Jan Nelis

The present book is the result of the conference ‘Renovatio, inventio, absentia imperii. From the Roman Empire to Contemporary Imperialism’, held in Brussels at the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Academia Belgica in Rome (September 11-13, 2014). At the heart of the conference was the ‘reception’, ‘Nachleben’ or ‘permanence’ of the Roman Empire, of an idea and a historical paradigm which since classical Antiquity has supported the most widespread claims to obtain and consolidate power. The volume’s focus is on culture in a broad sense, i.e. including besides the arts, philosophy, religion and, most importantly, discourse. As such, a wide array of themes are subjected to academic scrutiny. Whereas the main focus is on Europe and North America, some contributors also reach out towards non-Western contexts, whether or not directly related to the Roman example. A theoretical and sociological dimension is also added thanks to the discussion on methodological issues. More specifically, the following question(s) receive particular attention: what is our position as researchers, embedded in a contemporary, often Western, democratic and capitalist context; what about the notion of empire itself, its constituent elements and the kind of ideological prerogatives to which it is generally subjected; in other words, apart from the many historical variants and instances of reception of empire, through which filters can, and inevitably do, we approach this topic? A question that has become ever more pregnant since the beginning of the twenty-first century, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the events of September 11, which have revivified what could be called American ‘imperialism’, and at a time when an essentially economic variant, driven by ‘emerging’ powers such as China, has increasingly contested existing power structures. In light of such meta-historical awareness, this book touches as much on the nature of the Roman Empire as it does on its historical legacy and, more importantly so, on who claims the latter inheritance throughout the most diverse epochs. By discussing some highly contrasting views upon this topic, participants explore issues that are of fundamental importance to the writing, not only of cultural history, but also of history itself.

This volume presents a series of papers which cover
the general theme of the reception of antiquity, a topic
which has in recent years become a discipline in itself,
or what some might call a ‘cross-discipline’. Indeed the
Nachleben of the (culture of) classical antiquity, and of
antiquity as a whole, manifests in a number of diverse
domains, opening up the field of reception studies
to scholars from disciplines other than Classics. This
collection of papers illustrates this diversity, uniting
as it does original research by scholars from a variety
of disciplines: classicists, historians, theatre historians,
architectural historians, psychologists, archaeologists,
artists, and more, all of whom have treated some aspect
of the so-called "classical tradition" by means of their
own individual approaches, leading to a volume rich
and dense in themes and methodologies.

This book analyses a manifestation of the use of identitarian discourse
in politics, i.e. the role of the concept of ‘Romanness’ or romanità
under Italian fascism. The author explores a wide selection of written
press published during the ventennio fascista, and evidences that romanità, conceived as a process of identification between ancient (Roman) and fascist Italy, was a nearly passe partout concept, which could be introduced whenever the most diverse aspects of fascist ideology in some way seemed to converge with Roman antiquity. Rather than focusing on romanità ’s singularity under fascism, this study highlights the relative ease with which this long-existing concept was used and converted. On a more abstract level, the study touches upon the problem of consensus, as it shows how intellectuals were in part responsible for the diffusion and development of one of the major and most omnipresent myths promoted by the fascist regime.

La Marche sur Rome du 28 octobre 1922 met l’Église catholique face à un sérieux compétiteur : le régime fasciste, que de nombreux chercheurs ont pu qualifier de ‘religion politique’, se présente alors aux Italiens comme une ‘voie alternative’ pour le futur. Immédiatement, les deux parties engageront des stratégies afin de leur permettre de maintenir, et si possible d’amplifier, leur pouvoir et leur emprise sur la péninsule. Dans cette nouvelle configuration, c’est autour des notions d’identité nationale, religieuse et culturelle que se penseront les contours, la marge d’extension, mais aussi les limites d’une cohabitation politique qui restera relativement stable durant une vingtaine d’années.

Prenant pour point de départ la revue jésuite La Civiltà Cattolica, véritable ‘laboratoire’ de la pensée catholique italienne, l’étude de Jan Nelis montre que l’Église catholique poursuivait d’abord un agenda propre, celui des dogmes et du pouvoir des catholiques : leur identité, en tant que groupe, fut autant définie par inclusion que par exclusion, et donc dans un rapport souvent complexe à l’‘Autre’. Mobilisant les questions d’identité italienne et ‘romaine’, de colonialisme, de racisme, d’antisémitisme ou encore de religion politique, l’auteur analyse la trajectoire du catholicisme italien de 1919 aux années 1950 et identifie la montée en puissance d’une notion hybride de religiosité et d’italianité qui allait servir à étayer la cohésion entre mondes catholique et national.

The papers presented in this volume analyse the many ways in which the Vatican, national Churches and individual catholics dealt with the rise of the extreme right in Europe throughout the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s, from the end of the First World War, arguably one of the main catalysts of European interwar fascism, to the conclusion and immediate aftermath of the Second World War. While a number of papers focus primarily on theoretical, methodological issues pertaining to the book’s general theme, the majority of papers focus on either a country or region where a fascist movement or regime flourished between the wars and during the Second World War, and where there was a significant catholic presence in society. The various chapters cover almost the entire European continent – an endeavour that is unprecedented –, and they explore a wide range of relevant contexts and methodologies, thus further contributing to the general development of an interpretive ‘cluster’ model that incorporates a series of investigative matrixes, and that will hopefully inspire future research.

Nelis Jan, The ‘Memory of Rome’. Identitarian, Racist and Anti-Semitical romanità Discourse in Italy from the Fascist March on Rome until the Aftermath of the leggi razziali, in: Abendlanddiskurse und Erinnerungsraüme Europas im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Metzger Franziska/Sproll Heinz (eds.), Böhlau, Vienna-Cologne, 2022, p. 227-249

The present book is the result of the conference ‘Renovatio, inventio, absentia imperii. From the Roman Empire to Contemporary Imperialism’, held in Brussels at the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Academia Belgica in Rome (September 11-13, 2014). At the heart of the conference was the ‘reception’, ‘Nachleben’ or ‘permanence’ of the Roman Empire, of an idea and a historical paradigm which since classical Antiquity has supported the most widespread claims to obtain and consolidate power. The volume’s focus is on culture in a broad sense, i.e. including besides the arts, philosophy, religion and, most importantly, discourse. As such, a wide array of themes are subjected to academic scrutiny. Whereas the main focus is on Europe and North America, some contributors also reach out towards non-Western contexts, whether or not directly related to the Roman example. A theoretical and sociological dimension is also added thanks to the discussion on methodological issues. More specifically, the following question(s) receive particular attention: what is our position as researchers, embedded in a contemporary, often Western, democratic and capitalist context; what about the notion of empire itself, its constituent elements and the kind of ideological prerogatives to which it is generally subjected; in other words, apart from the many historical variants and instances of reception of empire, through which filters can, and inevitably do, we approach this topic? A question that has become ever more pregnant since the beginning of the twenty-first century, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the events of September 11, which have revivified what could be called American ‘imperialism’, and at a time when an essentially economic variant, driven by ‘emerging’ powers such as China, has increasingly contested existing power structures. In light of such meta-historical awareness, this book touches as much on the nature of the Roman Empire as it does on its historical legacy and, more importantly so, on who claims the latter inheritance throughout the most diverse epochs. By discussing some highly contrasting views upon this topic, participants explore issues that are of fundamental importance to the writing, not only of cultural history, but also of history itself.

The idea of a heritage from ancient Rome, or romanità, was central to Italian fascism. This article analyzes, in the 44 volumes of his Opera Omnia, Il Duce Mussolini’s discourse on romanità, focusing on key themes such as empire, historical characters and the grandeur of archaeological remains. It links Mussolini’s discourse of romanità to his discourse on the future, and to the idea of fascism as a political religion. It shows that Mussolini’s historical knowledge was largely overstated and that it was mainly the omnipresence of romanità, rather than its specific features, which can be defined as central to this notion.

La présente étude s’attache à l’analyse de la symbiose entre fascisme et catholicisme au sein de l’Istituto di Studi Romani (ISR). Il s’agira de montrer que l’ISR, suivant les exigences du régime et celles du Vatican, jouait un ‘double jeu’, politique et religieux. Ce double jeu est visible, non seulement à travers les activités et les contacts de l’ISR mais aussi dans les publications, c’est-à-dire dans le discours qui, bien que d’une certaine qualité scientifique, est de nature hautement propagandiste. Nous nous baserons sur les nombreuses publications de l’ISR, ainsi que sur des sources d’archives inédites, comprenant certains documents conservés à l’Istituto et dans les archives privées de la famille du fondateur, Carlo Galassi Paluzzi ; les contacts de ce dernier avec d’importantes personnalités politiques et, surtout, ecclésiastiques de l’entre-deux-guerres se révèleront particulièrement importants.

The present paper treats a particular manifestation of contemporary myth-making, the myth of ‘Romanness’ known as romanità, which since the end of antiquity has often been viewed as a cornerstone of Italian identity; at times this myth has taken on particular importance, for example during the Renaissance period, and also under fascism. In the years between 1922 to 1943, this myth was utilised as a means of portraying contemporary Italy, centred around Rome as the capital, as a direct and privileged heir of Late Republican and Early Imperial antiquity, a period in which such ‘Roman’ qualities as combativeness, greatness and determination were exemplified. In this instance, romanità, in a very real sense, acted as a full-blown ‘myth of origin’. Whereas in general, the myth of Rome has been the subject of extensive and expertly-wrought analyses, in the case of the Italian fascist reception of Roman antiquity, there are various facets of the way in which romanità affected Italian society during the ventennio fascista - the twenty years during which fascism was in power, from 1922 until 1943 - that still await exploration. In this context, clarification is still lacking regarding the overall significance of the myth within a society which was not only steeped in a traditional religious, Catholic heritage, but was also being confronted with a regime that steadily and increasingly nurtured its own sacral outlook and tendencies, eventually developing into a fully-fledged ‘political religion’. In light of the above observations, this paper analyses the way in which the myth of Rome, omnipresent in fascist culture and even more so within its propaganda, came to be reflected in Italian Catholic opinion. We will engage in a close reading of the widely distributed Catholic newspaper L’Avvenire d’Italia, focusing particularly on the 1930s, a period where the fascist regime enjoyed a heightened popular consensus. In the following section, we start with a brief discussion of the concept of political religion within the context of Italian fascism, followed by a more generalised discussion of romanità in its many manifestations; the paper ends with an analysis of the latter phenomenon’s presence in the pages of L’Avvenire d’Italia.

Dans le fascisme italien, l’idée de la romanité, c’est-à-dire d’un héritage idéologique de l’antiquité romaine, était une notion centrale dans la volonté de création d’une identité fasciste. La romanité a déjà été l’objet de nombreuses études générales, ainsi que d’études sur, entre autres, l’importance de l’archéologie, de la philologie, de l’histoire de l’antiquité, du cinéma et de la symbolique ‘romaine’ sous le ventennio fasciste. Par contre, les thèmes et le caractère religieux et mythique de la romanité n’ont jusqu’à présent presque jamais, ou pas suffisamment, été relevés. C’est pour remédier à ce vide que nous présentons cette recherche sur le mythe de la romanité au sens propre, c’est-à-dire que nous situerons la romanité dans le fascisme vu comme une sorte de religion politique moderne avec ses propres rituels et mythes. Nous commencerons par une courte analyse de ce concept de religion politique, pour ensuite illustrer de quelle façon le mythe de la romanité contribuait à ce caractère hautement éthéré, quasiment religieux, du discours auto-référentiel fasciste. Dans un second temps, nous illustrerons, sur un plan encore général, la façon dont la religion chrétienne, l’autre ‘mythe’ contemporain en Italie, était insérée dans la propagande de la romanité. Nous terminerons alors par une étude de textes concernant trois des thèmes centraux de la romanité fasciste: l’impérialisme romain, l’importance de Virgile et l’importance d’Auguste. Dans ces textes, nous relèverons non seulement les références à la religion chrétienne, mais aussi, le cas échéant, le discours hautement ‘religieux’ développé pour parler de certains aspects de l’antiquité.

Dans cet article, nous nous proposons de présenter l’état des recherches concernant la romanité fasciste dans toutes ses manifestations reconnues jusqu’à présent. Ainsi, nous parlerons d’abord des études ‘générales,’ qui depuis la fin des années 1970 ont commencé à découvrir le sujet. Ces études analysent généralement la nature et la valeur propagandiste de la romanité (la création d’une identité nationale). En deuxième lieu seront présentées les études qui encadrent la romanité dans l’Italie préfasciste, c’est-à-dire dans l’Italie risorgimentale de l’unification. Ces études apportent un contrepoids aux visions que l’on pourrait qualifier d’‘unicistes’ (qui partent de l’unicité du fascisme et de la romanité fasciste), car elles placent la romanité dans une évolution à un certain degré naturelle, soulignant la continuité avec le passé proche. Ensuite, nous traiterons des études concernant la discipline des classiques sous le fascisme, dédiant particulièrement notre attention à la façon dont trois personnages, qui sous le régime fasciste fêtèrent leur anniversaire bimillénaire (Virgile, Horace et Auguste), furent relevés et insérés dans un discours fortement influencé par des besoins idéologiques. Puis nous regarderons les institutions principales qui ont contribué à la divulgation de la propagande de la romanité, surtout l’Istituto di Studi Romani. Après un survol des recherches en archéologie et de la façon dont cette dernière fut soumise à la volonté spectaculaire du régime fasciste, nous parlerons brièvement de la présence de la romanité dans le cinéma pendant le ventennio fasciste (la période d’environ 20 ans durant laquelle le fascisme fut au pouvoir en Italie). Pour finir, nous consacrerons alors la dernière partie de notre étude aux possibles pôles de recherche future: nous indiquerons certains aspects qui nécessitent un approfondissement et certains qui n’ont jamais été traités, ainsi que quelques nouvelles méthodes, points de vue et disciplines qui pourraient contribuer à une meilleure connaissance du phénomène.

The debate surrounding the relation between Hitler’s interest in architectural neo-classicism and his reception of antiquity has often proceeded from the assumption of a deep nostalgia for a (deeply mythicised) classical ‘Aryan’ past and an instinctive drive to use anti-modernist art for solely propagandistic ends. Whereas some have
attempted to invert this causal relationship, the present study situates Hitler’s artistic passion within his ‘biopolitical’ vision of the new Germany, cleansed of all that was deemed degenerate (entartet) and unassimilable within the national community (gemeinschaftsunfähig). Through an analysis of the Third Reich’s vast civic building programmes, which takes into account Hitler’s personal discourse on the ancient past, we will show how both elements, that is Hitler’s ‘modernised’ neo-classicism and his view on antiquity, can be seen as essentially complementary, and integral to his political programme. We will do so by firstly presenting an overview of the most typical examples of Hitler and Nazism’s use of an idiosyncratic version of neo-classically inspired civic architecture. After this we will focus on the Führer’s ‘artistic’ persona, both in the sense of his love for the arts, especially those referring to the formal language of antiquity, as in the sense of his biopolitical conception of Nazi life as a ‘work of art in progress’. Finally,
Hitler’s vision of artistic renaissance is located within a discourse of racial renewal which embraced the past and future within a this-worldly ‘eternity’.

This article introduces two little-known episodes of opposition against the Italian fascist regime undertaken by professor Ettore Ciccotti (1863-1939), whose career traversed both the world of academia and that of politics. In each of these instances, Ciccotti expressed a particularly explicit form of anti-fascism. The article focuses firstly on a close reading of Ciccotti’s Profilo di Augusto (1938), in which the author openly criticises the myth of Romanness or romanità, a myth that played a major role in the ideology of Mussolini’s regime. That analysis will be prefaced by a brief overview of the negative contemporary reception of this controversial volume, as evidenced by a review article published by the then pro-fascist Istituto di Studi Romani. Secondly, the article will address an episode that occurred seven years prior to the publication of the Profilo, when in 1931, Ciccotti refused to pledge the oath of allegiance to the fascist regime and its duce, although at this time the oath was compulsory for all academics. The reasons Ciccotti put forward for this refusal were remarkably similar to those he later used to justify his 1938 criticism of Roman emperor Augustus, and are clearly stated in a letter he addressed to the Ministero dell’Educazione Nazionale at the moment of that refusal. The combination of Ciccotti’s Profilo di Augusto and his earlier exculpatory letter provide us with a remarkable insight into the thinking of this intellectual politician –Ciccotti was also a senator- whom, although confronted with the omnipresence of fascism, consistently opposed the cultural and ideological presumptions of the regime.

In the following article we will illustrate some of the most actual and fertile tendencies in the study of Italian fascism and of its relationship to culture. We will start off from the viewpoint that fascism in Italy succeeded in obtaining a high degree of popular support. Following Renzo De Felice, it could be argued that mass consenso (consensus) was crucial to Mussolini’s survival. Presenting itself as the only choice for the new Italy, fascism did thus in a very real sense reach a certain degree of –albeit unstable- gramscian egemonia (hegemony). The latter was in its turn the consequence not only of the use of force, but also of a careful orchestration of public life and, on a higher level, of aesthetics, of culture. Hence, in a second part of our study, we will turn to some of the most interesting, so-called ‘culturalist’, studies of fascist, mostly visual, culture. We will conclude with an analysis of Italian fascism as a form of secular myth, as a political religion in which the mentioned fascist aesthetics also played a crucial role.

Avec la présente étude, nous avons l'intention d'aborder le sujet de l'héritage identitaire de la Rome antique par le fascisme italien dans sa globalité, en proposant quelques pistes de lecture qui pourraient inspirer la recherche dans ce domaine. Après quelques suggestions se situant au niveau thématique et méthodologique, nous allons plus précisément, après une discussion sur la nature mythique, totalitaire et moderne de la religion politique fasciste, développer certains aspects du mythe de Rome dans ce contexte précis. Il s'agira de relever, dans les différentes manifestations de ce mythe, des éléments illustrant l'amplitude de ce dernier concept, qui fut l'un des constituants majeurs de l'idéologie fasciste, ou en tout cas de sa culture.

Cet exposé analyse la vision mussolinienne de l’antiquité (surtout romaine) jusqu’en 1915, c’est-à-dire pendant la période ‘non-fasciste’, quand le futur duce développa un discours qui de ce point de vue était encore très hétérogène, à la fois précurseur du mythe fasciste de la romanità, et contestation de ce dernier. Nous montrerons que l’antiquité était partie intégrante d’une certaine ‘culture générale’, mais qu’elle n’avait pas encore toutes les fonctions et la valeur pour ainsi dire ‘formatives’ et ‘exemplaires’ qu’elle allait acquérir à partir de la Première Guerre Mondiale. À part le caractère hautement religieux et mythifiant de son discours en général, ainsi que de sa vision sur l’antiquité en particulier, Mussolini insistait aussi sur les conséquences néfastes que la religion chrétienne aurait eues pour l’Empire Romain, une situation qu’il voyait clairement reflétée dans le présent. Finalement, et malgré le caractère quelque peu éclaté de la notion de romanité mussolinienne, il est possible d’y rencontrer des traces du discours fasciste sur la romanità, et du ‘modernisme’ présent dans ce dernier, ainsi que des thèmes impensables sous le fascisme, comme l’œuvre du poète Ovide et le dolce far niente d’Horace.

This paper offers a close reading of the discourse on Italian fascism within the authoritative Italian Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica. The author shows that, when confronted with the fascist movement, La Civiltà Cattolica made no moves to oppose the regime, instead positioning itself so as to negotiate with and accommodate the fascist rhetoric. This decision was driven in part by the close alignment between the politics of Catholicism and fascism, and further fostered by the absence of a viable alternative political power.

The essay also illustrates the manner in which Catholic intellectuals intuitively perceived some aspects of fascist totalitarianism and the ‘sacralisation of politics’ as threatening, particularly when confronted with manifestations of what was termed ‘political heresy’, along with certain features of fascist associationalism. However, despite their concerns no explicit rupture between Church and regime ever eventuated; on the contrary, some accounts imply an intended merger, however unstable it may have proven, between the ‘religious’ and ‘totalitarian’ goals of both parties.

Among the many ‘founding myths’ of fascism such as those regarding its relationship to the First World War, one element stood out as key to both its quest for absolute dominion over the Italian peninsula and its historically based self-concept and representation: the idea of present-day Italy as incarnating the spirit and virtuousness of Roman (late Republican and early Imperial) antiquity, creating the image of a Terza Roma, of a ‘third’, fascist Rome. This ‘Romanness’ or, in Italian, romanità, is at the heart of the present paper, which offers a general analysis of some of the central characteristics of the fascist use of the myth and idea of Rome. It firstly situates romanità, one of the main myths on which Mussolini’s so-called fabbrica del consenso relied for more than twenty years, in the context of the study of fascism as a political religion. After this overall treatment of the most characteristic features of romanità, the myth of Rome is linked to recent scholarship on the modern nature of fascism (and nazism). This proposed ‘fascist modernism’, already briefly illustrated in the first part of the paper (fascist architecture and aesthetics), is traced in the activities and inner functioning of the Istituto di Studi Romani, a pivotal institution in the development of the myth and cult of Rome under fascism. Finally, it also uses the Istituto to highlight a feature that is often neglected in the study of the fascist use of Rome, namely the role of traditional, catholic -- as opposed to fascism as a political religion -- religion.

The volume introduced by this paper consists of a number of papers focusing primarily on theoretical, methodological issues pertaining to the book’s general theme, whereas the majority of papers focus on a country or region where a fascist movement or regime flourished between the wars and during World War II, and where there was a significant catholic presence in society. The different chapters cover almost the entire European continent, and they explore a wide range of relevant methodologies and contexts.

The present volume results from the activities of the Observatory of Religions and Secularism (Observatoire des religions et de la laïcité – ORELA). ORELA, a project launched in 2012 by the Centre interdisciplinaire d’étude des religions et de la laïcité, aims to monitor new developments concerning religious issues, faith-based organizations, State and Church relations and secularism, in Belgium, in the EU and throughout the world. It offers relevant analysis and a daily press review, whereas it also publishes, on an annual basis, a comprehensive report on the state of religions and secularism in Belgium. The most recent report appeared in 2016; it covers the events that took place in 2015. In the past three years, ORELA has established an international network of scholars who regularly publish short analyses dedicated to events and debates which involve religion and/or secularism, and which have significant relevance to society. The stated intention is to offer a kaleidoscopic and global view of religion- and secularism-related issues, and of their particular impact, mainly in the European Union. Whereas ORELA correspondents make their expertise available through an open access website (http://www.o-re-la.org/), ORELA also intends to produce comprehensive studies in which the most relevant findings and theses are further explored. The book presented here is the first such initiative sponsored by the Observatory. Apart from the final “European” (cf. infra) chapter and the conclusion, it consists of a series of papers which cover the entire European Union, i.e., the 28 member States, which are treated in alphabetical order. As the EU is all but a homogeneous entity at the level of religions, and as neither the European Parliament nor the European Commission intervene directly in religion-related matters, the editors have indeed opted for a national rather than a thematic approach. That being said, in the light of their impact on EU member States, a paper which discusses the role of the European authorities (European Union, Council of Europe) in religious matters has been added (focus on liberty, equality and non-discrimination). While a number of papers also cross national borders, a further supranational theme is the often decisive role of the European Court of Human Rights in matters of religion and secularism. Overall, many themes and tendencies can be simultaneously observed in different EU countries, resulting in the image of the EU as a patchwork of cultures and traditions that are defined by historical, linguistic, and religious elements. All this makes for a religiously highly diverse continent, which especially during the past two decades has undergone profound changes. These continuously and increasingly alter mentalities and habits, whether belief-related or not. All contributors dedicate considerable attention to recent debates and events. Many of them also point to the existence of a relatively unstable balance between religion and secularism, even in countries such as France, often considered as the Heimat of laïcity. Apart from the necessary historical background, authors treat the major themes that are relevant to their specific geographical area, whereby the most recurrent topics are Church-State relations, the role of religion in the educational system, the “comeback” of religion in the media, the growing attention paid to Islam, the relative absence of European policies in religious matters, religion and security issues, the increase of hostile feelings towards Muslims, the surge of anti-Semitism, religion and the service ethic, religion and migration, and the increasing presence of evangelical Churches. Generally speaking, three major themes have shaped the European confessional landscape over the past few years. A first and general observation is that religion has clearly maintained, if not amplified, its interest in “ethical” issues such as abortion, euthanasia and gay rights. Here the issue of secularism seems of particular relevance, ranging from the effects of French laïcité to the more pragmatic UK attitude, from Nordic (at least seemingly) “soft” Churches to the all-powerful Greek Orthodox Church. There also seems to exist a certain, even if relative, divide between Eastern and Western European countries, mainly a consequence of the legacy of communism and of the particularities of Orthodoxy. The third highly recurrent issue is the backlash of global crisis, and more specifically its possible consequences and potential for religions, as most significantly exemplified by Church-State politics in Greece and Cyprus. At this point it should be added that ORELA, backed by its steadily expanding network, also intends to publish subsequent edited volumes. These will refine and develop, in a transversal manner, the major and most relevant themes identified in the current publication, with a close eye on current events in the field of religion and secularism. Finally, and in light of the above observations, we can conclude by observing that the papers gathered in the present volume show that in recent years religion, once thought to be of minor importance in a highly secular society, has made quite a vigorous political comeback. It has done so not only in terms of media attention, but also, and one might say above all, as a surrogate for secular humanist values that have increasingly inspired European thought since the Enlightenment. Furthermore, as Europe is relatively close to conflict zones such as Iraq and Syria, and as it has become the preferred destination of mainly Muslim migrants, religious diversity will no doubt further increase. Thus Europe has arrived at a crucial point in its history, a moment in which future tendencies in the field of religion and secularism are being defined, and negotiated. Arguably the outcome of this process will determine the continent’s future outlook, as well as its role and relevance in an increasingly globalised world.
Jan Nelis.

The National Socialist State represented itself by means of vast public buildings, executed in a stripped neoclassical style, thus linking the Third Reich directly with Antiquity and a more recent German past (1750-1850). Hitler, who showed much interest in art and especially in architecture, wanted his Reich, which he came to see as a sort of myth, to look monumental and timeless. The buildings would symbolize the power of the new regime. They were the scene and background of public life and were used to mobilize the German masses into a solid nation. A new political culture, an ersatz religion, was created, and a cult to go with it. Politics, aesthetics, religion,… all became one dramatic whole.

Van bij het begin profileerde Mussolini zijn fascisme als een revolutionaire nationalistische beweging die de resurrectie van Italië vooropstelde en haar expliciet in historische termen concipieerde. De verwantschap met het antieke Rome werd benadrukt en uitgewerkt, wat uitmondde in de idee van de romanità. Dit idee kwam dan ook uitgebreid aan bod in het tijdschrift Capitolium, de belangrijkste Romeinse revue. De Oudheid werd erin gepopulariseerd, geromantiseerd, gepolitiseerd en dus gefascistiseerd. In dit artikel wordt belicht volgens welke patronen dit geschiedde. Tevens wordt nagegaan wat de rol was van historische personages en hun bimillenari ten tijde van het fascisme en natuurlijk vooral de wijze waarop dit in Capitolium aan bod kwam. Een derde punt is dan de Mussoliniaanse romanità: zich inspirerend op met name Caesar creëerde Mussolini het beeld van de neoromeinse condottiero, van de moderne Romeinse held die het oude Rome voelde en er zich door liet leiden en inspireren. Mussolini was alomtegenwoordig in de Capitoliumbijdragen en het tijdschrift droeg hier aldus in niet geringe mate toe bij. Vervolgens wordt geïllustreerd hoe de romanità gaandeweg werd ingebed in een mystiek-religieus discours dat uiteindelijk zelfs werd besmet door blinde xenofobie en racisme.

Het fascistische regime in Italië (1922-1943) weefde door middel van een alsmaar toenemende controle op het openbare leven een web, ontwikkelde een discours waaraan slechts weinigen zich wisten te onttrekken. De dagelijkse realiteit werd in zekere zin ‘gefascistiseerd,’ ging deel uitmaken van een auto-referentieel interpretatiekader, nl. het fascisme. Dit laatste groeide uit van politieke ideologie tot wat men heeft bestempeld als een ‘politieke religie.’ Mussolini ambieerde het ideaal van wat hij de ‘totalitaire Staat’ noemde, een Staat waarin alle componenten in harmonie functioneerden: alles bestond in en vóór de Staat, niks bestond buiten de Staat. Deze situatie betrof ook de kunsten, inclusief het theater. Dit diende zich, net als de zuiver literaire, de beeldende en andere kunsten, aan de tijdsgeest aan te passen. Hoe dit precies gebeurde, zullen we kort uiteenzetten in het eerste deel van dit artikel, waarin we de fascistische interesse voor theater zullen belichten. Gezien het eigenlijke onderwerp van deze studie de analyse is van een aantal bewerkingen van het leven van Julius Caesar zullen we in een tweede fase licht werpen op de fascistische ideologie van de romanità of ‘Romeinsheid.’ Deze kwam er grofweg op neer dat men de Italiaanse, fascistische identiteit trachtte vorm te geven door beroep te doen op de idee van de ‘erfenis’ van het antieke Rome en de deugden die aan dit laatste werden verbonden. In een laatste fase zullen we dan, zoals reeds werd aangehaald, onze aandacht richten op de wijze waarop Caesar onder het fascisme werd in scène gezet.

Con quest’articolo proponiamo uno studio della rivista Historia. Nata e spenta come fu durante il ventennio fascista, la breve vita della rivista (1927-1935) diretta da Carolina Lanzani, allieva di Ettore Pais, dipendeva altamente dal contesto politico. Visto che sotto il regime fascista l’antichità romana acquistò grande valore propagandistico, in una prima fase illustreremo il modo in cui questo valore si tradusse nell’ideale della cosiddetta ‘romanità’. Vedremo che quest’idea di un’eredità ideologica dell’antichità permeò tutto lo spettro culturale, dal mondo della scienza sino a quello della cultura popolare. Dopo quest’introduzione generale, vedremo quali furono gli elementi che determinarono l’essenza, la natura della rivista e dei suoi contributi. Si vedrà che, nonostante l’importanza dell’elemento fascista (ruolo di Arnaldo Mussolini), fu lo storico Ettore Pais a diventare l’elemento ‘pivotale’ della rivista. Del Pais, osserveremo non solamente gli scritti in Historia, ma anche i contatti con Mussolini e con il suo segretario particolare. Dopo un’ulteriore illustrazione del ruolo della propaganda della romanità nella rivista, finiremo con un’analisi cronologica dei contributi della mano della redattrice Carolina Lanzani. Analizzeremo il modo in cui la Lanzani ‘fascistizzò’ sempre di più i suoi contributi. Grazie alla sopravvivenza della sua corrispondenza con la segreteria particolare del duce, potremo illustrare in quale modo la storica dell’antichità tentò anche fuori dei suoi contributi di salvare la sua rivista... e se stessa.

Drawing on current scholarly research on “political religions,” as well as on the “politicisation” of religion, this article presents a study of the Jesuitical periodical La Civiltà Cattolica, of which it analyses the years 1922-1943. The specific focus is on the Catholic discourse on Roman antiquity: as the fascist regime made ample use of a supposed “spiritual” heritage from antiquity –an idea which was summarised in the notion of romanità (“Romanness”)-, the Catholic press reacted by defining its position in this debate, especially with regard to the relationship between pagan and Christian, fascist and Catholic Rome. This study joins the already extensive body of research concerning the fascist myth of romanità.

Since the fall of the Italian fascist regime, scholars have analysed the relationship between the Vatican and the ideology that for over 20 years held Italy within its grasp. The most obvious link between these is the 1929 agreement between the (fascist) Italian State and the Vatican State, creating what can be characterised as a ‘mutually symbiotic’ situation, or at the very least one of mutual tolerance. Within this context, one might ask fundamental questions regarding cultural and identitarian aspects of the relationship between the Church and the regime. For example, did clear and distinct Italian, fascist and Catholic identities exist during the twenties and thirties? If so, were these three identities clearly separated, or were they somewhat synthesised? As well, what was the situation regarding the two key identity-related issues of colonialism and racism? Specifically, how in relation to the geographical and/or racial ‘Other’, were the Italian, fascist and Catholic ‘Selfs’ in question defined? This paper is written in response to this last question, i.e. to the largely unexplored (Canavero, 1995:70) ‘international’ side of the Church-fascism relationship. In particular, we pursue a close reading of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, specifically contributions to this journal made during the period from 1935 to 1949. As a case study, La Civiltà Cattolica is of particular interest, as it was an influential publication, even if not always identified with the Church’s ‘voice’. The paper focuses on aspects of colonialism, racism and anti-Semitism inserted into the journal’s traditional strong Italy and Church-oriented discourse during the last decade of the fascist regime, and also within the period directly after its fall.  On a more abstract level, this paper will illustrate how issues of identity, such as ‘the Self’ and ‘the Other’, were handled in a religious context within the fascist regime. As well, the paper will outline the way in which once the former fascist identity had been eradicated, a new Catholic/Italian identity was created and promoted by a process which entailed re-utilising some aspects of the past while forgetting others, in effect ‘rewriting’ the past.

La storia del fascismo italiano è ormai abbastanza nota. Gli studi
sui meccanismi e le motivazioni, per così dire, culturali del fenomeno
sono invece in pieno sviluppo. Questi vertono, tra l’altro, a riconoscere
una certa modernità al fascismo che, in quanto movimento
e regime totalitario, è stato definito una « religione politica », disponendo
di un proprio mondo estetico, di un proprio culto. All’inizio
di questo studio esporremo brevemente tale carattere moderno, cultuale
e totalitario del fascismo italiano, per passare ad analizzare l’importanza
riconosciuta al passato, italiano e soprattutto romano, che
si può riassumere nella nozione di romanità, in rapporto alla suddetta
natura totalitaria e moderna del fascismo. Non è nostra intenzione presentare uno studio totale sull’importanza del mito della romanità sotto il fascismo, lavoro che peraltro è già stato fatto da molti studiosi; vogliamo solo evidenziare alcuni aspetti che hanno segnato la storiografia sul fenomeno, per poi illustrare il ruolo svolto dall’Istituto di Studi Romani, ed alcuni aspetti sconosciuti del rapporto di amicizia tra il suo fondatore, Carlo Galassi Paluzzi, e il gerarca fascista Giuseppe Bottai. La focalizzazione sull’Istituto e sulla relazione Galassi Paluzzi-Bottai fa sì che il presente studio non verta solo su un’importante manifestazione di politicizzazione della cultura, ma anche su alcuni aspetti del ruolo che definiremmo imprenditoriale, nel campo della cultura, durante la modernità totalitaria fascista, in un clima in cui si glorificò e si strumentalizzò un lontano passato con lo scopo di creare un futuro nuovo, italiano e fascista.

Nella romanità fascista, uno degli elementi più importanti fu la nozione d’imperialismo, che sin dall’inizio costituì una delle basi dell’ideologia fascista. Legato anch’esso all’antichità romana, l’‘imperialismo romano-fascista’, cioè l’incessante uso fascista del concetto d’impero, sarà l’argomento del presente studio. In primis, analizzeremo il modo in cui sotto il fascismo la nozione di impero venne regolarmente definita e analizzata come un’idea ‘universale’, sia in pubblicazioni scientifiche che in scritti destinati alle masse. Successivamente, illustreremo come alcuni autori collocarono anche un certo spiritualismo all’interno dell’imperialismo (antico e presente). Proseguiremo poi con un’analisi della grande confusione presente negli studi che molti antichisti dedicarono al concetto d’impero. Un ulteriore elemento da noi evidenziato sarà il carattere ‘negoziabile’ di questo concetto, cioè il fatto che poté essere interpretato come un’idea di forza e/o di militarismo, ma nello stesso tempo anche come un’idea moderata, quasi pacifica. Il presente lavoro terminerà con una breve illustrazione del modo in cui, verso la seconda metà degli anni ’30, la nozione d’impero venne totalmente assorbita dal discorso politico e colonialista.

Through a variety of sources, both written and visual, this paper traces the means by which Italian fascism appropriated and propagandised the following three aspects of a purported heritage of Roman antiquity (the so-called myth of romanità): aspects of academic and popular discourse regarding the notion of empire; the omnipresence of the ‘revolutionary’ and combative Julius Caesar; and a generalised aesthetic use of antiquity. During the ventennio fascista, these latter themes were central to the way in which fascism actively appropriated the heritage of ancient Rome; they have been chosen in order to illustrate the applicability of two aspects of fascism which I would first like to discuss, i.e. the fascist ‘sacralization of politics’, and a certain fascist modernism.

In this short study, I situate Italian fascism, both marked and shaped by its relationship with the past and the ensuing tension between epochs and historical protagonists, history and myth, as a ‘secular’ or ‘political religion’, as a ‘biopolitical’ ideology the purpose of which was -at least ideally-, the spiritual and physical renewal of the nation. Hence, before treating the aforementioned features of fascist romanità, I will provide a concise historiographical discussion of the in my opinion most fruitful recent movements in the historiography of fascism; in doing so, I will illustrate the way in which the regime’s religious thrust and ‘cultic outlook’, rooted in, and arguably created by, its mythical predisposition, generated a heightened interest in aesthetics, and a ‘biopolitical’ desire to ‘forge’ the bodies and minds of the Italian people. In this sense, fascism can be considered as a form of activist ‘culture’ in its own regard, a viewpoint rarely linked to the Italian fascist use of antiquity.

Among the many ‘founding myths’ of Italian Fascism such as those regarding its relationship to the First World War, one element stood out as key to both its quest for absolute dominion over the Italian peninsula and its historically based self-concept and representation: the idea of present-day Italy as incarnating the spirit and virtuousness of Roman (late Republican and early Imperial) antiquity, creating the image of a Terza Roma, of a ‘third’, Fascist Rome. This concept was omnipresent throughout the entire period within which Mussolini dominated Italian politics. This very specific use of the historical past is discussed in this article, tracing its presence in various parts of the cultural and intellectual field, identifying the manifold ways in which history can meet contemporary, and ‘futural’, prerequisites. In so doing, it is inspired by recent scholarship underlining the futural, temporal thrust of Fascism and romanità, rather than its traditionally reactionary, backward-looking dynamic. As seems, at least to a certain extent, to have been the case in Nazi Germany, for the Fascists, antiquity indeed was no faraway, dusty past, but a lively source of inspiration and energy revealing the regime’s modernist, revolutionary ambition to build a ‘Third Rome’ which, literally and figuratively, made visible the earlier layers of Roman heritage.

En décembre 2005, alors que j’achevais la rédaction d’une thèse de doctorat ayant pour sujet le mythe de Rome sous le fascisme en Italie, j’avais l’intention de poursuivre mes recherches dans ce domaine, et de dresser un bilan global de l’activité des antichisti (classicistes, archéologues, historiens de l’antiquité) sous le régime de Mussolini. Le focus était le degré de ‘fascistisation’ de leur travail; comme grille analytique, je voulais utiliser, bien qu’avec quelques adaptations, une classification proposée par Daniele Manacorda, éminent studioso italien de l’archéologie italienne de l’entre-deux-guerres. Manacorda avait introduit 5 ‘catégories’ d’antichisti -il se limitait aux archéologues-: le fascista archeologo, l’archeologo fascista, l’archeologo ‘e basta’, l’archeologo antifascista, et finalement les (jeunes) archéologues formés sous le régime. Manacorda a publié son intéressante recherche; de mon côté, on m’a déconseillé de m’inspirer de cet aspect de son travail, car une telle approche serait vue comme provocatrice, voire non scientifique. Il n’est pas dans mes intentions de présenter ici une telle recherche, qui constituerait en effet plusieurs années de travail. Mais j’évoque cet épisode pour introduire une faille récurrente dans l’étude de la soi-disant romanità fascista, c’est-à-dire l’idée d’un héritage idéologique de l’antiquité romaine: la tendance, souvent sous-jacente, à surévaluer le rôle instrumental et utilitaire de la romanità comme simple moyen propagandiste, comme un système que le régime mettait en place afin d’obtenir un consensus maximal auprès de la population. Une telle vision diminue fortement l’engagement personnel et actif d’une partie considérable du monde scientifique dans la propagation de l’image d’une troisième Rome, nationaliste et fasciste, reprenant l’antiquité romaine comme signe identitaire et vecteur de légitimité. En outre, elle ignore totalement la pensée contemporaine concernant la culture fasciste. Une meilleure prise en compte de ces études pourrait en effet enrichir notre connaissance de la romanità, qui se présentait bien sûr en partie comme une arme de la propagande fasciste, mais qui était en même temps le produit d’une adhésion active de la part d’une majorité de la population italienne, et cela pendant plus de 20 ans. À part l’exploration de quelques possibles pistes de recherches (futures) dans le domaine de l’étude de la romanità, on devrait donc aussi penser à plus activement intégrer certaines théories concernant le fascisme lui-même, afin de mieux comprendre comment ce phénomène a pu prendre une telle ampleur, et atteindre, à certains moments, des degrés assez élevés de consensus. Je pense ici notamment au développement fasciste d’une ‘religion politique’, aspect fortement lié au totalitarisme fasciste, ainsi qu’au ‘modernisme’ fasciste. Dans ce cadre, les dernières années, plusieurs chercheurs se sont aventurés à démanteler la logique interne du fascisme italien, qui est alors vu non comme une simple aberration ou parenthèse historique, mais comme un phénomène lié à certains courants présents dans plusieurs sociétés européennes (et autres) pendant la première moitié du vingtième siècle. Ainsi, ces recherches ont solidifié notre compréhension d’un phénomène qui ne cesse d’interpeller, et qui, sous un certain angle, et au début d’un siècle et d’un millénaire qui ont vu une crise sans précédent, pourrait bien se montrer d’une certaine relevance. C’est à ces études, et à leur valeur pour une étude de la romanité fasciste, que je dédie ces quelques considérations.

Il convegno è articolato in quattro
sessioni, ciascuna delle quali
focalizza e definisce precisi ambiti
di riferimento.
Dopo una serie di relazioni di
carattere generale, il cui scopo è di
argomentare e presentare il quadro
storico d’insieme, seguiranno
interventi dedicati a specifici aspetti.

Lors de cette journée d’étude, les participants
analyseront la dynamique très particulière des
salons comme lieux d’échange entrecroisant
savoirs et pouvoirs, mêlant plusieurs disciplines
et approches (littéraire, politique, artistique, historique,
sociologique, économique, sciences de
gestion) et touchant à des thèmes tels que la
religion, la politique, les marchés, le genre,
l’éducation...
La plupart des études dédiées aux salons mondains
se focalisent sur des écrivains et académiciens
; en revanche, on inclura une grande
variété d’acteurs appartenant aux mondes académique,
politique, culturel, artistique, économique
et même militaire. On pourra par
exemple envisager les salons parisiens de la
Marquise Arconati-Visconti, de Madame de
Martel de Janville (‘Gyp’) et de Madame Arman
de Caillavet, ou encore le salon bruxellois de la
famille Errera, autant de lieux dans lesquels se
nouent des alliances, circulent des connaissances,
prennent forme des projets, se mobilisent
des groupes, etc.
On s’intéressera donc aux contenus des discussions,
à la manière dont chacun y affichait
ou exerçait son pouvoir, aux réseaux qui s’y formaient
et à leur implication sur d’autres scènes,
comme dans l’Affaire Dreyfus ou dans le mécénat
public ; on envisagera aussi leur rôle
émancipatoire quant au rôle des femmes ou à
l’emprise sociétale de la religion. Enfin, l’étude
des salons mondains mènera à quelques
considérations concernant le phénomène d’upward
social mobility, dans la mesure où ils regroupaient
des personnes provenant de milieux
sociaux divers dont l’appartenance au monde
intellectuel était vécue différemment.
Les participants seront invités à dépasser la dimension
purement bio-prosopographique pour
se rattacher à l’histoire des sociabilités intellectuelles,
ainsi qu’à celle des réseaux intellectuels
transnationaux. Ils interrogeront la notion d’« intellectuel
» et la relation entre les champs du savoir
et du pouvoir, une relation sans cesse
reformulée et renégociée.
Si le mot salon désigne ces réunions mondaines
dans lesquelles se forment les réseaux
de savoirs et pouvoirs, ils désignent également
des rassemblements temporaires contemporains
du microcosme d’une industrie, d’un
champ artistique ou d’un marché. La sociologie
économique, l’économie géographique et les
sciences des organisations ont développé des
approches et concepts permettant d’étudier
ces événements tantôt qualifiés de « configurateurs
de champs » ou de « clusters temporaires ».
Les salons et conventions contemporains participent
à reconfigurer les hiérarchies dans des
secteurs donnés, construire les marchés, structurer
les industries, faire circuler des connaissances
ou organiser la mondialisation. Des
présentations couvrant les principaux courants
d’analyse des salons viendront ainsi compléter
la journée d’étude en comparant ces événements
contemporains avec les salons mondains
des XIXe-XXe siècles et en montrant
comment ces regroupements participent à organiser
des champs spécifiques.

This conference will serve a double purpose: on
the one hand participants will present research
on the general theme of the relationship between
Catholicism and fascism in Europe in the period
1918-45; on the other hand the discussion will
be taken to a theoretical level. Participants will
cover a number of geographical contexts which
is unprecedented in a conference of this size.
The final aim is to further develop an interpretive
‘cluster’ model that will incorporate a series of
investigative matrixes, thus inspiring future
research. Published as: Nelis Jan/Morelli Anne /Praet Danny (eds.), Catholicism and Fascism in Europe 1918-1945, 2015, Olms, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York (418 pp.).

Please follow the hyperlink to the paper, and to the website of the Observatory: http://www.o-re-la.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1408%3Ala-s%C3%A9-cularisation-en-italie-mod%C3%A8les-abstraits-et-r%C3%A9alit%C3%A9&Itemid=85&-lang=en