The Vittoriano is a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, located in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill.
At the Vittoriano, the larger than life marble statue shows Roma standing, wearing an elegant helmet and holding a spear with her right hand and a winged Victory statue with her left.
In ancient Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personified the city of Rome and more broadly, the Roman state. Her image appears on the base of the column of Antoninus Pius.
The first temple dedicated to Roma was built in Smyrna around 195 BC. J.-C. According to Livy, in Alabanda, Caria, not only was a temple dedicated to the goddess, but annual games were established in her honor.
Roma is represented, with the legend Thea Roma, on the currencies of several Greek cities.
In the imperial period, the worship of Roma is represented mainly in the provinces, and first in the East, where it fits more easily into the tradition of Hellenistic monarchies; it participates in the exaltation of the power of Rome and the loyalty of local populations. It is an element of the imperial cult. Augustus authorizes the construction of temples or altars consecrated to Rome, in association with Caesar or with himself.
Hadrian, however, had the temple of Venus and Rome built at Rome, on the site of Velia, between the Romanum Forum and the Colosseum; it is a double temple, consisting of two cellae leaning against each other, one of which is dedicated to Venus, mother of Aeneas, and the other to the goddess Rome, thus associating the myth from the origins of the city to its current power.
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