Consules address ~ Ludi Conditorum 2761 AUC (Nova Roma)

Address of the Consules 2761 a.U.c.

Kalendas Martias MMDCCLXI a.u.c.(1 March 2008 CE). Ex Officio Consulares:

M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus et T. Iulius Sabinus Consules: Praetoribus, Tribunibus Plebis, Patribus Mátribusque Conscriptís, Senatui Populoque Novo Romano, Quiritibus, et viatoribus, peregrinibus omnibus: salutem plurimam dicit:

Decimum Annum Anniversum bonum faustum felicem!

When we look with fondness back to Roma Antiqua we recall one Parilia when Romulus, "the King grips the plough and marks the walls with a furrow, a white cow and snowy bull bears the yoke" at the Founding of the City of Rome. By the grace of Bona Fortuna, on that same festival of Parilia was Numa born, the son of Postumnus, in the city of Cures. Rex Numa Pompilius who would come to refound the City again, this time by founding the religio Romana to create the Pax Deorum that guided Rome to greatness. The City, they say, was founded again, many times in fact, at the beginning of the Res Publica by Junius Brutus, Valerius Poplicola, and Marcus Horatius, later, following the Gallic sack, by Camillus Furius, who had so often saved Rome, and who might justly stand beside other Founders of Rome, defeating the implacable Veii, and the rapacious Gauls, in his fifth dictatorship intervened into the conflict that arose between the Orders, imposing compromise and vowing a Temple of Concordia to seal the bargain. In the four- hundred and forty-ninth year of the City, was Rome refounded again by Gnaeus Flavius, one man, through sheer will power and stubborn determination, acted to set privilege aside and bring open government to Rome, the likes of which remain a basic principle of freedom to this day."He published the forms of civil law that had been hidden away amongst the secret archives of the pontifices, and posted the official calendar on white notice boards around the Forum." And on 22 July in that year he had the Pontifex Maximus reveal the formula by which he dedicated the Temple of Concordia in the precinct of Vulcanus. Out of struggle, compromise, and concord did Rome grow to become the Mother City of Civilization. Then came Caesar, and Augustus Caesar, and our philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and by many others, too, was Rome founded again.

Then occurred a different sort of refounding of Rome. Not so much at a location, but a place, a community, a civitas, a collection of individuals who believed in an Ideal that is Rome. And they named this civitas their Nova Roma. Ten years ago Roma resurgens was born. And each time a new member becomes a Civis Novus Romanus, a Civis Nova Romana, then is Nova Roma itself Reborn. Ours is a civitas, a collection of individuals, each with our own conception of the Ideal we call Nova Roma, changing, evolving with the loss of each citizen and the welcome of another. While today we celebrate the Founding of Nova Roma ten years ago, we look ten years hence to what Nova Roma shall transform into as we Refound Nova Roma today and every day.

This year, our Tenth Anniversary Year, things shall be different. Already the foundations begun seven years ago have been revamped to make our finances more stable, more professionally organized thanks to Censor Tiberius Galerius and our Curatrix Aerarium Equestria Iunia, assisted by Senatores Marinus, Popillius, and Saturninus, and with special thanks as well to Senator Marcus Minucius Audens. This year, for the first time, Nova Roma shall be able to hand out an academic scholarship. We shall be able to subscribe to JSTOR and thereby provide something special for our Assidui. We shall see our first Conventus in North America as we hold the annual Conventus Europa, and look towards soon holding a conventus in South America as well.

Nova Roma shall take the lead this year in a worldwide event to celebrate Cerealia, the Feriae Latina, and Parilia. The celebration shall be capped off by the rites of Jupiter Latiaris restored once more atop Mont Albano, Latium. And in the Americas Jupiter Latiaris shall be welcomed atop another sacred mount, Monte Alban, Mexico. To these rights others shall join in ringing the globe in a sequential, coordinated celebration lasting throughout the day, beginning in Australia and Japan, crossing to China, India, through Bactria and Mesopotamia where our commiles now hold the frontiers of civilization, to Romania where my collega and bonus amicus, Titus Iulius Sabinus, shall lead the rites for Jupiter Latiaris and Concordia, across Europe, centered on Mont Albano, then across the Atlantic to Brasilia and Argentina, up through high Peru and Mexico to Texas where I shall also be performing the same ritual, across the United States and Canada to Alaska and Hawaii before completing the circuit one more in Australia.

What will make this event historic for Nova Roma is that others shall join with us in these celebrations. The Roman Way of Austin, Texas, shall play hostess to a Consul and a Praetor of Nova Roma, while they will be joined by a Curator and other representatives of the Societas Via Romana. Also joining with Nova Roma in the rites of Jupiter Latiaris shall be the Clarian Temple and the Order of the Evening Star in Philadelphia, the Sacred Grove of Egeria, Chapel Hill, NC, congregations of Unitarians across the US, the Antonine Temples of the Religio Romana in Seattle, Wa., and Los Angeles, Ca. Other groups shall be joining in the rites atop Mont Albano, Italy. We hope, too, to increase the number and diversity of participating groups and organizations as we begin to publicize this event. This year, Nova Roma will recommit to becoming a leader in the Restoration of the Religio Romana. It shall take the lead in organizing the first ever, worldwide event of the Religio Romana. Reorganizing, reforming, and refounding its religious institutions this year, proclaiming the Restoration of the Numa Tradition for Nova Roma, shall also restore Nova Roma as the leading community of cultures Deorum in the world. By our setting an example to others through our own practice of the religio Romana, teaching others through the NRwiki site and Nova Roma lists, establishing programs of instruction at Academia Thules, with our sacerdotes performing public ritual and our rituals published as the standard by which others will follow, Nova Roma shall re establish itself as a unique community, home to cultores Deorum of all kinds, and for gentiles Romani, along with our Jewish and Christian and Muslim sorores et fratres Novi Romani.

Nova Roma shall also send a letter to the City Council of Roma, Italy, notifying them of our intent to join in their celebration of Parilia on 21 April. Through this means, Nova Roma will begin the process being recognized as an associazione cultura in Italy, whereby Nova Roma shall be able to found, or to support, its own legal entity in Europe. By this means Nova Roma's European cultural association can receive grants from the EU and participate more directly in cultural events and archaeological projects like the Magna Mater Project. Ten years as an established organization, Nova Roma will now lay the foundation to adding a new dimension to its community.

Nova Roma has always had great potential to be something very special. This is what has attracted each of us to Nova Roma, each with our own vision of what that Ideal could become. This year will be only a beginning, in many ways a refounding of Nova Roma, to a bright future supporting cultural, social, educational, and religious aspects in its own community while entering into the greater world, joining with Roman enthusiasts everywhere, just as Roma antiqua once became a leader among the Latin League. This transformation, this reawakening and restoration of Nova Roma ,will come with the recommitment of each of its Citizens to the Ideal they hold for Nova Roma, and Nova Roma shall be refounded with each and every new Citizen who are yet to join this our civitas that we call Nova Roma.