In ancient Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personified the city of Rome and, more broadly, the Roman state.Mellor 1991, 956. 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 "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 to her as Roma Aeterna ("Eternal Rome"), and to Venus Felix ("Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune"), emphasising the sacred, universal and eternal nature of the empire.Mellor 1991, pp. 960–964
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.Mellor 1991, pp. 60-63. Her image is rarely found in a commonplace or domestic context. 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
A helmeted figure on Roman coins of 280–276 and 265–242 BC is sometimes interpreted as Roma but the identification is contestable."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 or the Trojan captive Rhome, who may be a mythic-poetic personification of Greek (strength). (For Rhome, see Hard, R., Rose, H. J., The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, 2003, p. 586. Other early Roman coinage shows a warlike "Amazon" type, possibly Roma but in Mellor's opinion, more likely a than (goddess). During the late Second Punic War and the Pyrrhic War, Rome issued coins with a Phrygian helmeted head; some are stamped . 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, and Minerva, the latter being equivalent to Greek Athena, who is believed by some scholars to be Roma's original.
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, 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, 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 and Cybele. Ennius personified the "Roman fatherland" as Roma: for Cicero, she was the "Roman state", but neither of these are Roma.Mellor 1991, pp. 963; 1004–05. 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.
Earliest cults
The earliest certain cult to Roma was established at Smyrna in 195 BC, probably to mark Rome's successful alliance against Antiochus III.Tacitus, Annals, 4.56 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.
Democratic city-states such as Athens and Rhodes accepted Roma as analogous to their traditional cult personifications of the (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.Mellor 1991, p. 967. 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, and Roma's cult spread rapidly within it.Mellor 1991, pp. 958–959.
In contrast to her putative "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. In this and later periods, she was often associated with Zeus (as guardian of oaths) and Fides (the personification of mutual trust). Her Eastern cult appealed for Rome's alliance and protection. A panegyric to her survives, in five Sapphic stanzas 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.English and Greek versions in Powell, Anton, The Greek World, Routledge, 1997, p. 369.
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.Melinno, Hymn to Rome, quoted in Stobaeus, Anthology 3.7.12
At this time, her cult in Republican Rome and its Eastern was virtually non-existent.Mellor 1991, p. 972. In her "Amazonian" type, her usually single bare breast signifies the same boldness and fiercely maternal, nurturing virtues. 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.
Imperial era The assassination of Julius Caesar led to his apotheosis and cult as a State in Rome and her Eastern 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 of Asia and Bithynia requested permission to honour him as a living . 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 jointly with Roma.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: 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. From here on, Roma increasingly took the attributes of an Imperial or divine consort to the Imperial , but some Greek coin types show her as a seated or enthroned authority, and the Imperial standing upright as if her supplicant or servant.Ando, Clifford, Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire, illustrated, University of California Press, 2000. p. 45
In the western part of the Empire, the foundation of the 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 (altar) was dedicated to Roma and 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.
In provincial Africa, one temple to Roma and Augustus is known at Leptis Magna and another at Mactar. On the Italian peninsula, six have been proven – Latium built two, one of them privately funded. During the reign of Tiberius, Ostia built a grand municipal temple to Roma and Augustus.Mellor 1991, 1002–03.
In the city of Rome itself, the earliest known state cult to Roma was combined with cult to Venus at the Hadrianic Temple of Venus and Roma. This was the largest temple in the city, probably dedicated to inaugurate the reformed festival of , which was known thereafter as the after the Eastern festival in Roma's honour. The temple contained the seated, fully draped, Hellenised and highly influential image of Roma – the Palladium in her right hand symbolised Rome's eternity.Beard et al. 1998, pp. 257–259. 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 .
Following the defeat of Clodius Albinus and his allies by Septimius Severus at Lugdunum, Roma was removed from the Lugdunum cult 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 by his slaves.Fishwick, Vol. 3, 1, 199. It is not known how long this phase lasted, but it appears to have been a unique development.