Fascism and Classical Antiquity

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’.

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.

From the early 1930s to the early 1960s many scholars, whether liberal minded or socialist ideologues, Marxist or scientific positivists, classical scholars or political theorists and historians, have shown a widespread consensus in discrediting and assailing the man and political philosopher Plato. Such an extensive assault led the ‘Platonic Legend’ to an unprecedented crisis. Philosophically, it was a reaction to the undisguised Platonolatry coming from Oxford and the school of the British Idealists.
Ideologically, the appropriation of Plato by Nazi apologists fostered further this vehement indictment. But a lot of other causes worked to the same effect. The general anguish and humanistic anxiety on the eve ofWorldWar II and the postwar traumas led scholars to reconsider the meaning of history and historicism, the psychology of the masses and the ethical responsibility of the citizen, the role of propaganda and state education. Such complementary elements converged in sustained anti-Platonic polemics,
which in turn provoked a vigorous defence.

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.

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.

Who was Flavius Josephus? Answering this one question, leads to answers to virtually all other questions about ancient history. The answer is that he was Arrius Calpurnius Piso, a royal Roman. He wrote under the alias of Flavius Josephus and pretended to be a Jew. He was of Jewish descent, on his mother's side. Please read on and learn.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Now, to better understand the Oligarchy or the 1% (actually, those who are really in control of our world are of much less than 1%, but it is easier to just say, "the 1%"), we need to not only ask questions, but to answer them as well. It just so happens that I had already been researching the Oligarchy for more than 20 years before people like Jimmy Carter, Jesse Ventura and Bernie Sanders started talking about it.

Thus, I am perhaps the one main person who not only knows the most about them, but who will also tell you about what I now know. Others who know, may not know as much, and they may not want to tell you what they know. The fact of the matter is that you most likely will not find out anything about the Oligarchy or the 1% via an education from within present day academia. In fact, what you "learn" or are told from within academia today, most likely will steer you away from what you would need to know about the subject.

Im folgenden Beitrag geht es um den Althistoriker und Klassischen Philologen Franz Altheim, der vor allem durch seine Studien zu antiker Religionsgeschichte, Krisen in der Antike sowie zu italischer und römischer Frühgeschichte bekannt wurde. Im Fokus steht hier nicht nur Altheims politische Position während des Nationalsozialismus. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt insbesondere auf seinen Studien zu den Italikern bzw. zum vor- und frührömischen Italien, die er mit der Unterstützung des “SS-Ahnenerbes” durchführte, sowie um deren Motivation und ideologischen Gehalt innerhalb der Altertumswissenschaft.

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.

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.

Il volume ha come tema centrale l’uso che è stato fatto, nel corso dei secoli, delle antichità della Calabria ai fini della costruzione di una identità regionale. Partendo dall’epoca romana si cerca di fare luce sulla percezione che, per due millenni, gli abitanti della Calabria hanno avuto di se stessi e sull’immagine che ne hanno rimandato all’esterno. In estrema sintesi si potrebbe dire che la calabresità, l’identità culturale dei calabresi è stata rappresentata, fino a tutto l’Ottocento ed oltre, dai topoi letterari della tenacia, della sobrietà e dell’onore. Essi hanno costituito l’ossatura di un mito arcaico, di un’identità in parte orgogliosamente cercata, ma, soprattutto, inconsciamente subita dalla cultura nazionale ed europea che, a partire dal XVI secolo, aveva, sì, un atteggiamento d’attenzione, ma in fondo godeva di un sottile divertimento, rispetto a questa cultura “altra”. Il brigantaggio e la povertà, endemica come le malattie, avevano contribuito -in parte grazie anche all’auto-esaltazione letteraria di alcuni valori che l’arretratezza portava con sé- a cristallizzare nell’immaginario culturale europeo questa idea della Calabria e dei calabresi che, del resto, poco o nulla hanno fatto per scrollarsela di dosso.
L’identità culturale dei calabresi non è che, così come ancora si configura dopo tanti secoli, un insieme di invenzioni, perlopiù basate su un uso disinvolto delle antichità, che si ritiene sia necessario seppellire per sempre perché falso e dannoso.

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.

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.