Micronations/List of already existing micronations/Nova Roma

Nova Roma is an international Roman revivalist and reconstructionist organization created in 1998 by Joseph Bloch and William Bradford, (Marcus Cassius Iulianus and Flavius Vedius Germanicus the "Patres Patriae") later incorporated in Maine as a non-profit organization with an educational and religious mission. Nova Roma claims to promote "the restoration of classical Roman religion, culture, and virtues" and "shared Roman ideals".

Reported to provide online resources about Roman culture, Latin, ancient Roman costuming and reenactment guidelines, Nova Roma aims to be more than a community of reenactors or history study group. Strimska, Davy, Adler, Gallagher-Ashcraft, and recently Chryssides refer to it as a polytheistic reconstructionist community. Because it has a structure based on the ancient Roman Republic, with a senate, magistrates and laws enacted by vote of the comitia, and with its own coinage, and because the Nova Roma Wiki states that the group self-identifies as a "sovereign nation", some outside observers classify it as a micronation.

Roman religion
Nova Roma has adopted the ancient Roman religion as its state cult, but also maintains the freedom of religion of its citizens. As a polytheistic reconstructionist practice, the religio Romana or cultus deorum Romanorum (Latin designations used by Nova Roma adherents when referring to their religion) reportedly attracts people especially of military background. Religious Studies scholar Michael York noted that traditional Roman way of thinking, Roman philosophy provides the moral code for Nova Romans in their New Roman belief system.

Both the domestic religious traditions and the so-called state religion (sacra publica) are represented in the practices of Nova Roma, including the restoration of the ancient priestly collegia, including the offices of pontifex and Vestal Virgin, and the honoring of the full cycle of Roman holidays throughout the year. According to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, at the time of Christmas, Nova Romans celebrate the Roman holiday Saturnalia.

In 2006 Margot Adler noted the organization's plan to restore a Magna Mater shrine in Rome.

Live events, conventions and reenactments


Nova Roma holds its own local and international conventions and regularly participates with its affiliated reenactment groups in such history festivals and public events as the Festival of Ancient Heritage in Svishtov, Bulgaria, the Roman Market Day  in Wells Harbor Park, Maine and Forum Fulvii in Italy, Ludi Savarienses Historical Carnival, the Aquincum Floralia Spring Festival   in Hungary, or the Natale di Roma (the historical festival of the birthday of Rome) in Rome, Italy, where Nova Roma celebrated its twentieth anniversary.

Cultural competitions and games
Among the cultural activities of Nova Roma, competitions and games associated with various Roman festivals have an important place. They can include a wide range of various programs from humorous online games up to serious art-competitions like the Certamen Petronianum, a literary contest of historical novel writing, where the jury was composed of notables including Colleen McCullough, author of many Roman-themed best-selling novels, and T. P. Wiseman, university professor of Roman history and former vice-president of the British Academy, or the second edition of the same competition, where the jury was Jo Walton, World Fantasy Award-winning novelist and poet.

Historical contexts
Revival of things Roman and their co-option for symbolic importance have a long history. Nova Roma (in Latin, literally "New Rome") in its deliberate revival of grandiose remnants of the past thus parallels and echoes other New Romes such as:


 * the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire as a surviving embodiment of Roman ideals based on Constantinople (sometimes chartacterised as "New Rome" or the "Second Rome") after the decline of the Roman imperium in the West.
 * the doctrine of the Third Rome as justification for imperial Muscovite and Russian ambitions from the 15th century onwards
 * Mussolini's attempted construction of a Mediterranean-based New Roman Empire (compare Imperial Italy) in the early 20th century