ROMA Senators Inducted

Early this morning, the new body of ROMA Senators were inducted. Priestesses of the Collegia performed a blessing then the Emperor himself received the new Senators in his Imperial Throne Room, a rare honor. There he bestowed upon them their special rings signifying their position. Afterwards, the first Senate meeting got underway in the Curia while stalwart legionnaires from Legion XIII stood guard at the door and made sure that the spectators in the chamber behaved with honor. After the introductory meeting, the Senators retired outside the Curia for a well-deserved round of "Senator Dancing". Snapshots from the event can be seen here on our Flickr page.

The ROMA Senate is the newest official subgroup of the ROMA Citizens group. The august body will be primarily concerned with debating current and ancient topics and roleplaying. The current officers are JT Vale (Princeps Senatus), Mickey James (Censor), and Nicolo Gaudio (Censor).

Blast From The Past: Saturnalia 06

I've finally excavated some ROMA snapshots from my hard drive and posted them to the ROMA Flickr page. Click here to revist Saturnalia '06. Back then snow coated the hills of ROMA, Legion XIII only held a few soldiers, we had no official priests or priestesses, and for a brief time a Dacian was in charge (*gasp*!).

More blasts from the pasts to come!

HBO's ROMA

This amazing video was made by ROMA priestess Amalthea McMahon. She sets snapshots of the sim to the opening theme for HBO's "Rome". Love it!

Legio Ship Dedicated

Today LEGIO ROMANA CLASSIS NAUTICA dedicated their new ship built by Valerianus Gaudio in the Subura Harbor. Members of the Legio voted on the ships name, which is ARA PACIS. As the Emperor commented, he hoped it would be "an altar of peace on the waves." Members of the Collegia performed the concecration rite, and Prefect Torin Golding unveiled the new ship's nameplate.

After the ceremony, the ship became a rocking dancefloor as DJ Veronica Skjellerup played spun her tunes from her large DJ booth. Photots from the event can be seen at our Flickr page.

Subura Legion Fort Dedicated

Today the fort of Legion XIII located in the Subura sim was dedicated. Members of the ROMA Collegia of Priestesses performed the concecration rite and Vectus Margulis, Praefectus of the Legion, officiated.

Afterwards, all those in attendance retired to the roof of the fort to pary and dance!

The Legion fort in the Subura is open to use for all members of the Legion and its affiliated groups, for both practicing and socializing. Members of the public are able to tour the build as well. It is located just to the north of the Main Gate into the Subura.

To see snapshots of the ceremony, navigate to this photos folder on our Flickr page.

ROMA Coverage

Since I blogged about of our own Morgana Fillion's great blog entry on the Ides of March festivals in ROMA, I have been tracking down other media offerings about ROMA. Here is a list. If anyone has any more, please let me (Torin) know. Thanks!

Ave, Ida!
Tourist report from Ida on the Baedeker blog.

Video Tour of ROMA
From Rik Riel's blog The Click Heard Round the World.

Real World Places in Second Life #13: Ancient Rome
Rik Riel's blog entry on ROMA.

SL Sightseer
Morgana Fillion and Mickey James' SL Blog with many entries on ROMA. Check out the archives.

Landmark of the Week: Roma SPQR
From the SL Explorer blog written by Misty.

ROMA Expands
ROMA goes from strength to strength
Two from my friend Caliandris Pendragon on SL Insider.

Fighting fit: Enamabala Towradgi
Interview with ROMA regular (and now Senator) Enamabala, also by Caliandris from the Insider.

Second Life & Machinima Movies
Article on Machinima where the author, Sara, has many nice things to say about ROMA.

Un sim per l’antica Roma
Article in Italian on the Second Life Italia Blog.

ROMA - Now It's Own Sim
Interveiw with Torin in Slate Magazine by Sphere Gasser.

Ancient Games
On the Ancient Games blog, Libitina links to Rik's piece, and comments on connections between ROMA and Caesar III (Intentional!!!) ;)

Learning at Virtual Roma
Blog of Jo Kay's visit to ROMA

Day 93: When in ROMA
Visit detailed in Natalia's Second Life Diary Blog.
BONUS: Natalia's guide of how to make Roman sandals!

ROMA in the news again

Our own Morgana Fillion, priestess of Juno in the ROMA Collegia, has blogged about the March festivals in ROMA for the Second Life Sightseer blog. Her and partner Mickey James have several ROMA themed posts on this site. Check them out!

Anyone else who spots media about ROMA, please pass them on to Torin or the Emperor and we'll put a link to the stories here on the blog.

New Priestess in ROMA

Today the ROMA Collegia inducted Amalthea McMahon to full status as a priestess. Pictures of the ceremony can be found on our Flickr page.

Congrats to Amalthea!

March Festivals a Success!

Many thanks to all who helped organize the Ides of March festivals this past week, especially the Collegia and the officers of the Legion XIII! I will add pics from it to our Flickr site soon. If you have any to pass on, drop them on Torin.

The Subura is also open the public now! And the residents have been super busy building fantastic residences inside. If you would like info about how to become a Subura resident yourself, find the Subura office in the southernmost ground floor room of the Gate to the Subura.

Hopefully the public buildings of the Subura, including the new Market, will be started soon.

Bring SL into RL

ROMA has an online store where you can get a variety of RL items with ROMA designs. All proceeds go to sim upkeep. You can find it here: http://www.cafepress.com/romacitizens

Let Torin know if there are any items you would like that are not currently available!

The Subura Is Being Built

I'm happy to announce that the ROMA Subura sim has been prepared for the residents and the residents have begun to move in!

To give the residents some time to get their houses built, the Subura will be closed to the public until our festival on Thursday. Aften that time, the Subura will be open to the public.

There are still some plots available for rent. See the Subura sign in the ROMA Plaza (next to the Bakery) for instructions of how to reserve one.

More info about this week's festivals later!

Subura Pending!

UPDATED 12:07pm: It has been delivered!

The status of the Subura sim order turned from 'Processing' to 'Pending' sometime tonight! Dare we hope that it will be up this weekend???

Once it goes up, I will switch the 'access' to allow in only those in the Suburra Residents group while I am not in game. You won't be able to do much except run around and enjoy the big blank sim.

Once I can get in game, I will close the sim to everyone and begin terraforming and parcel division. This will probably take me a day or two to complete.

Once terraforming is complete and I have all of the rental cubes down, I'll send a notice to the Suburra group and tell you to come and pay for your first month (at least). Then you'll be able to start building your Roman house. Each parcel will be reserved only for those who have reserved a plot and paid the Startup Fee.

You'll then have 3 days before we open the sim to the public. Unreserved plots will then be first come first serve.

I'm excited!

-Torin

ROMA Pics now on Flickr!

We will be updating screenshots of ROMA and ROMA Events on this Flickr page.

If you have any shots you'd like to include, mail them to romacitizens [at] yahoo.com or drop them on Torin Golding or the Emperor Julian Augustus.

ROMA Senate and Collegia of Priests Recruiting!

Avete Citizens,

The ROMA Senate and the Collegia of Preists are now official sub-groups of the ROMA Citizens group. Both are also actively recruiting roleplay members.

To see the duties of the Senators, find the Senate announcement in the Citizen group window. I'll also try to set up an info board near the Curia in the Forum. The initial recruitment for the Senate will continue until Saturday.

To see the duties of the Priests and Priestesses of ROMA, see this post on our messageboard: http://romacitizens.proboards54.com/index.cgi?board=collegia&action=display&thread=1172562008 and feel free to contact Angelia Rees for more info.

To all Suburra Residents...

The Sim has been ordered! Check the Notices of the Suburra Residents Group for an important notice about Startup Fees and picking what plot you want to have.

If you are interested in getting a plot reservation for the new residential sim attached to ROMA, check out the notecard in the Suburra stall in the Plaza (next to the Bakery). Hurry as plots will go fast!