Romanitas/Romanita : the parallel representations of Roman history in Augustan and Fascist cultural works
Date
2014
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Thesis
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en_US
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Abstract
Roman history was a constant presence in the ideology and iconography of both the Augustan
and Fascist eras. This thesis examines the representation of Roman history in public spaces and
literature during the Augustan and Fascist periods in Rome. This examination is comprised of a
consideration of the Fascist theory of romanità, followed by a series of comparisons: the Mostra
Augustea della Romanità and the summi viri of the Augustan Forum, the Piazzale dell’Impero
and the Ara Pacis Augustae, and Emilio Bodrero’s Roma e il Fascismo and Vergil’s Aeneid. As a
result, a number of similarities emerge regarding the representation of Roman history. Issues of
parallels between people and events, the continuity of shared culture from the distant past
through to the present, and the predestined nature of the present as foreshadowed in the past all
feature heavily in each source. The illumination of these similarities reveals deeper issues about
the relationship between antiquity, Fascism, and the Italy of the 21st century.