In Ancient
Rome,
Roma was a supposed
deity to whom were dedicated some
temples and sacred sites; effectively, it was an
allegory rhetorically representing the symbolic personification of the State, first appeared in
269 BC in roman coins, and in
Locri (
Calabria) in
204 BC. External peoples might have given Roma divine attributes, but it seems to be only an hypothesis. Emphasising this allegory, temples were erected in
Smirne[?] (
195 BC) and some sort of cult is reported in
Ephesus,
Sardi[?] and
Delo[?].
Roma was a god decreed to exist by Augustus Caesar early in his career as "Princeps Civitatis" (1st among citizens -- i.e. Emperor) as part of a propaganda campaign. In this way he deified the concept of Rome, building many temples with his Res Gestae[?] (resume telling his subjects all his deeds) alongside of inscriptions that popularized the new god Roma.
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