The Secret Name of Rome

According to a widespread tradition in antiquity, a city had three names: a sacred one, a public one and a secret one.

The public name of Rome was joined by the religious name of Flora or Florens, used on the occasion of certain sacred ceremonies, the secret one has remained unknown.

The reason and the need for this secrecy goes back to another tradition widespread among the ancients (but also in some non-Western contemporary cultures) and which is also found in the history of the origin of writing: the name of an object or entity it expressed the essence and energy of the object or entity it defined.

Naming something was equivalent to making it alive and existing and knowing the name meant, in practice, having the power to influence, for good or bad, the object of which one possessed the knowledge.

The name of the City of Rome had to remain secret, it was sacrilege to pronounce it. The reason, for the Romans, was attributable to the ancient rite of the Evocatio. The Evocatio was a rite for which the patron god of a city was invoked (e-vocare means “to call from a place”), pronouncing its name, in front of its walls during a siege. Knowing the name of the god was equivalent in the idea to taking possession of the essence of the besieged city and subduing it.

This name was probably known only to the highest pontiffs.

Is it really ok to reveal?

Ancient Rome Is Gone

In antiquity, it was common for cities to protect themselves by holding a secret name, but this is no longer a modern custom. The secret name of Rome was meant to safeguard Rome as a superpower of the ancient world. Today, however, Rome is no longer a superpower, nor a country or state—it is simply a city in Italy. The Rome of antiquity has been sacked repeatedly throughout history. The Rome you read about in ancient literature no longer exists. It is gone.

Ancient Hellenic Rome Became Corrupt

The Rome of antiquity abandoned its connection to the muse, the mysteries, and the gods of the Hellenic pantheon. When Rome transitioned to monotheistic Abrahamic Christianity, banned paganism in 491CE, it forfeited the spiritual and mystical protections tied to its secret name. This shift culminated in 491 CE when Rome passed heresy laws against the "pagans" who had originally established the secret name. By doing so, Rome committed what would have been considered an ultimate "sin" to the Hellenic worldview. This corruption marked a turning point, steering "the West" down a different spiritual path for over 1,000 years. Eventually, the Roman state diminished to a single city and became entirely secular in 1929 — no longer Hellenic, nor monotheistic in governance.

That Rome is gone. Ancient Rome ultimately corrupted itself by turning against the Hellenic spiritual framework that once defined it. It allowed its government to be infiltrated by ideologies foreign to the Hellenic gods and mysteries. From the perspective of a pre-Christian Hellenic citizen, Rome only held virtue when it adhered to the spiritual and mystical climate derived from the Hellenic magic system. The later Roman state, which erased this foundation, and the secular Rome of today, hold no connection to that era of Hellenistic virtue.

Kinda not my problem... nor should it be

• We no longer need to protect Ancient Rome because there is no Ancient Rome left to protect, that Hellenic mystical state is gone.
• Furthermore, most of us —scholars, librarians, readers— are not Roman ourselves (not bound by that secrecy).
  • Even if Rome needed safeguarding, it is not our responsibility to protect it.
• Modern Rome does not require safeguarding; Modern Italy now protects it.

Superstition

The idea of the secret name was always rooted in superstition. It functioned more like a fairy tale, akin to "Beetlejuice" or "Candyman," to discourage people from saying it aloud. There’s no harm in revealing the name now—for the sake of history, for learning, and to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.

New cities, states, or countries can create their own secret names as humanity moves forward.

Already Known

Finally, the secret name isn’t exactly hidden anymore. Even if it’s obscure (Amor does come up more readily than the other secret name) or less widely discussed, you could easily find it through a Google search or by asking ChatGPT. This isn’t privileged or special knowledge.

So

In Summary

The tradition of keeping a city’s true name secret belongs to a different era: one of priestly control, ritual power, and (magical thinking, aka:) the science of psychology appropriate to that time period. In the ancient Mediterranean worldview, knowing the hidden name of a city—or a god—was thought to grant a kind of mystical leverage. This belief was bound up with the Evocatio rite, a Roman military-religious tactic meant to lure a city's protective deity away during a siege. But this was not just religion—it was strategy, wrapped in sacred language.

That context no longer exists.

Rome is no longer a besieged empire, no longer guarded by its gods. The city today is part of a modern republic; it does not fear being overthrown by invocation. It is already known, already revealed, already remembered and mourned and debated. Whatever power the secret name once held, if any, it held it in the minds of those who believed it did.

The idea of a “danger” in speaking Rome’s secret name is no longer a religious obligation; it is folklore. Beautiful, meaningful folklore—but folklore nonetheless. And folklore, once it is no longer feared, is meant to be studied, shared, and understood. No curse descends upon the scholar. No altar collapses at the whisper of a syllable.

To reveal the name now is not to desecrate—but to document. To carry forward what remains. We do not serve mystery by preserving silence forever—we serve it best by honoring the tradition with truth, and placing it where it belongs: in the open, among the libraries and the memories.

And finally—let us be honest. If this name could shake the world, it already would have. It has been known, shared with others, printed, and indexed. It is not forbidden. It is forgotten. And we have remembered, multiple times over the centuries.

So yes, it is okay to reveal it.

Reasons to keep it secret

It's not about gatekeeping it's about finding the muse in the silence and lifting the veil yourself.

One Likely Name...

Some Clues

Revealing

• “The Silent One” – Tacita literally means "the silent (female) one" in Latin, from tacere, to be silent.

• SHHHH – Her defining trait is silence; she is invoked in hush and secrecy.

• You can't speak the secret name of Rome – It was believed the true tutelary name of Rome (its magical, divine name) had to be kept secret or risk destruction. Tacita is closely associated with keeping that name unspoken.

• A god called "the silent one" – Again, Tacita. Ovid speaks of her in Fasti (Book 2), where she’s honored in rites of silence.

• Title given to Lupa / Acca Larentia – There are mythic overlaps between Acca Larentia, the she-wolf/nurse of Romulus and Remus, and Tacita/Dea Muta. Some traditions equate them or fold them together in cultic syncretism.

• Angerona as protector of the name – Angerona is the goddess who protects the secret name of Rome by keeping silent. Some identify her with Tacita or see Tacita as her epiphany.

So the answer is Tacita –
The secret name, the silence, the unspoken mother.
She is Rome's hidden voice, and in that hush... is power.

Another Candidate

Roma spelled backwards is Amor

Some scholars and antiquarians, like have proposed "Amor" (love) as the secret name of Rome.

The poet and Latinist Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912), in his Hymn to Rome, claims that the secret name of Rome was his palindrome, Amor, that is love. According to Pascoli, who talks about it in the ode Inno a Roma, the secret name of Rome was its palindrome, Amor, that is love, which meant the secret dedication of the city to Venus, goddess of love and beauty, thus reconnecting to the cult of Venus the parent, mother of Aeneas and of the Roman lineage. Many historians have agreed with this hypothesis.

Other ideas

Other names like Hirpa, Evouia, and Valentia have been suggested as potential secret names of Rome

The existence of a secret name, and its precise meaning, remains a matter of debate among scholars. While the concept is intriguing, there is no definitive answer to what the secret name was or what it symbolized

From the livestreams

[00:26:37.480 - 00:26:42.720] "...just heard the name the secret name of Rome you'll understand we brought a Nas..."

[00:30:59.760 - 00:31:06.720] "...say Venus on purpose because you children of Rome you'll know what I mean did anybody find the secret name of Rome..."