File:Piazza Venezia - Il Vittoriano (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Altare della Patria]] in [[Rome]]]]

The [[Altar]] of the [[Fatherland]] is the most famous part of the [[Altare della Patria]] in [[Rome]] and is the one with which it is often identified.<ref name=Tobia2011>{{Cite book |title=L'altare della patria |last=Tobia |first=Bruno |date=2011 |publisher=Il mulino |isbn=978-8-81523-341-7 |edition=2nd |location=Bologna |oclc=742504798}}</ref> On the top of the entrance stairway, it was designed by the Brescian sculptor [[Angelo Zanelli]], who won a competition specially held in 1906.<ref name=quirinale/><ref name="Tobia2011" /> It is formed from the side of the [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Italy)|Tomb of Italian Unknown Soldier]] that faces the outside of the building (the other side, which faces inside the Vittoriano, is in a crypt), from the ''[[sacellum]]'' of the statue of Roma (which is exactly above the tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and two vertical marble [[relief]]s that descend from the edges of the [[aedicula]] containing the statue of the goddess Rome and which run downwards laterally to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.<ref name=quirinale>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/simboli/vittoriano/vittoriano.html |title=L'Altare della Patria |access-date=1 January 2018 |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101194248/http://www.quirinale.it/qrnw/simboli/vittoriano/vittoriano.html |archive-date=1 January 2018}}</ref>

The statue of Roma present at the Vittoriano interrupted a custom in vogue until the 19th century, by which the representation of this subject was with exclusively warlike traits. Angelo Zanelli, in his work, decided to further characterize the statue by also providing the reference to [[Athena]], [[Greek mythology|Greek goddess]] of [[Sophia (wisdom)|wisdom]] and the arts, as well as of war.<ref name="Quarta2009">Roberto Quarta, ''Roma massonica'', Edizioni Mediterranee, 2009, {{ISBN|978-88-272-2498-4}}.</ref> The great statue of the deity emerges from a golden background.<ref name="Tobia2011" /> The presence of the goddess Roma in the Vittoriano underlines the irremissible will of the [[Unification of Italy]] patriots to have the Rome as the capital of Italy, an essential concept, according to the common feeling, from the history of the peninsula and the islands of [[Italian culture]].<ref name=difesa>{{Cite web |url=http://www.difesa.it/Ministro/Uffici_diretta_collaborazione/UfficioCerimoniale/Vittoriano/Pagine/Il_Vittoriano.aspx |title=Ministero della Difesa – Il Vittoriano |website=www.difesa.it |language=it-IT |access-date=14 November 2018 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714124233/http://www.difesa.it/Ministro/Uffici_diretta_collaborazione/UfficioCerimoniale/Vittoriano/Pagine/Il_Vittoriano.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Agnew2005>John Agnew, ''The Impossible Capital: Monumental Rome under Liberal and Fascist Regimes'', 1870–1943, Wiley Blackwell, 2005</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Ronald Mellor]] wrote in the introduction to his work on Roma, summing up her influence, that "As personification, as goddess or as symbol, the name ''Roma'' stretches from classical Greece to [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]'s Fascist propaganda&nbsp;... ''Roma'' has been seen as a goddess, a whore, a near-saint, and as the symbol of civilization itself. She remains the oldest continuous political-religious symbol in Western civilization."<ref>Mellor 1991, p. 952.</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last1=Beard |first1=Mary |author-link1=Mary Beard (classicist) |last2=Price |first2=Simon |author2-link=Simon Price (classicist) |last3=North |first3=John A. |date=1998 |title=Religions of Rome: Volume 1·A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC&pg=PA283 |location= |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page= |isbn=0-521-31682-0}}
*Fishwick, Duncan. ''The imperial cult in the Latin West: studies in the ruler cult of the western provinces of the Roman Empire.'' Brill, 1987–2005.
* {{cite book |last=Mellor |first=Ronald J. |author-link=Ronald J. Mellor |date=1991 |orig-date=1981 |editor-last=Haase |editor-first=Wolfgang |editor2-last=Temporini |editor2-first=Hildegard |title=[[Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt]] |publisher=de Gruyter |pages=950–1030 |chapter=The Goddess Roma |isbn=3-11-010389-3}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Dea Roma}}

{{Roman religion}}
{{National symbols of Italy}}
{{National personifications}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:National personifications]]
[[Category:National symbols of Italy]]
[[Category:Personifications in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Tutelary deities]]
[[Category:Hellenistic deities]]
[[Category:Whore of Babylon]]
[[Category:Civic personifications]]