State of Rome (
Roman State) refers to
Ancient Rome as a
nation-state, that is, a country. As a result, a free-born person in
Syria could be considered a Roman by virtue of his
citizenship although he was born nowhere near the city of Rome. Furthermore, the capital of the Roman state was not always the city of Rome. For example, the capital was moved to
New Rome in the later stages of the Roman Empire, and after death of emperor
Theodosius I, the capital of Western half was
Mediolanum, but later
Ravenna.