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A fasces image, with the axe in the middle of the bundle of rods. A fasces (/ ˈ f æ s iː z / FASS-eez, Latin:; 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.
Bronze statuette of a Roman lictor carrying a fasces, 20 BC to 20 AD. A lictor (possibly from Latin ligare, meaning 'to bind') was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held imperium. Roman records describe lictors as having existed since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans. [1]
The original symbol of fascism in Italy under Benito Mussolini was the fasces. This is an ancient Imperial Roman symbol of power carried by lictors in front of magistrates; a bundle of sticks featuring an axe, indicating the power over life and death.
Littorio was the lead ship of her class of battleship; she served in the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) during World War II.She was named after the Lictor ("Littorio" in Italian), in ancient times the bearer of the Roman fasces, which was adopted as the symbol of Italian Fascism.
The French Republic continued this Roman symbol to represent state power, justice, and unity. [2] During the Revolution, the fasces image was often used in conjunction with many other symbols. Though seen throughout the French Revolution, perhaps the most well known French reincarnation of the fasces is the Fasces surmounted by a Phrygian cap.
The coat of arms consisted of a square yellow "shield" surrounded by branches of sugar cane and cotton. On the square was a white circle with the words "Religião, Independência, União, Liberdade" (religion, independence, union, liberty) separated by square bundles of rods, presumably the lictor's rods of the Roman fasces.
Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways: a curule magistrate or promagistrate carried an ivory baton surmounted by an eagle as his personal symbol of office; [4] any such magistrate was also escorted by lictors bearing the fasces (traditional symbols of imperium and authority), when outside the pomerium, axes being added to the fasces to ...
With such powers, the triumvirs likely were given lictors holding axes in their fasces and were also authorised to retain armed bodyguards. [7] Modelled on the lex Valeria which established Sulla's dictatorship, the law also gave the triumvirs the power to divide up provinces by agreement or sortition, appoint magistrates, and award honours. [8]