A few related questions:
What's the version number for the latest version for Rome? Where can I download the JAR for the latest version? Where does maven get its JAR for Rome?
finally,
Rome is, objectively, numerically, the most frequently use Java API for parsing RSS feeds?
What's the version number for the latest version for Rome?
According to your research: 1.5.0 :-)
Where can I download the JAR for the latest version?
One place would be Maven Central. You can use http://search.maven.org/ to find the 1.5.0 version.
Where does maven get its JAR for Rome?
Maven will get the JAR from Maven Central ... unless you set your maven configs and/or your POM file to get it from somewhere else;
Note that different people seem to have uploaded Rome to Maven over time ... with different "groupids". It looks like "com.rometools" is the official groupid now.
Rome is, generally, the preferred, or at least, most used, Java API for parsing RSS feeds?
I'm NOT touching that one. It calls for an opinion-based answer.