General Notes on Rome
1. Of Dates and Symbolsfrom the Fascist Era
2. Flood Signs andNo Dumping Notices
3. Catching a busin Rome
4. All Roads lead to ....
5. Obelisks in Rome
6.
A Legacy of Fasces
"Fasces" is the root word for "fascism," a political ideology marked by nationalism, totalitarianism, and imperialism that exerted a dramatic force over global politics particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, most infamously in Germany's Nazi Party, which was modeled on the Italian fascist movement. Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy, the first modern fascist state, adopted the fasces as its symbol, harking back to the Romans. Unlike the American interpretation of the fasces as a symbol of strength through unity, the Italian fascists identified with the power and brutality also inherent in the fasces' meaning.
Coincidentally, Mussolini's ascent came in 1922, just five months after the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated with the fasces as its overarching design element.