From 24 May to 2 June 2014 it is Romans Week. This week entirely devoted to Roman history, heritage and archaeology. For Kennislink not only the rich Roman heritage is highlighted, but also the dark side of all the splendor. That dark side arose especially under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945).
Modern Rome is bursting with fascist references to ancient Rome. The huge maps that are attached to the wall of the Basilica of Maxentius are part of this. Many a tourist walks past it on their way to the Colloseum, assuming they are ordinary information boards. In reality, they are an important expression of the dreams and aspirations of Mussolini and his fascist regime. Why was Mussolini now so enamored with ancient Rome? We have to go back much further for that.
In the late eighteenth century, the revolution also broke out in Italy, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment. The Italian revolutionaries tried to restore the old Roman Republic. Although that endeavor failed, Roman antiquity was used in a very direct way for modern political ideals. It was the birth of Romanità ("Romanism"), an intellectual movement that saw the Roman Republic as a concrete political ideal. Even after the unification of Italy in the course of the nineteenth century, Romanità continued to influence politics. For example, Italian politicians regularly pointed to the expansionism of the Roman Republic to justify the Italian colonies.
Mussolini and Romanita
Romanità was thus employed in politics long before Mussolini. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, something changed in the Romanità way of thinking. No longer the Roman Republic, but the autocratic Roman Empire took center stage. When Mussolini took power in October 1922, Romanità became a central concept in his political and cultural program. Mussolini would ensure a stable politics and new conquests with his fascism, just like during the transition from Roman Republic to Empire.
Mussolini set himself up as a new emperor Augustus, who would lead Italy to a glorious time. Mussolini's regime made extensive use of symbolic references to, among other things, the myth of Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome), Roman soldiers, triumphal arches and columns.
The link with the Roman past was also clearly visible in major projects, such as in the exhibition Mostra Augustea della Romanità. It was held in 1938, in honor of the two thousandth birthday of Emperor Augustus and the recent conquests of Mussolini in Ethiopia. Great Roman-style monuments appeared, such as the EUR buildings in Rome. One of the showpieces was the Via dell'Impero, nowadays known as Via dei Fori Imperiali and a regular part of every tourist visit to Rome.
This road was built in 1932 in honor of the tenth anniversary of the fascist empire. The road connected the great ancient monuments:the Colosseum, the intermediate Roman Forum and the forums of various emperors. The road was the center of all kinds of new holidays that Mussolini introduced. For example, the commemoration of the "March on Rome" on October 28, or the commemoration of the founding of Rome on April 21. It was during that last holiday, in 1934, that Mussolini unveiled the four enormous maps with great spectacle.
The maps
The maps show four periods of antiquity centered on Rome, from the foundation of Rome in the eighth century BC, to the "peak" of the Empire at the time of Emperor Trajan in AD 117. The maps clearly show see a difference between the white of conquered and civilized territories and the black of unconquered, barbarian territories.
Not only does the use of color and marble have a symbolic value, the inscriptions on the cards and the Roman eagle also refer to both the Roman past and the present. The Roman eagle was a symbol used in ancient Rome initially by the Roman legions and later by the emperors. The symbol stood for strength and was a reference to the god Jupiter. In Mussolini's time, the eagle was used as a symbol for the conquests of the new fascist empire and the power of fascism in general.
But these cards are actually best understood if we also add a fifth card. Mussolini added an even larger card to the set on October 28, 1936. This map showed Italy, the Middle East and Africa and was titled Fondazione dell'impero. Underneath, an inscription read part of the 1936 law, signed by Mussolini, who also declared the Italian king king of Ethiopia. This map showed Mussolini's conquests in Africa.
The maps themselves were therefore not only a reference to the past, but showed the present and contained a claim for possible further colonial expansions. As Mussolini himself said in a speech:'Rome must appear miraculously before all the people of the world:grand, ordered and mighty as it was in the time of the first empire of Augustus.' (The fifth card has been removed from the wall.)
The maps show a significant change in the politics of fascism. By 1936, the fascists claimed to have built up a stable and solid empire. The new aim was to conquer the rest of the world. From the mid-thirties, politics therefore increasingly focused on the expansion of Italy or, rather, the 'new' Roman Empire.
Fortunately it wasn't to be. After the fall of the fascist regime in July 1943, the fifth map was defaced with red paint and finally removed in 1945 to disappear into a cellar. In 1998, the map was recovered, restored and hung in the Museo della Civiltà Romana, in a place where it is not visible to the public.