Ritual Pastiche: Ara Caduti Fascisti (Altar of the Fascist Martyrs) (20 min)

Presenters

Flavia Marcello, Swinburne University of Technology

Abstract

This paper looks at how the material objects, archaeological artifacts, and ritual practices of ancient Rome were appropriated during the Italian fascist regime by investigating the little-known Altar of the Fascist Martyrs on the Campidoglio using archival sources and newsreel footage. The altar was one of the many monuments of ancient Rome that was appropriated to operate within fascism’s overriding rhetoric of Romanità and had a dual aim: resurrecting ancient rituals to regulate moral behavior and exert social control and propping up the cult of the Duce by linking Mussolini to the ancient emperors.

It was composed of an undecorated Egyptian granite block from the Augustan era that sat on a travertine base and decorated with fragments of other ancient monuments. These were accompanied by imperial eagles, and lions—the common iconography of war monuments that conveniently coincided with Leo, Mussolini’s star sign. It reinterpreted the sacrificial altar form and appropriated it to serve the newly invented cult of the fascist martyrs. Shrines were built throughout the country to honor fascist martyrdom and Rome, as caput mundi fascistii also had: a pagan style multipurpose altar on a small section of land on Rome’s most sacred hill and its proximity to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were crucial to its political importance.

Its last documented use as a shrine was January 1944 after which its decorative elements were sent back to the storage vaults and the block was turned onto its side making its inscription no longer visible. While debates continue to rage on what is to be done with the legacy of fascist monuments in Rome this one lies hidden in plain sight teaching us that entanglements between classical archaeology and postantique politics can finally rest in peace.