Romanita

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Winner of the Maltby Exhibition Prize for Best Dissertation.

Using a marriage of archaeological, ancient, and modern sources, this dissertation aims to explore the relationship between urban space and identity in Mussolini’s Rome. The idea of ancient Rome was not invoked as a mere prop, but innovated and made relevant to create a coherent aesthetic message expressing what it meant to be Roman. This was Fascist Romanità; the aesthetic cultural identity created from language and space. I am reluctant to brand Mussolini’s urban scheme a form of propaganda, given the largely negative connotations of the term in modern day. However, if we consider the original latin, propagare, to spread or propagate, it is clear the term can be used neutrally, or even positively, to indicate the communication of some meaningful message. Language was a didactic means of introducing the new terms of Fascist identity into the cultural sphere, creating a mode of self perception and mass understanding. Mussolini’s oratory acted as a means of emphasizing these ideals within the spatial context of the city. Space created a physical expression of new Roman values. The city therefore immersed its inhabitants in what it meant to be Roman. Romans lived within the experience of Romanità. Mussolini, like none before, made ancient Rome an integrated part of his urban plan. This bridged the divide between ancient and modern and made monumentality newly relevant. Monuments acted as reiterations of speech, tangibly expressed within the fabric of the city. In the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, Mussolini used the new ideology he had created fom language and speech to alter the identities of already ideologically charged monuments. Reconstructing the ‘ancient image’ of monuments, Mussolini irreversibly imposed new Fascist aesthetics, and Fascist identity, upon ancient discourse.

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.

This article analyses Francesco Giammaria’s Capitolium Novum, a Latin poem describing a tour of the historic center of Rome in 1933, in its historical, architectural, and intellectual contexts. It offers a detailed analysis of three key sections of the poem, which deal with the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Ara dei caduti fascisti respectively. The authors show how Giammaria’s poem responds to urbanistic interventions in the city center during the ventennio, and specifically to the Fascist ‘recoding’ of the city as the ‘Third Rome’, with a narrative emphasizing the historically layered nature of Rome. Giammaria offers his own interpretation of the respective importance and interrelation of the city’s historic layers: the rhetoric of his poem is aimed at superimposing Catholic Rome over pagan Rome, and at framing all historical layers of the city, including the Fascist one, as part of its Christian mission and destiny. Thus, Capitolium novum resonates with efforts of in...

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.

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.