Nova Roma - Historical Contexts

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

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