Wreath

Jupiter, Best and Greatest

Nova Roma was founded on 1 March, 1998, as a hybrid micronation and Roman re-enactment group. It has several thousand citizens scattered throughout the world, and professes to be the vehicle by which a contemporary revival of the Roman Republic and its state religion (the Religio Romana) may be achieved - albeit in a manner appropriately shorn of the aspects of the historic entity considered distasteful to modern sensibilities - namely slavery, death in the arena, sex-based discrimination and an oligarchic political system. In 2004 Nova Roma announced the purchase of a rural property in Texas upon which a temple to the gods of Rome was to be built - the first such since antiquity. 

Nova Roma's Sestercii coins are believed to have been minted in 2000 - however the year they bear refers to that of the group's foundation, expressed in the traditional form KAL MAR MMDCCLI AVC (Kalends of March, 2751 Ab Vrbi Conditvm, which roughly translated means 1st of March in the 2751st year after the founding of Rome). The reverse inscription IOM  stands for Ivppiter Optimvs Maximvs (Jupiter, Best and Greatest), while Aeqvitas - Concordia - Civilitas (Nova Roma's motto) translates as: Equality - Harmony - Civility. The coins are recorded as being in use at re-enactments in the United States, where they have been used to transact business between citizens.

© 2005, USNS / G Cruickshank. Information and scans courtesy of G Cruickshank and Nova Roma.