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{{Short description|Bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging}}
{{Short description|Bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes with an axe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}


[[Image:Fasces.svg|thumb|upright=0.4|A ''fasces'' image, with the axe in the middle of the bundle of rods]]
[[Image:Fasces.svg|thumb|upright=0.4|A fasces image, with the axe in the middle of the bundle of rods]]
'''Fasces''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|æ|s|iː|z}} {{respell|FASS|eez}}, {{IPA|la|ˈfaskeːs|lang}}; a {{lang|la|[[plurale tantum]]}}, from the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|[[wikt:en:fascis#Latin|fascis]]}}, meaning "bundle"; {{lang-it|fascio littorio}}) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the [[Etruscan civilization]] and was passed on to [[ancient Rome]], where it symbolized a [[King of Rome|Roman king]]'s power to punish his subjects,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=Patricia O'Connell |title=World History: Our Human Story |last2=Holdren |first2=John |date=May 2021 |publisher=Sheridan Kentucky |isbn=978-1-60153-123-0 |location=Versailles, Kentucky |pages=152}}</ref> and later, a [[magistrate]]'s [[Power (social and political)|power]] and [[jurisdiction]]. The axe, originally associated with the [[labrys]] ({{lang-grc|λάβρυς|lábrys}}; {{lang-la|bipennis|links=no}}),{{efn|The term for a single-bladed axe is {{lang|grc-Latn|hēmipélekys}} "half-{{lang|grc-Latn|pélekys}}", {{lang|grc-Latn|pélekys}} ({{lang|grc|πέλεκυς}}) being a synonym of {{lang|grc-Latn|lábrys}}; e.g. [[Iliad|Il]]. 23.883.}} the double-[[Axe#Parts of the axe|bitted]] [[axe]] originally from [[Crete]], is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.
A '''fasces''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|æ|s|iː|z}} {{respell|FASS|eez}}, {{IPA|la|ˈfaskeːs|lang}}; a {{lang|la|[[plurale tantum]]}}, from the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|[[wikt:en:fascis#Latin|fascis]]}}, meaning 'bundle'; {{langx|it|fascio littorio}}) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the [[Etruscan civilization]] and was passed on to [[ancient Rome]], where it symbolized a [[King of Rome|Roman king]]'s power to punish his subjects,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=Patricia O'Connell |title=World History: Our Human Story |last2=Holdren |first2=John |date=May 2021 |publisher=Sheridan Kentucky |isbn=978-1-60153-123-0 |location=Versailles, Kentucky |pages=152}}</ref> and later, a [[magistrate]]'s [[Power (social and political)|power]] and [[jurisdiction]]. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the [[labrys]] ({{langx|grc|λάβρυς|lábrys}}; {{langx|la|bipennis|links=no}}),{{efn|The term for a single-bladed axe is {{lang|grc-Latn|hēmipélekys}} "half-{{lang|grc-Latn|pélekys}}", {{lang|grc-Latn|pélekys}} ({{lang|grc|πέλεκυς}}) being a synonym of {{lang|grc-Latn|lábrys}}; e.g. [[Iliad|Il]]. 23.883.}} the double-[[Axe#Parts of the axe|bitted axe]] originally from [[Crete]], is one of the oldest symbols of [[Greek civilization]].


The image has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial or collective power, law, and governance. The fasces frequently occurs as a [[Charge (heraldry)|charge]] in [[heraldry]]: it is present on the reverse of the U.S. [[Mercury dime]] coin and behind the podium in the [[United States House of Representatives]]; and it was the origin of the name of the [[National Fascist Party]] in Italy (from which the term ''[[fascism]]'' is derived).
The image of fasces has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial power, law, and governance. The fasces frequently occurs as a [[Charge (heraldry)|charge]] in [[heraldry]]: it is present on the reverse of the U.S. [[Mercury dime]] coin and behind the podium in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and in the [[Seal of the united states senate|Seal of the U.S. Senate]]; and it was the origin of the name of the [[National Fascist Party]] in Italy (from which the term ''[[fascism]]'' is derived).


During the first half of the twentieth century, both the fasces and the [[swastika]] (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the [[Fascism|fascist]] political movements of [[Benito Mussolini]] and [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Fasces Mussolini-Hitler mark |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fasces_Mussolini-Hitler_mark.jpg |website=[[Wikimedia]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Winkler |first=Martin M. |year=2009 |title=6. Nazi Cinema and Its Impact on Hollywood's Roman Epics: From Leni Riefenstahl to Quo Vadis |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/oa_monograph/chapter/1145302 |website=[[Project MUSE]] |publisher=[[Ohio State University Press]] |pages=14 |via=[[Johns Hopkins University]]}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |year=1938 |title=Partisan Review |url=https://bu.userservices.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/01BOSU_INST:AlmaGeneralView/121027668920001161?lang=en&viewerServiceCode=AlmaViewer |journal=[[Partisan Review]] |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=40 |via=[[Boston University Libraries]]}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |year=2007 |title=FEBRER 1937 |url=https://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/swpostcards/dp257.p75_1937_12.html |access-date=2024-05-08 |publisher=[[University of California, San Diego]]}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=A drawing of a fasces by Giuseppe Barberi (1746–1809) of Italy |url=https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-rise-of-italian-fascism-and-its-influence-on-europe/sources/1357 |access-date=2024-05-08 |website=[[Digital Public Library of America]] |language=en}}</ref> This is due to Mussolini's more active usage of the symbol and the campaigns of Hitler, [[Nazism|Nazis]], and [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascists]] alike to make various allusions and comparisons between the two [[dictator]]s to associate Hitler with Mussolini and his symbolism.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy.
During the first half of the twentieth century, both the fasces and the [[swastika]] (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the [[Fascism|fascist]] political movements of [[Benito Mussolini]] and [[Adolf Hitler]]. During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy.


The fasces remained in use in many societies after [[World War II]] due to its already having been adopted and incorporated into the iconography of numerous governments outside Italy, prior to Mussolini. Such iconographical use persists in governmental and various other contexts. In contrast, the swastika remains in common usage only in Asia, where it originated as an ancient [[Hindu]] symbol, and in [[Navajo]] iconography, where its religious significance is entirely unrelated to, and predates, early 20th-century European fascism.
The fasces remained in use in many societies after [[World War II]] because it had already been adopted and incorporated into the iconography of numerous governments outside Italy, prior to Mussolini. Such iconographical use persists in governmental and various other contexts. In contrast, the swastika remains in common usage only in Asia, where it originated as an ancient [[Hindu]] symbol, and in [[Navajo]] iconography, where its religious significance is entirely unrelated to, and predates, early 20th-century European fascism.


== Symbolism ==
== Symbolism ==
[[File:Roman armour and accessories.png|thumb|A print depicting Roman armour and accessories including two versions of the fasces (seen in the lower right)]]
[[File:Roman armour and accessories.png|thumb|A print depicting Roman armour and accessories including two versions of the fasces (seen in the lower right)]]
The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment. In [[ancient Rome]], the bundle was a material symbol of a [[Roman magistrate]]'s full civil and military power, known as [[imperium]]. They were carried in a procession with a magistrate by [[lictor]]s, who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=2, 12}} In common language and literature, the fasces were regularly associated: [[Praetorian Guard|praetors]] were referred to in Greek as the ''hexapelekus'' ({{literally|six axes}}) and the [[Roman consul|consuls]] were referred to as "the twelve fasces" as literary [[metonymy]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=1}} Beyond serving as insignia of office, it also symbolised the republic and its prestige.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=2}}
The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment. In [[ancient Rome]], the bundle was a material symbol of a [[Roman magistrate]]'s full civil and military power, known as [[imperium]]. They were carried in a procession with a magistrate by [[lictor]]s, who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=2, 12}} In common language and literature, the fasces were regularly associated with certain offices: [[Praetorian Guard|praetors]] were referred to in Greek as the ''hexapelekus'' ({{literally|six axes}}) and the [[Roman consul|consuls]] were referred to as "the twelve fasces" as literary [[metonymy]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=1}} Beyond serving as insignia of office, it also symbolised the republic and its prestige.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=2}}


After the classical period, with the fall of the Roman state, thinkers were removed from the "psychological terror generated by the original Roman fasces" in the antique period. By the Renaissance, there emerged a conflation of the fasces with a Greek [[fable]] first recorded by [[Babrius]] in the second century AD depicting how individual sticks can be easily broken but how a bundle could not be.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=3}} This story is common across Eurasian culture and by the thirteenth century AD was recorded in the [[The Secret History of the Mongols|''Secret History of the Mongols'']].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=4}} While there is no historical connection between the original fasces and this fable,<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|p=4|ps=. "It must be stressed that, in historical terms, there is no close connection between the Roman fasces and the Aesop fable... other than the attractive coincidence that each involves a bundle of sticks".}}</ref> by the sixteenth century AD, fasces were "inextricably linked" with interpretations of the fable as one expressing unity and harmony.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=4}}
After the classical period, with the fall of the Roman state, thinkers were removed from the "psychological terror generated by the original Roman fasces" in the antique period. By the Renaissance, there emerged a conflation of the fasces with a Greek [[fable]] first recorded by [[Babrius]] in the second century AD depicting how individual sticks can be easily broken but how a bundle could not be.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=3}} This story is common across Eurasian culture and by the thirteenth century AD was recorded in the [[The Secret History of the Mongols|''Secret History of the Mongols'']].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=4}} While there is no historical connection between the original fasces and this fable,<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|p=4|ps=. "It must be stressed that, in historical terms, there is no close connection between the Roman fasces and the Aesop fable... other than the attractive coincidence that each involves a bundle of sticks".}}</ref> by the sixteenth century AD, fasces were "inextricably linked" with interpretations of the fable as one expressing unity and harmony.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=4}}
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== In the ancient world ==
== In the ancient world ==
[[File:2Postumia Denarius. A.POST A.F S.N ALBIN Hispania HISPAN, Togate figure fasces legionary eagle.jpg|thumbnail|Aquila (Legionary eagle), toga figure, and fasces on reverse side of coinage]]
[[File:2Postumia Denarius. A.POST A.F S.N ALBIN Hispania HISPAN, Togate figure fasces legionary eagle.jpg|thumbnail|Aquila (Legionary eagle), toga figure, and fasces on reverse side of coinage]]
[[File:Ascia bipenne da alto dignitario, da tomba del littore a vetulonia, 610 ac ca.jpg|thumb|Earliest depiction of a fasces, discovered as a grave good in Vetulonia in 1897]]
[[File:Ascia bipenne da alto dignitario, da tomba del littore a vetulonia, 610 ac ca.jpg|thumb|Earliest depiction of a fasces, c. 610 BC, discovered as a grave good in Vetulonia in 1897]]


=== Origin ===
=== Origin ===
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Ancient Roman literary sources are unanimous in describing the ancient [[Roman Kingdom|kings of Rome]] as being accompanied by twelve lictors carrying fasces. Dionysius, in ''Roman Antiquities'', gave a complex story explaining this number: for him, the practice originated in [[Etruria]] and each bundle symbolised one of the twelve Etruscan [[city-state]]s; the twelve states together represented a joint military campaign and were given to the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, on his accession to the throne.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=11}} While [[Livy]] concurred with Dionysius' story, he also relates a different story ascribing fasces to the first Roman king – [[Romulus]] – who selected twelve to correspond to the twelve birds which appeared in augury at the foundation of the city.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=12}}
Ancient Roman literary sources are unanimous in describing the ancient [[Roman Kingdom|kings of Rome]] as being accompanied by twelve lictors carrying fasces. Dionysius, in ''Roman Antiquities'', gave a complex story explaining this number: for him, the practice originated in [[Etruria]] and each bundle symbolised one of the twelve Etruscan [[city-state]]s; the twelve states together represented a joint military campaign and were given to the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, on his accession to the throne.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=11}} While [[Livy]] concurred with Dionysius' story, he also relates a different story ascribing fasces to the first Roman king – [[Romulus]] – who selected twelve to correspond to the twelve birds which appeared in augury at the foundation of the city.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=12}}


Later stories gave different aetiologies: some described fasces as coming from Latium, others from Italy in general. [[Macrobius]], writing in the 5th century AD, have the Romans taking fasces from the Etruscans as spoils of war rather than adopted by cultural diffusion. In general, it seems that by the sixth century BC, fasces had become a common symbol in central Italy and Etruria – if not also into southern Italy, as Livy implies{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=14}} – for royal prestige and coercive power.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=12}} The ancient Roman literary record largely depicts the fasces of their time as carried largely symbolically by lictors who were present primarily to defend their charges from violence. However, the same stories depict fasces far more negatively in the context of tyrannies or regal displays.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=14–15}}
Later stories gave different aetiologies: some described fasces as coming from Latium, others from Italy in general. [[Macrobius]], writing in the 5th century AD, have the Romans taking fasces from the Etruscans as spoils of war rather than adopted by cultural diffusion. In general, it seems that by the sixth century BC, fasces had become a common symbol in central Italy and Etruria – if not also into southern Italy, as Livy implies{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=14}} – for royal prestige and coercive power.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=12}} The ancient Roman literary record largely depicts the fasces of their time as carried largely symbolically by lictors who were present primarily to defend their charges from violence. However, the same stories depict fasces far more negatively in the context of tyrannies or regal displays.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=14–15}}


Plutarch, in his [[Parallel Lives|''Life of Publicola'']], describes an incident in which [[Lucius Junius Brutus]], the first [[consul]], has lictors scourge with rods and decapitate with axes – components of the fasces – his own sons who were conspiring to restore the Tarquins to the throne.<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|p=16}}, citing Plut. ''Pub.'' 6.</ref> After Brutus' alleged death in battle, Publicola then passes reforms subordinating magisterial use of fasces for coercion to the people: consuls would lower the fasces before the people during speeches and there would be appeal to the people against a magistrate ordering capital or corporal punishment.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=18}}
Plutarch, in his [[Parallel Lives|''Life of Publicola'']], describes an incident in which [[Lucius Junius Brutus]], the first [[consul]], has lictors scourge with rods and decapitate with axes – components of the fasces – his own sons who were conspiring to restore the Tarquins to the throne.<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|p=16}}, citing Plut. ''Pub.'' 6.</ref> After Brutus' alleged death in battle, Publicola then passes reforms subordinating magisterial use of fasces for coercion to the people: consuls would lower the fasces before the people during speeches and there would be appeal to the people against a magistrate ordering capital or corporal punishment.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=18}}


==== Republican period ====
==== Republican period ====
[[File:Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus, denarius, 54 BC, RRC 433-1.jpg|thumb|right|Denarius minted by [[Marcus Junius Brutus]] depicting a personification of [[Libertas]] on left and Lucius Junius Brutus with [[Lictor|lictors]] carrying bladed fasces on right{{sfn|Crawford|1974|p=455}}{{Sfn|Tempest|2017|loc=Plate 4}} ]]
[[File:Q. Servilius Caepio (M. Junius) Brutus, denarius, 54 BC, RRC 433-1.jpg|thumb|right|Denarius minted by [[Marcus Junius Brutus]] depicting a personification of [[Libertas]] on left and Lucius Junius Brutus with [[lictor]]s carrying bladed fasces on right{{sfn|Crawford|1974|p=455}}{{Sfn|Tempest|2017|loc=Plate 4}} ]]
[[File:S Paolo FLM - nel chiostro fasci pretore 1120843.JPG|thumb|Rome, cloister of San Paolo, outside wall: marble panel depicting six fasces]]
[[File:S Paolo FLM - nel chiostro fasci pretore 1120843.JPG|thumb|Rome, cloister of San Paolo, outside wall: marble panel depicting six fasces]]


During the republic, the Romans used the number of fasces accompanying a magistrate to mark out rank and distinction. The two consuls each had 12 lictors, as did the traditional dictators.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=50}} The late republican dictators – of which [[Sulla]] was the first – were accompanied by 24 lictors and fasces.<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|pp=20–21}}, adding that Caesar during his dictatorship, was voted 72 fasces for his triumphs, but also noting that this backfired politically.</ref> However, the consuls alternated initiative by month. The consul without initiative would retain a negative on the other consul's actions but would be preceded only by an {{lang|la|accensus}} and be followed by lictors bearing reduced fasces.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=50}}
During the republic, the Romans used the number of fasces accompanying a magistrate to mark out rank and distinction. The two consuls each had 12 lictors, as did the traditional dictators.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=50}} The late republican dictators – of which [[Sulla]] was the first – were accompanied by 24 lictors and fasces.<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2022|pp=20–21}}, adding that Caesar during his dictatorship, was voted 72 fasces for his triumphs, but also noting that this backfired politically.</ref> However, the consuls alternated initiative by month. The consul without initiative would retain a negative on the other consul's actions but would be preceded only by an {{lang|la|accensus}} and be followed by lictors bearing reduced fasces.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=50}}


Praetors normally held six fasces and were so described on campaign in Greek sources. There were, however, some exceptions. After 197&nbsp;BC, praetors sent to Spain were dispatched with proconsular status and therefore received twelve fasces. Around the same time, in the ''[[lex Plaetoria]]'', the number of fasces accompanying a praetor in court was reduced to merely two, possibly because a praetor in court "with six fasces might seem imperious".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=54}}
Praetors normally held six fasces and were so described on campaign in Greek sources. There were, however, some exceptions. After 197&nbsp;BC, praetors sent to Hispania were dispatched with proconsular status and therefore received twelve fasces. Around the same time, in the ''[[lex Plaetoria]]'', the number of fasces accompanying a praetor in court was reduced to merely two, possibly because a praetor in court "with six fasces might seem imperious".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=54}}


By the late second century BC, magistrates who had won victories abroad that were proclaimed ''[[imperator]]'' – a victory title – were decorated with [[Laurus nobilis|laurel]]. This acclamation was a necessary prerequisite for celebrating a [[Roman triumph|triumph]], a prestigious award for which commanders might wait years.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=30}} Within the [[pomerium]], Rome's sacred city boundary, the magistrates normally removed the axes from their fasces to symbolise the appealable nature of their civic powers.{{sfn|Drummond|2015}} However, an exception was made during a triumph, when the triumphing general's military auspices were extended into the city so that he could make sacrifices at the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Temple of Jupiter]] on the [[Capitoline hill]]. The laurels decorating the triumphator's axed fasces were removed and decided in a ceremony, placing them in the lap of the cult statue of the Capitoline Jupiter.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=31}}
By the late second century BC, magistrates who had won victories abroad that were proclaimed ''[[imperator]]'' – a victory title – were decorated with [[Laurus nobilis|laurel]]. This acclamation was a necessary prerequisite for celebrating a [[Roman triumph|triumph]], a prestigious award for which commanders might wait years.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=30}} Within the [[pomerium]], Rome's sacred city boundary, the magistrates normally removed the axes from their fasces to symbolise the appealable nature of their civic powers.{{sfn|Drummond|2015}} However, an exception was made during a triumph, when the triumphing general's military auspices were extended into the city so that he could make sacrifices at the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Temple of Jupiter]] on the [[Capitoline Hill]]. The laurels decorating the triumphator's axed fasces were removed and decided in a ceremony, placing them in the lap of the cult statue of the Capitoline Jupiter.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=31}}


During the republic, only persons possessing {{lang|la|imperium}} were granted full complements of fasces; the number granted to promagistrates for their analogous rank was not diminished.{{sfn|Drummond|2015}} Lieutenants exercising delegated {{lang|la|imperium}} were, in the late republic, regularly granted two fasces.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=94}} Yet others were sometimes assigned lictors as bodyguards or otherwise to assist in official duties, they probably did not carry fasces.<ref>{{harvc |last=Staveley |first=Eastland Stuart |last2=Lintott |first2=Andrew |c=lictores |in=OCD<sup>4</sup> |year=2012 }}</ref> Italian municipal officials during the republic were usually accompanied by local lictors, but these lictors did not carry fasces until imperial times.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=25}}
During the republic, only persons possessing {{lang|la|imperium}} were granted full complements of fasces; the number granted to promagistrates for their analogous rank was not diminished.{{sfn|Drummond|2015}} Lieutenants exercising delegated {{lang|la|imperium}} were, in the late republic, regularly granted two fasces.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=94}} Yet others were sometimes assigned lictors as bodyguards or otherwise to assist in official duties, they probably did not carry fasces.<ref>{{harvc |last=Staveley |first=Eastland Stuart |last2=Lintott |first2=Andrew |c=lictores |in=OCD<sup>4</sup> |year=2012 }}</ref> Italian municipal officials during the republic were usually accompanied by local lictors, but these lictors did not carry fasces until imperial times.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=25}}
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Renaissance humanists, especially those who read more Latin, however, quickly became well-informed on fasces and their legal technicalities, including the customary removal of axes within the city, lowering before the people, and alternation by the consuls. By the first decade of the 16th century, references to fasces in a more Roman context started to appear.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=112}} At the same time, recognisable depictions started to reappear in Italy, such as [[Raphael]]'s painting ''Conversion of the Proconsul'' ({{circa|1515}}).{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=113–14}}
Renaissance humanists, especially those who read more Latin, however, quickly became well-informed on fasces and their legal technicalities, including the customary removal of axes within the city, lowering before the people, and alternation by the consuls. By the first decade of the 16th century, references to fasces in a more Roman context started to appear.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=112}} At the same time, recognisable depictions started to reappear in Italy, such as [[Raphael]]'s painting ''Conversion of the Proconsul'' ({{circa|1515}}).{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=113–14}}


By the mid-1500s, the fasces also began to symbolise other things which would have been "unimportant or even unknown to the Romans".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=116}} [[Pope Clement VIII]]'s reassertion of Papal juridicial authority after the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sack of Rome]] in 1527 started iconographic developments that would associate fasces with personifications of [[Justice]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=118}}
By the mid-1500s, the fasces also began to symbolise other things which would have been "unimportant or even unknown to the Romans".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=116}} [[Pope Clement VIII]]'s reassertion of Papal juridical authority after the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sack of Rome]] in 1527 started iconographic developments that would associate fasces with personifications of [[Justice]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=118}}


[[File:Blason Jules Mazarini (alias Mazarin) (1602-1661).svg|thumb|Coat of arms of [[Cardinal Mazarin]], the first to include fasces on arms in modern times{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=126}} ]]
[[File:Blason Jules Mazarini (alias Mazarin) (1602-1661).svg|thumb|Coat of arms of [[Cardinal Mazarin]], the first to include fasces on arms in modern times{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=126}} ]]
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As an emblem, fasces made their way to the colonies in [[British colonization of the Americas|British North America]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=138}} There, during the [[American Revolution]], the fasces' symbology as referencing strength through unity was adopted as a symbol of the united colonial effort against British rule.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=138 et seq}}
As an emblem, fasces made their way to the colonies in [[British colonization of the Americas|British North America]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=138}} There, during the [[American Revolution]], the fasces' symbology as referencing strength through unity was adopted as a symbol of the united colonial effort against British rule.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=138 et seq}}


Fasces similarly came to adopt a privileged symbology during the [[French Revolution]]. First referring to the 83 [[Departments of France|departments]] of 1789, as a symbol of unity, it came to be associated with [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|''fraternité'']] and a united French people.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=142–43}} Topped with a [[Phrygian cap]], fasces were seen as a reference to the "imagined spirit of the early Roman republic [and] its assertion of ideals of liberty and justice against tyranny".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=144}} In France, however, use of fasces as a symbol waned starting with the establishment of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] in 1799 through to the proclamation of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] in 1848.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=153–55}}
Fasces similarly came to adopt a privileged symbology during the [[French Revolution]]. First referring to the 83 [[Departments of France|departments]] of 1789, as a symbol of unity, it came to be associated with [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|''fraternité'']] and a united French people.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=142–43}} Topped with a [[Phrygian cap]], fasces were seen as a reference to the "imagined spirit of the early Roman republic [and] its assertion of ideals of liberty and justice against tyranny".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=144}} In France, however, use of fasces as a symbol declined starting with the establishment of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] in 1799 through to the proclamation of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] in 1848.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=153–55}}


Similar usage proliferated in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Haiti, in its revolution against France, coined with many depictions of fasces, as did [[First Mexican Republic|Mexico]] during its first republic, Ecuador, Chile, and the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] of 1798.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=152}}
Similar usage proliferated in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Haiti, in its revolution against France, coined with many depictions of fasces, as did [[First Mexican Republic|Mexico]] during its first republic, Ecuador, Chile, and the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] of 1798.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=152}}


== Modern usage ==
== Modern usage ==
[[File:Fasces bird.png|thumb|right|An [[eagle]] perching on a fasces; a common [[Fascist symbolism|symbol of]] [[fascist]] regimes<ref>https://www.scribd.com/document/373053697/Fascist-Symbolism</ref>]]
Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the ''fasces'' as a symbol of power since the end of the [[Roman Empire]]. It also has been used to hearken back to the Roman Republic, particularly by those who see themselves as modern-day successors to that republic or its ideals.
Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the fasces as a symbol of power since the end of the [[Roman Empire]]. It also has been used to hearken back to the Roman Republic, particularly by those who see themselves as modern-day successors to that republic or its ideals.


[[Coat of arms of Ecuador|The Ecuadorian coat of arms]] incorporated the fasces in 1830, although it had already been in use in the [[Coat of arms of Gran Colombia#Third version|coat of arms]] of [[Gran Colombia]].
[[Coat of arms of Ecuador|The Ecuadorian coat of arms]] incorporated the fasces in 1830, although it had already been in use in the [[Coat of arms of Gran Colombia#Third version|coat of arms]] of [[Gran Colombia]].
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The Italian word ''[[fascio]]'' ({{plural form}}: ''fasci''), etymologically related to ''fasces'', was used by various political organizations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the figurative meaning of "league" or "union".
The Italian word ''[[fascio]]'' ({{plural form}}: ''fasci''), etymologically related to ''fasces'', was used by various political organizations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the figurative meaning of "league" or "union".


[[Italian Fascism]], which derives its name from the ''fasces'', arguably used this symbolism the most in the twentieth century. The [[British Union of Fascists]] also used it in the 1930s. The ''fasces'', as a widespread and long-established symbol in the West, however, has avoided the [[social stigma|stigma]] associated with much of [[fascist symbolism]] (except in Italy, where exhibiting the fasces can lead to an indictment) and many authorities continue to display them, including the federal government of the United States.
[[Italian Fascism]], which derives its name from the fasces, arguably used this symbolism the most in the twentieth century. The [[British Union of Fascists]] also used it in the 1930s. The fasces, as a widespread and long-established symbol in the West, however, has avoided the [[social stigma|stigma]] associated with much of [[fascist symbolism]] (except in Italy, where exhibiting the fasces can lead to an indictment) and many authorities continue to display them, including the federal government of the United States.


<gallery>
<gallery>
Image:War flag of the Italian Social Republic.svg|War Flag of the [[Italian Social Republic]]
Image:War flag of the Italian Social Republic.svg|War Flag of the [[Italian Social Republic]]
Image:Fascist_Eagle.svg|Eagle perched on fasces, as adorned on caps and helmets of [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]]
Image:Fascist_Eagle.svg|Eagle perched on fasces, as adorned on caps and helmets of [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]]
File:Italy-Royal-Airforce flank roundel.svg|Fuselage roundel used on aircraft of the [[Regia Aeronautica|Italian air force]] during the Fascist period
File:Roundel of Italy (1922–1940).svg|Fuselage roundel used on aircraft of the [[Regia Aeronautica|Italian air force]] during the Fascist period
File:Italy-Royal-Airforce.svg|Roundel used on the wings of aircraft of the Italian air force during the Fascist period
File:Italy-Royal-Airforce.svg|Roundel used on the wings of aircraft of the Italian air force during the Fascist period
</gallery>
</gallery>
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The fasces typically appeared in a context reminiscent of the [[Roman Republic]] and of the [[Roman Empire]]. The [[French Revolution]] used many references to the ancient [[Roman Republic]] in its imagery. During the [[French First Republic|First Republic]], topped by the [[Phrygian cap]], the fasces is a tribute to the Roman Republic and means that power belongs to the people. It also symbolizes the "unity and indivisibility of the Republic",<ref name="elysee1">{{cite web |title=Le Faisceau de licteur |year=2009 |url=http://www.elysee.fr/president/la-presidence/les-symboles-de-la-republique-francaise/le-faisceau-de-licteur/le-faisceau-de-licteur.5979.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104072203/http://www.elysee.fr/president/la-presidence/les-symboles-de-la-republique-francaise/le-faisceau-de-licteur/le-faisceau-de-licteur.5979.html |archive-date=2012-11-04 |website=Présidence de la République |language=fr }}</ref> as stated in the [[French Constitution]]. [[French Revolution of 1848|In 1848]] and [[Government of National Defense|after 1870]], it appears on the [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] of the French Republic, held by the figure of [[Liberty (personification)|Liberty]]. There is the fasces in the [[Coat of arms of France|arms of the French Republic]] with the "RF" for ''République française'' (see image below), surrounded by leaves of [[olive tree]] (as a symbol of [[peace]]) and [[oak]] (as a symbol of [[justice]]). While it is used widely by French officials, this symbol never was officially adopted by the government.<ref name="elysee1"/>
The fasces typically appeared in a context reminiscent of the [[Roman Republic]] and of the [[Roman Empire]]. The [[French Revolution]] used many references to the ancient [[Roman Republic]] in its imagery. During the [[French First Republic|First Republic]], topped by the [[Phrygian cap]], the fasces is a tribute to the Roman Republic and means that power belongs to the people. It also symbolizes the "unity and indivisibility of the Republic",<ref name="elysee1">{{cite web |title=Le Faisceau de licteur |year=2009 |url=http://www.elysee.fr/president/la-presidence/les-symboles-de-la-republique-francaise/le-faisceau-de-licteur/le-faisceau-de-licteur.5979.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104072203/http://www.elysee.fr/president/la-presidence/les-symboles-de-la-republique-francaise/le-faisceau-de-licteur/le-faisceau-de-licteur.5979.html |archive-date=2012-11-04 |website=Présidence de la République |language=fr }}</ref> as stated in the [[French Constitution]]. [[French Revolution of 1848|In 1848]] and [[Government of National Defense|after 1870]], it appears on the [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] of the French Republic, held by the figure of [[Liberty (personification)|Liberty]]. There is the fasces in the [[Coat of arms of France|arms of the French Republic]] with the "RF" for ''République française'' (see image below), surrounded by leaves of [[olive tree]] (as a symbol of [[peace]]) and [[oak]] (as a symbol of [[justice]]). While it is used widely by French officials, this symbol never was officially adopted by the government.<ref name="elysee1"/>


President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] placed one on his presidential flag.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.elysee.fr/la-presidence/le-faisceau-de-licteur | title = Le faisceau de licteur | website = elysee.fr}}.</ref> In 2015, a logo representing a stylized Fasces was used for internet communication by the Presidency of the French Republic.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/elysee/le-nouveau-logo-de-la-communication-de-l-elysee-fait-bien-rire-les-internautes_AN-201503300129.html | title = Le nouveau logo de la communication de l'Elysée fait bien rire les internautes | website = bfmtv.com}}.</ref> Since 1870, it has also appeared on the badges of deputies and senators known as barometers, which they place conspicuously on their vehicles.
President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] placed one on his presidential flag.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.elysee.fr/la-presidence/le-faisceau-de-licteur | title = Le faisceau de licteur | website = elysee.fr}}.</ref> In 2015, a logo representing a stylized fasces was used for internet communication by the Presidency of the French Republic.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/elysee/le-nouveau-logo-de-la-communication-de-l-elysee-fait-bien-rire-les-internautes_AN-201503300129.html | title = Le nouveau logo de la communication de l'Elysée fait bien rire les internautes | website = bfmtv.com}}.</ref> Since 1870, it has also appeared on the badges of deputies and senators known as barometers, which they place conspicuously on their vehicles.


The fasces appears on the helmet and the buckle insignia of the French Army's [[Autonomous Corps of Military Justice]], as well as on that service's distinct cap badges for the prosecuting and defending lawyers in a court-martial.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}
The fasces appears on the helmet and the buckle insignia of the French Army's [[Autonomous Corps of Military Justice]], as well as on that service's distinct cap badges for the prosecuting and defending lawyers in a court-martial.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}


<gallery>
<gallery>
File:Arms of the French Republic.svg|The unofficial but common [[Coat of arms of France]] depicts a fasces, representing justice
File:Arms of the French Republic.svg|The unofficial but common [[coat of arms of France]] depicts a fasces, representing justice
Image:French fasces.jpg|Images from ''Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau ''
Image:French fasces.jpg|Images from ''Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau ''
Image:French fasces 00.jpg|
Image:French fasces 00.jpg|
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=== United States ===
=== United States ===
[[File:Seal_of_the_United_States_Senate.svg|thumb|[[Seal of the United States Senate]] with two fasces at bottom ]]
[[File:Seal_of_the_United_States_Senate.svg|thumb|[[Seal of the United States Senate]] with two fasces at bottom ]]
Since the original founding of the United States in the 18th century, several offices and institutions in the United States have heavily incorporated representations of the ''fasces'' into much of their iconography.
Since the original founding of the United States in the 18th century, several offices and institutions in the United States have heavily incorporated representations of the fasces into much of their iconography.


==== Federal fasces iconography ====
==== Federal fasces iconography ====
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* The reverse of the [[Mercury Dime]], the design used from 1916 until the adoption of the current FDR dime in 1945, features a fasces.
* The reverse of the [[Mercury Dime]], the design used from 1916 until the adoption of the current FDR dime in 1945, features a fasces.
* On the obverse of the 1896 $1 [[Educational Series]] note there is a fasces leaning against the wall behind the youth.
* On the obverse of the 1896 $1 [[Educational Series]] note there is a fasces leaning against the wall behind the youth.
* In the [[Oval Office]], above the door leading to the exterior walkway, and above the corresponding door on the opposite wall, which leads to the president's private office; the fasces depicted have no axes, possibly because in the [[Roman Republic]], the blade was always removed from the bundle whenever the ''fasces'' were carried inside the city, in order to symbolize the rights of citizens against arbitrary state power (see above)
* In the [[Oval Office]], above the door leading to the exterior walkway, and above the corresponding door on the opposite wall, which leads to the president's private office; the fasces depicted have no axes, possibly because in the [[Roman Republic]], the blade was always removed from the bundle whenever the fasces were carried inside the city, in order to symbolize the rights of citizens against arbitrary state power (see above)
* Two fasces appear on either side of the [[flag of the United States]] behind the podium in the [[United States House of Representatives]], with bronze examples replacing the previous gilded iron installments during the remodeling project of 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Office of the Historian |title=Furniture |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |url=https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/Capitol/1951-Present/Furniture/ |access-date=2020-02-27 |publisher=US House of Representatives }}</ref>
* Two fasces appear on either side of the [[flag of the United States]] behind the podium in the [[United States House of Representatives]], with bronze examples replacing the previous gilded iron installments during the remodeling project of 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Office of the Historian |title=Furniture |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |url=https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/Capitol/1951-Present/Furniture/ |access-date=2020-02-27 |publisher=US House of Representatives }}</ref>
* The [[Mace of the United States House of Representatives]] resembles fasces and consists of thirteen ebony rods bound together in the same fashion as the fasces, topped by a silver eagle on a globe
* The [[Mace of the United States House of Representatives]] resembles fasces and consists of thirteen ebony rods bound together in the same fashion as the fasces, topped by a silver eagle on a globe
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* The seal of the United States Courts Administrative Office includes a fasces behind crossed quill and scroll.
* The seal of the United States Courts Administrative Office includes a fasces behind crossed quill and scroll.
* In the Washington Monument is a statue of George Washington leaning on a fasces.
* In the Washington Monument is a statue of George Washington leaning on a fasces.
* A fasces is a common element in US Army Military Police heraldry, most visibly on the shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[18th Military Police Brigade]] and the [[42nd Military Police Brigade]].
* A fasces features prominently in the regimental insignia and coat of arms of the [[Military Police Corps (United States)|United States Military Police Corps]], as well as on the insignias of the [[14th Military Police Brigade|14th]], [[18th Military Police Brigade|18th]], and [[42nd Military Police Brigade|42nd]] [[List of United States Army Military Police Corps units|Military Police Brigades]].
* A fasces appears on the [[shoulder sleeve insignia]] of the [[United States Army Reserve Legal Command|US Army Reserve Legal Command]].
* A fasces appears on the [[shoulder sleeve insignia]] of the [[United States Army Reserve Legal Command|US Army Reserve Legal Command]].
* Seated beside George Washington, a figure holds a fasces as part of ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'', a fresco mural suspended above the rotunda of the [[United States Capitol Building]].
* Seated beside George Washington, a figure holds a fasces as part of ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'', a fresco mural suspended above the rotunda of the [[United States Capitol Building]].
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[[File:MN Supreme Court Chamber, ornate woodwork on railing-02.jpg|thumb|Ornate woodwork on railing in [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] Chamber]]
[[File:MN Supreme Court Chamber, ornate woodwork on railing-02.jpg|thumb|Ornate woodwork on railing in [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] Chamber]]
* The main entrance hallways in the [[Wisconsin State Capitol]] have lamps that are decorated with stone fasces motifs; in the woodwork before the podium of the speaker of the assembly, several double-bladed fasces are carved, and in the woodwork before the podium of the senate president are several single-bladed fasces.
* The main entrance hallways in the [[Wisconsin State Capitol]] have lamps that are decorated with stone fasces motifs; in the woodwork before the podium of the speaker of the assembly, several double-bladed fasces are carved, and in the woodwork before the podium of the senate president are several single-bladed fasces.
* The grand seal of [[Harvard University]] inside Memorial Church is flanked by two inward-pointing fasces; the seal is located directly below the 112&nbsp;m (368&nbsp;ft) steeple and the [[Great Seal of the United States]] inside the Memorial Room; the walls of the room list the names of Harvard students, faculty, and alumni who gave their lives in service of the [[United States]] during [[World War I]] along with an empty tomb depicting [[Alma Mater]] holding a slain Harvard student.
* The grand seal of [[Harvard University]] inside Memorial Church is flanked by two inward-pointing fasces; the seal is located directly below the {{convert|368|ft|m|adj=on}} steeple and the [[Great Seal of the United States]] inside the Memorial Room; the walls of the room list the names of Harvard students, faculty, and alumni who gave their lives in service of the [[United States]] during [[World War I]] along with an empty tomb depicting [[Alma Mater]] holding a slain Harvard student.
* The fasces appears on the [[Seal of Colorado|state seal of Colorado]], US, beneath the "All-seeing eye" (or [[Eye of Providence]]) and above the mountains and mines.
* The fasces appears on the [[Seal of Colorado|state seal of Colorado]], US, beneath the "All-seeing eye" (or [[Eye of Providence]]) and above the mountains and mines.
* The hallmark of the [[Kerr & Co]] silver company was a fasces.
* The hallmark of the [[Kerr & Co]] silver company was a fasces.
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* A fasces appears on the [[George Washington (Houdon)|statue of George Washington]] by Jean-Antoine Houdon that is now in the Virginia State Capitol; fasces are used as posts of the 1818 cast-iron fence surrounding the capitol building.
* A fasces appears on the [[George Washington (Houdon)|statue of George Washington]] by Jean-Antoine Houdon that is now in the Virginia State Capitol; fasces are used as posts of the 1818 cast-iron fence surrounding the capitol building.
* Columns in the form of fasces line the entrance to [[Buffalo City Hall]].
* Columns in the form of fasces line the entrance to [[Buffalo City Hall]].
* In [[Newark Penn Station]], the exit to Raymond Plaza West is bordered on both sides by 10-foot vertical fasces (each with a double axe-head).
* In [[Newark Penn Station]], the exit to Raymond Plaza West is bordered on both sides by {{convert|10|ft|m|0|adj=on}} vertical fasces (each with a double axe-head).
* [[VAW-116]] have a fasces on their unit insignia.
* [[VAW-116]] have a fasces on their unit insignia.
* [[San Francisco]]'s [[Coit Tower]] has two fasces-like insignia (without the axe) carved above its entrance, flanking a [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]].
* [[San Francisco]]'s [[Coit Tower]] has two fasces-like insignia (without the axe) carved above its entrance, flanking a [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]].
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==== Examples of US fasces iconography ====
==== Examples of US fasces iconography ====
<gallery>
<gallery>
File:State of the Union entrance 2011.jpg|Fasces bestride Speaker's rostrum in the [[United States House of Representatives|House chamber]] of the [[United States capitol|US Capitol]]
File:State of the Union entrance 2011.jpg|Fasces bestride Speaker's rostrum in the [[United States House of Representatives|House chamber]] of the [[United States Capitol]]
File:Kennedy children visit the Oval Office, October 1962.jpg|Above the door leading out of the [[Oval Office]]
File:Kennedy children visit the Oval Office, October 1962.jpg|Above the door leading out of the [[Oval Office]]
File:Mace of the U.S. House of Representatives (front).png|The [[mace of the United States House of Representatives]], designed to resemble a fasces
File:1989CongressBicentennialDollarBreverse.tif|[[Modern United States commemorative coins#1989|1989 US Congress Bicentennial commemorative coin]] reverse, depicting [[mace of the United States House of Representatives]]
File:1989CongressBicentennialDollarBreverse.tif|[[Modern United States commemorative coins#1989|1989 US Congress Bicentennial commemorative coin]] reverse, depicting [[mace of the United States House of Representatives]]
File:Mace of the United States House of Representatives (stylised).svg|The [[mace of the United States House of Representatives]], designed to resemble a fasces
File:Seal of the United States Tax Court.svg|The seal of the [[United States Tax Court]]
File:Seal of the United States Tax Court.svg|The seal of the [[United States Tax Court]]
File:Lincoln Memorial Inside.jpg|The [[Lincoln Memorial]] with the fronts of the chair arms shaped to resemble fasces
File:Lincoln Memorial Inside.jpg|The [[Lincoln Memorial]] with the fronts of the chair arms shaped to resemble fasces
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File:Flag of Brooklyn, New York.svg|The flag of the New York City borough of [[Brooklyn]]
File:Flag of Brooklyn, New York.svg|The flag of the New York City borough of [[Brooklyn]]
File:Looking up at Coit Tower.jpg|At the entrance to San Francisco's [[Coit Tower]]
File:Looking up at Coit Tower.jpg|At the entrance to San Francisco's [[Coit Tower]]
File:18th Military Police Brigade SSI.svg|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[18th Military Police Brigade]]
File:42nd Military Police Brigade SSI (2004-2015).png|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[42nd Military Police Brigade]]
File:George Washington Statue at Federal Hall.JPG|Statue of [[George Washington]] at the site of his inauguration as first president of the United States, now occupied by [[Federal Hall National Memorial]], includes a fasces to the subject's rear right
File:George Washington Statue at Federal Hall.JPG|Statue of [[George Washington]] at the site of his inauguration as first president of the United States, now occupied by [[Federal Hall National Memorial]], includes a fasces to the subject's rear right
File:AlexanderHamiltonUSCapStat.jpg|Horatio Stone's 1848 statue of [[Alexander Hamilton]] displays a fasces below Hamilton's hand
File:AlexanderHamiltonUSCapStat.jpg|Horatio Stone's 1848 statue of [[Alexander Hamilton]] displays a fasces below Hamilton's hand
File:United States Army Reserve Legal Command CSIB.png|Shoulder sleeve insignia of [[United States Army Reserve Legal Command|US Army Reserve Legal Command]]
File:United States Army Reserve Legal Command CSIB.png|Shoulder sleeve insignia of [[United States Army Reserve Legal Command|US Army Reserve Legal Command]]
File:Flickr - USCapitol - Apotheosis of Washington, Science.jpg|Portion of ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'', a fresco mural suspended above the rotunda of the [[United States Capitol Building]]
File:Flickr - USCapitol - Apotheosis of Washington, Science.jpg|Portion of ''[[The Apotheosis of Washington]]'', a fresco mural suspended above the rotunda of the [[United States Capitol Building]]
File:USAMPC-COA.png|Regimental Coat of Arms of the [[Military Police Corps (United States)|United States Military Police Corps]]
File:USAMPC-Regimental-Insignia.png|Regimental Insignia of the [[Military Police Corps (United States)|United States Military Police Corps]].
File:14MPBdeSSI.jpg|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[14th Military Police Brigade]]
File:18th Military Police Brigade SSI.svg|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[18th Military Police Brigade]]
File:42nd Military Police Brigade SSI (2004-2015).png|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the [[42nd Military Police Brigade]]
</gallery>
</gallery>


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* The coat of arms of the [[Romanian Police]] features two crossed fasces
* The coat of arms of the [[Romanian Police]] features two crossed fasces
* The Grand Coat of Arms of [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] features a fasces
* The Grand Coat of Arms of [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]] features a fasces
* The crests of many collegiate [[fraternities|fraternities and sororities]] feature the fasces, including those of [[Chi Phi]], [[Alpha Phi Delta]], [[Sigma Alpha Mu]], and [[Psi Upsilon]]
* The crests of many collegiate [[fraternities|fraternities and sororities]] feature the fasces, including those of [[Chi Phi]], [[Alpha Phi Delta]], [[Sigma Alpha Mu]], [[Phi Beta Sigma]], and [[Psi Upsilon]]
* The academic seal of [[American University Washington College of Law]] prominently features a fasces
* The academic seal of [[American University Washington College of Law]] prominently features a fasces
* The symbol of the [[National Party (Uruguay)]] (Partido Nacional) includes a fasces
* The symbol of the [[National Party (Uruguay)]] (Partido Nacional) includes a fasces
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*Insignia of the [[Philippine Constabulary]] was include fasces
*Insignia of the [[Philippine Constabulary]] was include fasces
* The coat of arms of the [[Batavian Republic]] features a fasces
* The coat of arms of the [[Batavian Republic]] features a fasces
* Both the logo and flag of [[Patriot Front]] feature a fasces.


<gallery>
<gallery>
Image:Coat of arms of canton of St. Gallen.svg|The coat of arms of the Swiss [[canton of St. Gallen]] has displayed the fasces since 1803.
Image:Coat of arms of canton of St. Gallen.svg|The coat of arms of the Swiss [[canton of St. Gallen]] has displayed the fasces since 1803.
Image:Flag of the National Fascist Party (PNF).svg|Flag of the [[National Fascist Party]] of Italy (1926–1943). [[Fascism]] used the fasces as its political symbol.
Image:Flag of the National Fascist Party (PNF) variant 2.svg|Flag of the [[National Fascist Party]] of Italy (1926–1943). [[Fascism]] used the fasces as its political symbol.
Image:Greater coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy (1929-1944).svg|Greater coat of arms of Italy of 1929–1943, during the Fascist era, bearing the fasces
Image:Greater coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy (1929-1944).svg|Greater coat of arms of Italy of 1929–1943, during the Fascist era, bearing the fasces
Image:Flag of the British Union of Fascists (original).svg|The original flag of the [[British Union of Fascists]]
Image:Flag of the British Union of Fascists (original).svg|The original flag of the [[British Union of Fascists]]
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File:Polisen vapen bra.svg|Coat of arms of the [[Swedish Police Authority]]
File:Polisen vapen bra.svg|Coat of arms of the [[Swedish Police Authority]]
File:Coat of arms of the Norwegian Police Service.svg|alt=Coat of arms of the Norwegian Police Service.|Coat of arms of the [[Norwegian Police Service]]
File:Coat of arms of the Norwegian Police Service.svg|alt=Coat of arms of the Norwegian Police Service.|Coat of arms of the [[Norwegian Police Service]]
Image:Elewacja Sejmu Śląskiego - Fasces.JPG|Fragment of the façade of the building of the [[Silesian Parliament]] in [[Katowice]]
File:Elewacja Sejmu Śląskiego - Fasces.JPG|Fragment of the façade of the building of the [[Silesian Parliament]] in [[Katowice]]
Image:Fasci.jpg|Fasces on railings at [[Alexander Garden]] in [[Moscow]]
File:Fasci.jpg|Fasces on railings at [[Alexander Garden]] in [[Moscow]]
File:Konstituciya RSFSR 1918.jpg|Cover of the [[Soviet Russia Constitution of 1918]]
</gallery>
</gallery>


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{{Div col}}
{{Div col}}
* [[Fascine]] (bundle of wood or other material used in earthworks)
* [[Fascine]] (bundle of wood or other material used in earthworks)
* [[Fascio]] (usage 1890s to [[World War I]])
* [[Fascism]]
* [[Papal ferula]]
* [[Papal ferula]]
* [[Obol (coin)|Obol]] – a unit of Ancient Greek currency, originally represented through a bundle of rods before being replaced with a coin of the same name
* [[Obol (coin)|Obol]] – a unit of Ancient Greek currency, originally represented through a bundle of rods before being replaced with a coin of the same name
Line 240: Line 242:
* [[Law and order (politics)]]
* [[Law and order (politics)]]
* [[Staff of office]]
* [[Staff of office]]
* [[Swastika]]
* [[Yoke and arrows]]
* [[Yoke and arrows]]
* [[1107 Lictoria]]
* [[1107 Lictoria]]
Line 265: Line 266:
== External links ==
== External links ==
{{Commons|Fasces|Fasces}}
{{Commons|Fasces|Fasces}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Fasces}}
{{EB1911 poster|Fasces}}
* {{Cite web |last=Brennan |first=T Corey |date=2023-07-16 |title=The Fasces: Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol |url=https://antigonejournal.com/2023/07/roman-fasces/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Antigone |language=en-GB}}
* {{Cite web |last=Brennan |first=T Corey |date=2023-07-16 |title=The Fasces: Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol |url=https://antigonejournal.com/2023/07/roman-fasces/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Antigone |language=en-GB}}
* {{Cite web |last=Lendering |year=2003 |first=Jona |website=Livius.org |title=Fasces |url=https://www.livius.org/fa-fn/fasces/fasces.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220191134/http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/fasces/fasces.html |archive-date=2014-02-20 }}
* {{Cite web |last=Lendering |year=2003 |first=Jona |website=Livius.org |title=Fasces |url=https://www.livius.org/fa-fn/fasces/fasces.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220191134/http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/fasces/fasces.html |archive-date=2014-02-20 }}

Latest revision as of 15:18, 5 December 2024

A fasces image, with the axe in the middle of the bundle of rods

A fasces (/ˈfæsz/ FASS-eez, Latin: [ˈfaskeːs]; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning 'bundle'; Italian: fascio littorio) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a Roman king's power to punish his subjects,[1] and later, a magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the labrys (Ancient Greek: λάβρυς, romanizedlábrys; Latin: bipennis),[a] the double-bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.

The image of fasces has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial power, law, and governance. The fasces frequently occurs as a charge in heraldry: it is present on the reverse of the U.S. Mercury dime coin and behind the podium in the United States House of Representatives and in the Seal of the U.S. Senate; and it was the origin of the name of the National Fascist Party in Italy (from which the term fascism is derived).

During the first half of the twentieth century, both the fasces and the swastika (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the fascist political movements of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.[2][3][4][5][6] This is due to Mussolini's more active usage of the symbol and the campaigns of Hitler, Nazis, and anti-fascists alike to make various allusions and comparisons between the two dictators to associate Hitler with Mussolini and his symbolism.[2][3][4][5][6] During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy.

The fasces remained in use in many societies after World War II because it had already been adopted and incorporated into the iconography of numerous governments outside Italy, prior to Mussolini. Such iconographical use persists in governmental and various other contexts. In contrast, the swastika remains in common usage only in Asia, where it originated as an ancient Hindu symbol, and in Navajo iconography, where its religious significance is entirely unrelated to, and predates, early 20th-century European fascism.

Symbolism

[edit]
A print depicting Roman armour and accessories including two versions of the fasces (seen in the lower right)

The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment. In ancient Rome, the bundle was a material symbol of a Roman magistrate's full civil and military power, known as imperium. They were carried in a procession with a magistrate by lictors, who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands.[7] In common language and literature, the fasces were regularly associated with certain offices: praetors were referred to in Greek as the hexapelekus (lit.'six axes') and the consuls were referred to as "the twelve fasces" as literary metonymy.[8] Beyond serving as insignia of office, it also symbolised the republic and its prestige.[9]

After the classical period, with the fall of the Roman state, thinkers were removed from the "psychological terror generated by the original Roman fasces" in the antique period. By the Renaissance, there emerged a conflation of the fasces with a Greek fable first recorded by Babrius in the second century AD depicting how individual sticks can be easily broken but how a bundle could not be.[10] This story is common across Eurasian culture and by the thirteenth century AD was recorded in the Secret History of the Mongols.[11] While there is no historical connection between the original fasces and this fable,[12] by the sixteenth century AD, fasces were "inextricably linked" with interpretations of the fable as one expressing unity and harmony.[11]

In the ancient world

[edit]
Aquila (Legionary eagle), toga figure, and fasces on reverse side of coinage
Earliest depiction of a fasces, c. 610 BC, discovered as a grave good in Vetulonia in 1897

Origin

[edit]

The English word fasces comes from Latin, with singular fascis.[13] The word is usually used in its plural to refer to magisterial insignia, but is sometimes used to refer to bushels or bundles in an agricultural context. This word itself comes from the Indo-European root *bhasko-, referring to a bundle.[14]

The earliest archaeological remains of a fasces are those discovered in a necropolis near the Etruscan hamlet now called Vetulonia by the archaeologist Isidoro Falchi in 1897.[15] The discovery is now dated to the relatively narrow range of 630–625 BC, which coincides with the traditional dating of Rome's legendary fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus.[16] An Etruscan origin, furthermore, is supported by ancient literary evidence: the poet Silius Italicus, who flourished in the late 1st century AD, posited that Rome adopted many of its emblems of office – viz the fasces, the curule chair, and the toga praetexta – specifically from Vetulonia.[17] A story of Etruscan origin is further supported by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his antiquarian work, Roman Antiquities.[18]

Rome

[edit]

Regal period

[edit]

Ancient Roman literary sources are unanimous in describing the ancient kings of Rome as being accompanied by twelve lictors carrying fasces. Dionysius, in Roman Antiquities, gave a complex story explaining this number: for him, the practice originated in Etruria and each bundle symbolised one of the twelve Etruscan city-states; the twelve states together represented a joint military campaign and were given to the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, on his accession to the throne.[18] While Livy concurred with Dionysius' story, he also relates a different story ascribing fasces to the first Roman king – Romulus – who selected twelve to correspond to the twelve birds which appeared in augury at the foundation of the city.[19]

Later stories gave different aetiologies: some described fasces as coming from Latium, others from Italy in general. Macrobius, writing in the 5th century AD, have the Romans taking fasces from the Etruscans as spoils of war rather than adopted by cultural diffusion. In general, it seems that by the sixth century BC, fasces had become a common symbol in central Italy and Etruria – if not also into southern Italy, as Livy implies[20] – for royal prestige and coercive power.[19] The ancient Roman literary record largely depicts the fasces of their time as carried largely symbolically by lictors who were present primarily to defend their charges from violence. However, the same stories depict fasces far more negatively in the context of tyrannies or regal displays.[21]

Plutarch, in his Life of Publicola, describes an incident in which Lucius Junius Brutus, the first consul, has lictors scourge with rods and decapitate with axes – components of the fasces – his own sons who were conspiring to restore the Tarquins to the throne.[22] After Brutus' alleged death in battle, Publicola then passes reforms subordinating magisterial use of fasces for coercion to the people: consuls would lower the fasces before the people during speeches and there would be appeal to the people against a magistrate ordering capital or corporal punishment.[23]

Republican period

[edit]
Denarius minted by Marcus Junius Brutus depicting a personification of Libertas on left and Lucius Junius Brutus with lictors carrying bladed fasces on right[24][25]
Rome, cloister of San Paolo, outside wall: marble panel depicting six fasces

During the republic, the Romans used the number of fasces accompanying a magistrate to mark out rank and distinction. The two consuls each had 12 lictors, as did the traditional dictators.[26] The late republican dictators – of which Sulla was the first – were accompanied by 24 lictors and fasces.[27] However, the consuls alternated initiative by month. The consul without initiative would retain a negative on the other consul's actions but would be preceded only by an accensus and be followed by lictors bearing reduced fasces.[26]

Praetors normally held six fasces and were so described on campaign in Greek sources. There were, however, some exceptions. After 197 BC, praetors sent to Hispania were dispatched with proconsular status and therefore received twelve fasces. Around the same time, in the lex Plaetoria, the number of fasces accompanying a praetor in court was reduced to merely two, possibly because a praetor in court "with six fasces might seem imperious".[28]

By the late second century BC, magistrates who had won victories abroad that were proclaimed imperator – a victory title – were decorated with laurel. This acclamation was a necessary prerequisite for celebrating a triumph, a prestigious award for which commanders might wait years.[29] Within the pomerium, Rome's sacred city boundary, the magistrates normally removed the axes from their fasces to symbolise the appealable nature of their civic powers.[30] However, an exception was made during a triumph, when the triumphing general's military auspices were extended into the city so that he could make sacrifices at the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. The laurels decorating the triumphator's axed fasces were removed and decided in a ceremony, placing them in the lap of the cult statue of the Capitoline Jupiter.[31]

During the republic, only persons possessing imperium were granted full complements of fasces; the number granted to promagistrates for their analogous rank was not diminished.[30] Lieutenants exercising delegated imperium were, in the late republic, regularly granted two fasces.[32] Yet others were sometimes assigned lictors as bodyguards or otherwise to assist in official duties, they probably did not carry fasces.[33] Italian municipal officials during the republic were usually accompanied by local lictors, but these lictors did not carry fasces until imperial times.[34]

Popular resistance to magistrates during the late republic sometimes took the form of mobs smashing magisterial fasces. In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus incited a mob to take and break a praetor's fasces; two praetors, a certain Brutus and Servilius, were dispatched in 88 BC to order Lucius Cornelius Sulla, then consul, to desist from his march on Rome and had their insignia of office defaced and destroyed; Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus's lictors were set upon in 59 BC when he – along with some plebeian tribunes – attempted to veto Julius Caesar's land reform bill during their joint consulship, leading to his lictors' fasces being lost entirely.[35] This last breaking of fasces was "a ritualistic act of symbolic violence (the People thus disposing of tokens of the imperium that was in their gift) that substituted for direct physical violence against the person of the consul".[36]

Imperial period

[edit]
Sestertius of Caracalla, 202–204. The reverse depicts the emperors Caracalla and Septimius on a platform (central characters); on the right is a lictor holding the new curved fascis.[37]

During the Roman Empire, the number of people who were entitled to fasces and lictors expanded. Fasces were first granted to Vestal Virgins by the Senate in 42 BC when the six vestals were allowed one lictor each.[38] They were joined by fasces granted to the three major flamines. Single lictors also preceded members of the sodales Augustales, who were priests of the imperial cult.[39] At the death of the first emperor, Augustus, in AD 14, his widow Livia was voted a lictor by the Senate, though sources disagree as to whether she ever exercised the privilege.[40]

The division of the Roman provinces into imperial and senatorial provinces, with Augustus holding proconsular imperium over the imperial provinces and administering them through legates, also further expanded the number of fasces.[41] Augustus appointed legates with imperium pro praetore as governors, each of which was granted five lictors. When Italy was divided into fourteen regions in 7 BC, the curator of each region was granted two lictors while in office and on station. After the creation of the aerarium militare in AD 6, the three ex-praetors administering it were each granted two lictors as well.[42] Municipal magistrates' lictors also gained fasces during the imperial period.[34]

By the reign of the Severans at the start of the third century, fasces had been redesigned. Depicted on a sestertius struck c. AD 203, fasces no longer took the form of a bundle of sticks, but rather took the form of a long curved stick or two of such sticks bound together. The number of fasces granted to imperial governors titled proconsul stayed at twelve into the late fourth century AD; governors of the rank consularis received five fasces, but most governors – with the rank praeses – had no fasces at all.[43] This later form persisted through to the Eastern Roman Empire: the Byzantine antiquarian, John the Lydian, writing in the sixth century AD described fasces as "long rods evenly bound together" with red straps and axes held aloft.[44][45] Into the mediaeval period, Byzantine emperors remained guarded by men – by the 14th century, Varangians – carrying staves and axes.[46]

Post-classical reception

[edit]
Raphael's Conversion of the Proconsul (1515), depicting fasces to the left of the magistrate

While the Latin word fasces did not fall out of use in the mediaeval period, its technical meaning was forgotten. By the end of the first millennium, it was glossed as "somehow connot[ing] 'supreme power' or 'official honours'".[47] For example, c. 1439, Jean de Rovroy, when translating Frontinus' Stratagems, was deceived by a false cognate and thought fasces referred to ribbons Roman magistrates would wear on their heads; such misconceptions were apparently common, and dated back to the 11th century.[47] Visual representations of the bundle itself were rare – the 11th century AD Junius manuscript excepted – until the Renaissance.[48]

Renaissance

[edit]

Renaissance humanists, especially those who read more Latin, however, quickly became well-informed on fasces and their legal technicalities, including the customary removal of axes within the city, lowering before the people, and alternation by the consuls. By the first decade of the 16th century, references to fasces in a more Roman context started to appear.[49] At the same time, recognisable depictions started to reappear in Italy, such as Raphael's painting Conversion of the Proconsul (c. 1515).[50]

By the mid-1500s, the fasces also began to symbolise other things which would have been "unimportant or even unknown to the Romans".[51] Pope Clement VIII's reassertion of Papal juridical authority after the sack of Rome in 1527 started iconographic developments that would associate fasces with personifications of Justice.[52]

Coat of arms of Cardinal Mazarin, the first to include fasces on arms in modern times[53]

Syncretism of fasces with the Aesop fable of a bundle of sticks being harder to break than each stick alone associated fasces also with domestic concord and in art with personifications of Concord.[54] This symbology also merged with that of justice in that unbinding the rods and axes promoted reflection over just action.[55] In this context, Cardinal Mazarin placed fasces on his coat of arms, "the first individual in the modern era to do so".[53]

From here, depictions of fasces exploded. Antje Middeldorf-Kosegarten, in Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte,

charts for the post-Ripa period [after 1603] a proliferation of the fasces as symbol across almost every conceivable visual medium, from architectural sculpture to decorative arts, in paintings of every type, on monuments that range from honorific arches to tombs, as well as in medallic art and engravings...[56]

By the mid-seventeenth century, fasces had become "well established throughout Europe as a catch-all symbol for stable and competent governance". It also expanded to symbolise competent corporate governance.[57] Yet, due to a massive expansion in meaning, the symbol seemed to have died by the 1760s, muddled as little more than a reference to the past.[58]

Revolution

[edit]
A bronze cast of Jean-Antoine Houdon's statue of George Washington. Washington's left arm rests on a cloak over fasces with thirteen rods.[59]

As an emblem, fasces made their way to the colonies in British North America.[60] There, during the American Revolution, the fasces' symbology as referencing strength through unity was adopted as a symbol of the united colonial effort against British rule.[61]

Fasces similarly came to adopt a privileged symbology during the French Revolution. First referring to the 83 departments of 1789, as a symbol of unity, it came to be associated with fraternité and a united French people.[62] Topped with a Phrygian cap, fasces were seen as a reference to the "imagined spirit of the early Roman republic [and] its assertion of ideals of liberty and justice against tyranny".[63] In France, however, use of fasces as a symbol declined starting with the establishment of the Consulate in 1799 through to the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1848.[64]

Similar usage proliferated in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Haiti, in its revolution against France, coined with many depictions of fasces, as did Mexico during its first republic, Ecuador, Chile, and the Roman Republic of 1798.[65]

Modern usage

[edit]
An eagle perching on a fasces; a common symbol of fascist regimes[66]

Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the fasces as a symbol of power since the end of the Roman Empire. It also has been used to hearken back to the Roman Republic, particularly by those who see themselves as modern-day successors to that republic or its ideals.

The Ecuadorian coat of arms incorporated the fasces in 1830, although it had already been in use in the coat of arms of Gran Colombia.

Italy

[edit]

The Italian word fascio (pl.: fasci), etymologically related to fasces, was used by various political organizations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the figurative meaning of "league" or "union".

Italian Fascism, which derives its name from the fasces, arguably used this symbolism the most in the twentieth century. The British Union of Fascists also used it in the 1930s. The fasces, as a widespread and long-established symbol in the West, however, has avoided the stigma associated with much of fascist symbolism (except in Italy, where exhibiting the fasces can lead to an indictment) and many authorities continue to display them, including the federal government of the United States.

France

[edit]

A review of the images included in Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau[67][68] reveals that French architects used the Roman fasces (faisceaux romains) as a decorative device as early as the reign of Louis XIII (1610–1643) and continued to employ it through the periods of Napoleon I's Empire (1804–1815).

The fasces typically appeared in a context reminiscent of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. The French Revolution used many references to the ancient Roman Republic in its imagery. During the First Republic, topped by the Phrygian cap, the fasces is a tribute to the Roman Republic and means that power belongs to the people. It also symbolizes the "unity and indivisibility of the Republic",[69] as stated in the French Constitution. In 1848 and after 1870, it appears on the seal of the French Republic, held by the figure of Liberty. There is the fasces in the arms of the French Republic with the "RF" for République française (see image below), surrounded by leaves of olive tree (as a symbol of peace) and oak (as a symbol of justice). While it is used widely by French officials, this symbol never was officially adopted by the government.[69]

President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing placed one on his presidential flag.[70] In 2015, a logo representing a stylized fasces was used for internet communication by the Presidency of the French Republic.[71] Since 1870, it has also appeared on the badges of deputies and senators known as barometers, which they place conspicuously on their vehicles.

The fasces appears on the helmet and the buckle insignia of the French Army's Autonomous Corps of Military Justice, as well as on that service's distinct cap badges for the prosecuting and defending lawyers in a court-martial.[citation needed]

United States

[edit]
Seal of the United States Senate with two fasces at bottom

Since the original founding of the United States in the 18th century, several offices and institutions in the United States have heavily incorporated representations of the fasces into much of their iconography.

Federal fasces iconography

[edit]
The reverse of the Mercury dime, with a fasces
Emancipation Memorial

State, local and other fasces iconography

[edit]
Ornate woodwork on railing in Minnesota Supreme Court Chamber
  • The main entrance hallways in the Wisconsin State Capitol have lamps that are decorated with stone fasces motifs; in the woodwork before the podium of the speaker of the assembly, several double-bladed fasces are carved, and in the woodwork before the podium of the senate president are several single-bladed fasces.
  • The grand seal of Harvard University inside Memorial Church is flanked by two inward-pointing fasces; the seal is located directly below the 368-foot (112 m) steeple and the Great Seal of the United States inside the Memorial Room; the walls of the room list the names of Harvard students, faculty, and alumni who gave their lives in service of the United States during World War I along with an empty tomb depicting Alma Mater holding a slain Harvard student.
  • The fasces appears on the state seal of Colorado, US, beneath the "All-seeing eye" (or Eye of Providence) and above the mountains and mines.
  • The hallmark of the Kerr & Co silver company was a fasces.
  • On the seal of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, a figure carries a fasces; the seal appears on the borough flag; fasces also can be seen in the stone columns at Grand Army Plaza and on a flagpole in Washington Square Park.
  • The symbol is used as part of the Knights of Columbus emblem (designed in 1883, replaced by a bayonet from 1926 to 1947).
  • Commercially, a small fasces appeared at the top of one of the insignia of the Hupmobile automobile.
  • A fasces appears on the statue of George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon that is now in the Virginia State Capitol; fasces are used as posts of the 1818 cast-iron fence surrounding the capitol building.
  • Columns in the form of fasces line the entrance to Buffalo City Hall.
  • In Newark Penn Station, the exit to Raymond Plaza West is bordered on both sides by 10-foot (3 m) vertical fasces (each with a double axe-head).
  • VAW-116 have a fasces on their unit insignia.
  • San Francisco's Coit Tower has two fasces-like insignia (without the axe) carved above its entrance, flanking a phoenix.
  • Two monuments erected in Chicago at the time of the Century of Progress Exposition are adorned with fasces; the monument to Christopher Columbus (1933) in Grant Park has them on the ends of its exedra; the Balbo Monument in Burnham Park, (1934) a gift from Benito Mussolini, has the vandalized remains of fasces on all four corners of its plinth.[74]

Examples of US fasces iconography

[edit]

Modern authorities and movements

[edit]

The following cases involve the adoption of the fasces as a symbol or icon, although no physical re-introduction has occurred.

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The term for a single-bladed axe is hēmipélekys "half-pélekys", pélekys (πέλεκυς) being a synonym of lábrys; e.g. Il. 23.883.

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Pearson, Patricia O'Connell; Holdren, John (May 2021). World History: Our Human Story. Versailles, Kentucky: Sheridan Kentucky. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-60153-123-0.
  2. ^ a b "Fasces Mussolini-Hitler mark". Wikimedia.
  3. ^ a b Winkler, Martin M. (2009). "6. Nazi Cinema and Its Impact on Hollywood's Roman Epics: From Leni Riefenstahl to Quo Vadis". Project MUSE. Ohio State University Press. p. 14 – via Johns Hopkins University.
  4. ^ a b "Partisan Review". Partisan Review. 6 (1): 40. 1938 – via Boston University Libraries.
  5. ^ a b "FEBRER 1937". University of California, San Diego. 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b "A drawing of a fasces by Giuseppe Barberi (1746–1809) of Italy". Digital Public Library of America. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 2, 12.
  8. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 1.
  9. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 2.
  10. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 3.
  11. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 4.
  12. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 4. "It must be stressed that, in historical terms, there is no close connection between the Roman fasces and the Aesop fable... other than the attractive coincidence that each involves a bundle of sticks".
  13. ^ "fasces". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  14. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 12–13.
  15. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 8.
  16. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 10.
  17. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 9–10.
  18. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 11.
  19. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 12.
  20. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 14.
  21. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 14–15.
  22. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 16, citing Plut. Pub. 6.
  23. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 18.
  24. ^ Crawford 1974, p. 455.
  25. ^ Tempest 2017, Plate 4.
  26. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 50.
  27. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 20–21, adding that Caesar during his dictatorship, was voted 72 fasces for his triumphs, but also noting that this backfired politically.
  28. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 54.
  29. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 30.
  30. ^ a b Drummond 2015.
  31. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 31.
  32. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 94.
  33. ^ Staveley, Eastland Stuart; Lintott, Andrew. "lictores". In OCD4 (2012).
  34. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 25.
  35. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 78–79.
  36. ^ Morstein-Marx, Robert (2021). Julius Caesar and the Roman people. Cambridge University Press. p. 138. doi:10.1017/9781108943260. ISBN 978-1-108-94326-0. S2CID 242729962. There are only a few acts of breaking fasces recorded, and all of them carry the message that the people refused to acknowledge the consular authority any longer.
  37. ^ Mattingly, Harold; Sydenham, Edward A (1936). Roman Imperial Coinage: Pertinax to Geta. Vol. 4 pt 1. London: Spink & Son. p. 281.
  38. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 95.
  39. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 96.
  40. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 97, explaining that while Cassius Dio reports Livia was voted a lictor, Tacitus says Tiberius flatly refused to allow her use of one.
  41. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 97.
  42. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 98.
  43. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 53.
  44. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 47.
  45. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 229 n. 37, referencing coin RIC IVa 422A.
  46. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 49.
  47. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 111.
  48. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 110–11.
  49. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 112.
  50. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 113–14.
  51. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 116.
  52. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 118.
  53. ^ a b Brennan 2022, p. 126.
  54. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 119–20.
  55. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 122.
  56. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 128.
  57. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 133.
  58. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 135.
  59. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 140.
  60. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 138.
  61. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 138 et seq.
  62. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 142–43.
  63. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 144.
  64. ^ Brennan 2022, pp. 153–55.
  65. ^ Brennan 2022, p. 152.
  66. ^ https://www.scribd.com/document/373053697/Fascist-Symbolism
  67. ^ Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau, I re Série, Styles Louis XV, Louis XVI, Empire, Labrairie Centrale D'Art Et D'Architecture, Ancienne Maison Morel, Ch. Eggimann, Succ, 106, Boulevard Saint Germain, Paris, 1910
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