1. Dates

General Notes on Rome

Of Dates and Symbols From the Fascist Era ﷯Throughout Rome you will see SPQR on signs, buildings and in the oddest places. Everyone who watched Mr Peabody and Sherman knows this to be “Senatus Popolus Que Romanus” … "The Senate and People of Rome", used both in ancient and modern times to refer to the government. ﷯In particular, Mussolini had SPQR emblazoned everywhere (especially manhole covers) to promote his “New Roman Empire”. See the manhole covers on the Via Quirinale and (very badly worn but still recognisable) the Via della Scrofa near the Piazza Francesi. Almost everyone recognises Roman Numerals, readily translated to dates. You may not recognise, however, the “Fascist Numbering System” used on Fascist Era buildings. Here the date refers to years from the beginning of the Fascist government, the Mussolini-led March on Rome in 1922. ﷯Often the date is easy… “A XIX” means Year (Anno) 19, the 19th year after 1922, that being 1941. Sometimes the date is accompanied by “EF”, or “Era Fascista”. u ﷯t This plaque placed by Mussolini on the Theatre of Marcellus. The date at the bottom ... "A VII EF"... 1929. The SPQR will often be accompanied by the "fascia", or a bundle of reeds tied with an axe, signifying strength through unity. The symbol was adopted by Mussolini for the Fascist Regime (1922-1943). This fascist mural and inscription is in the Piazza Augusto.q ﷯ ﷯The symbolism was developed in Republican Rome with the axe indicating that the magistrate's judicial powers included capital punishment. Fasces carried within the boundary of the sacred inner city of Rome had their axe blades removed, as within the city the power of life and death rested with the people through their assemblies. During times of emergency, however, the Roman Republic might choose a dictator to lead for a limited time period, who was the only magistrate to be granted capital punishment authority. Those attending the dictator kept the axes on their fasces, a sign that the dictator had the ultimate power in his own hands. ﷯ Fascia in the US The Fascia symbol appears in some surprising spots, especially in the USA . You can see it on the flag of the House of Representatives, on the Seal of the Senate, on the Capitol Building, on the Supreme Court building, at Harvard University, on the National Guard insignia, on the Lincoln Memorial and the Seal of the US Tax Court, among many others. It is even above a door of the Oval Office u and feature behind the speaker in the US House of Representatives. q ﷯The fasces came to represent the ideal of American democracy: like the thin rods bound together, the small individual states achieve their strength and stability though their union under the federal government ﷯ ... and on a US dime.

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.