Roma

Roman A legendary figure who came to be worshiped as a goddess, Roma was the personification of the city of Rome. According to modern historians and archaeologists, she was first worshiped as a deity in about 195 b.c. when a popular cult to her developed outside of the city and in Greece, which was, by then, a part of the Roman Republic. Rome had become an important city in the lives of the people in these outlying areas, and they developed a worship of this goddess as an expression of that importance. Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, became associated with Roma. After Augustus died in a.d. 14, people believed he became a god and worshiped him with Roma. In a.d. 118, Emperor Hadrian built a temple to Roma within the city. The legends of Roma are much older than her worship as a goddess. According to some ancient sources, she was a Trojan prisoner of Aeneas who took her and other captives with him when he left Troy. After years of wandering the seas, Aeneas's ship finally reached the western shores of Italy. The captives were tired of the journey and Roma convinced them to set fire to the ship so Aeneas could not leave. Eventually, the community they created became so prosperous they named the city after her in thanks for her courage. In other legends, Roma was sometimes named as the granddaughter of Aeneas, as the wife of his son, and even as his wife. She was also said to be the daughter of Heracles. Some say she was also the sister of Latinus, legendary king and founder of the Latin people. Still another tradition says that Roma was the daughter of Evander, the legendary king who fled Greece and formed a community on the Palatine Hill before Romulus founded Rome. Evander, stories say, named the city that grew up around that hill and its six neighbors after his daughter.