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[[File:Etrusgasced.png|right|thumb|250px|The oldest known fasces was Etruscan, pre-Rome, and featured twin ards (plough blades)]]
The word [[fascism ]]comes from ''fasci,'' the [[Latin]] word for ''hold'', (as in fascinate, fasten) which in this case represents a [[society]] of [[people]] united around a common [[ideal]]. In Latin the word "fasciculus" means "bundle".ย  Its origins go back to the ancient Etruscans, long before the existence of [[Rome]], where it symbolized a unified Society. Later in Rome it became the [[symbol]] of a magistrate's (Judge's)ย  office, and represented [[Justice]]. The ''fasces'' is a bundle of reeds with a tool that represents the focus of society, a tool that can also be used as a weapon such as a [[labrys]]<ref>Labrys symbol, its [[meaning]], [[history]], and origins - https://mythologian.net/labrys-symbol-meaning-history-and-origins</ref>, pick or an axe. In Rome, carried by magistrate attendants called lictors.


[[File:487px-Emblem of Italian Blackshirts.svg.png|thumb|250px|[[MVSNโ€Žโ€Ž]] emblem, with a fasces.]]
=Anti-Roman propaganda=
'''Fasces''' (Latin: "bundles") were symbols of official authority and penal power in [[Ancient Rome]]. They were carried by the lictors, who were attendants of higher Roman officials. The fasces were bundles of elm or birch rods about 1.5 meters long and tied together with a red strap. Outside of Rome, they also had an ax head projecting from the rods. The term is derived from the singular fascis ("bundle"), but fasces is both singular and plural in constructions.<ref>Fasces https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fasces</ref> The word [[fascism]] derives from the fasces, with Italian fascists using fasces as a symbol. In addition to associating with Ancient Rome, the symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break.<ref> Doordan, Dennis P (1995). In the Shadow of the Fasces: Political Design in Fascist Italy. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-299-14874-4.</ref> Another influence was "fascio", which was the name given to political organizations in Italy, such as groups similar to guilds or syndicates, with fascism being influenced by [[national syndicalism]].
[[File:B625b6b39cbe8a9e.png|frameless|left|150px|]]
The [[idea]] of the fasces as some sort of "punishment kit" is [[jews|jewish]] [[propaganda]] spread after the [[jews]] were ejected from Rome. <ref>Bloom, J.J. 2010 The [[jewish]] Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66โ€“135: A Military Analysis. McFarland.</ref> Similarly, it is highly unlikely that the lictors disassembled their standard of office, to use the reeds, sometimes decorated in gold, to flog criminals. <ref>[[Greek]] and [[Roman]] texts and facing English translation: Harvard University Press, 1914 thru 1927.Online in LacusCurtius and Livius.org. Book scan in [[Internet Archive]].</ref> The lictors carried with them an assortment of whips, scourges, and actual weapons like swords. The idea that the symbol of office was undone, used to brutalize people, or even kill them, is quite ridiculous. The [[parts of a fasces]] had a deep [[spiritual]] meaning to the [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Romans]], and probably the Etruscans before them.


==History==
The Fasces in Roman antiquities is bundles of elm or birch rods from which the head of an axe projected, fastened together by a red strap. Nothing is known of their origin, the tradition that represents them as borrowed by one of the kings from Etruria resting on insufficient grounds. As the emblem of official authority, they were carried by the lictors, in the left hand and on the left shoulder, before the higher Roman magistrates; at the funeral of a deceased magistrate they were carried behind the bier. The lictors and the fasces were so inseparably connected that they came to be used as synonymous terms. The fasces originally represented the power over life and limb possessed by the kings, and after the abolition of the monarchy, the consuls, like the kings, were preceded by twelve fasces. Within the precincts of the city the axe was removed, in recognition of the right of appeal (provocatio) to the people in a matter of life and death; outside Rome, however, each consul retained the axe, and was preceded by his own lictors, not merely by a single accensus (supernumerary), as was originally the case within the city when he was not officiating.


Later, the lictors preceded the officiating consul, and walked behind the other. Valerius Publicola, the champion of popular rights, further established the custom that the fasces should be lowered before the people, as the real representatives of sovereignty; lowering the fasces was also the manner in which an inferior saluted a superior magistrate. A dictator, as taking the place of the two consuls, had 24 fasces (including the axe even within the city); most of the other magistrates had fasces varying in number, with the exception of the censors, who, as possessing no executive authority, had none. Fasces were given to the Flamen Dialis and (after 42 B.C.) even to the Vestals. During the times of the republic, a victorious general, who had been saluted by the title of imperator by his soldiers, had his fasces crowned with laurel. Later, under the empire, when the emperor received the title for life on his accession, it became restricted to him, and the laurel was regarded as distinctive of the imperial fasces.
{{Quote|Fascism, in short, is not only a law-giver and a founder of institutions, but an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims at refashioning not only the forms of life but their content - man, his character, and his faith. To achieve this propose it enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the soul and ruling with undisputed sway. Therefore it has chosen as its emblem the Lictorโ€™s rods, the symbol of unity, strength, and justice. โ€œ|Giovanni Gentile|The Doctrine of Fascism}}


Similar symbols were developed by other movements: for example, the [[Falange]] symbol is five arrows joined together by a yoke.


==External links==
Fasces (English: /หˆfรฆsiหz/ FASS-eez; Latin: [หˆfaskeหs]; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fasci. The [[principle]] represented by the Fasces is Strength through Unity.
=== Encyclopedias ===
*[https://www.ancient.eu/Fasces/ Ancient History Encyclopedia: Fasces]
*[https://www.britannica.com/topic/fasces Encyclopedia Britannica: Fasces]
*[https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/f/fasces.html Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 Edition: Fasces]
*[https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/ancient-greece-and-rome/ancient-history-rome/fasces Encyclopedia.com: Fasces]


==References==
[[Category:History]]
{{reflist}}


[[Category:Ancient Rome]]
=See also=
[[Category:Fascism]]
* [[Parts of a fasces]]
[[Category:Symbols]]
* [[Fascism]]


[[Category:History]]


=References=
{{Reflist|2}}


[[cs:Fasces]]
[[Category:History]]
[[es:Fascio littorio]]

Latest revision as of 17:12, 18 April 2024

The oldest known fasces was Etruscan, pre-Rome, and featured twin ards (plough blades)

The word fascism comes from fasci, the Latin word for hold, (as in fascinate, fasten) which in this case represents a society of people united around a common ideal. In Latin the word "fasciculus" means "bundle". Its origins go back to the ancient Etruscans, long before the existence of Rome, where it symbolized a unified Society. Later in Rome it became the symbol of a magistrate's (Judge's) office, and represented Justice. The fasces is a bundle of reeds with a tool that represents the focus of society, a tool that can also be used as a weapon such as a labrys[1], pick or an axe. In Rome, carried by magistrate attendants called lictors.

Anti-Roman propaganda

B625b6b39cbe8a9e.png

The idea of the fasces as some sort of "punishment kit" is jewish propaganda spread after the jews were ejected from Rome. [2] Similarly, it is highly unlikely that the lictors disassembled their standard of office, to use the reeds, sometimes decorated in gold, to flog criminals. [3] The lictors carried with them an assortment of whips, scourges, and actual weapons like swords. The idea that the symbol of office was undone, used to brutalize people, or even kill them, is quite ridiculous. The parts of a fasces had a deep spiritual meaning to the Ancient Romans, and probably the Etruscans before them.


Quotebubble.png Fascism, in short, is not only a law-giver and a founder of institutions, but an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims at refashioning not only the forms of life but their content - man, his character, and his faith. To achieve this propose it enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the soul and ruling with undisputed sway. Therefore it has chosen as its emblem the Lictorโ€™s rods, the symbol of unity, strength, and justice. โ€œ
โ€”Giovanni Gentile, The Doctrine of Fascism


Fasces (English: /หˆfรฆsiหz/ FASS-eez; Latin: [หˆfaskeหs]; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fasci. The principle represented by the Fasces is Strength through Unity.

See also

References

  1. โ†‘ Labrys symbol, its meaning, history, and origins - https://mythologian.net/labrys-symbol-meaning-history-and-origins
  2. โ†‘ Bloom, J.J. 2010 The jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66โ€“135: A Military Analysis. McFarland.
  3. โ†‘ Greek and Roman texts and facing English translation: Harvard University Press, 1914 thru 1927.Online in LacusCurtius and Livius.org. Book scan in Internet Archive.