Fasces

Fasces (English: /ˈfæsiːz/ FASS-eez; Latin: [ˈfaskeːs]; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning "bundle";[1] Italian: 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 magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe originally associated with the symbol, the Labrys (Greek: λάβρυς, lábrys) the double-bitted axe, originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization. To the Romans, it was known as a bipennis.[2]

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

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 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).

During the first half of the twentieth century both the swastika and the fasces (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the fascist political movements of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process.

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.

Origin and symbolism
Aquila (Legionary eagle), toga figure, and fasces on reverse side of coinage.

A few artifacts found showing a thin bundle of rods surrounding a two-headed axe point to a possible Etruscan origin for fasces, but little is known about the Etruscans themselves.[3] Fasces symbolism might be derived via the Etruscans from the eastern Mediterranean, with the labrys, the Anatolian, and Minoan double-headed axe, later incorporated into the praetorial fasces. There is little archaeological evidence for precise claims.[4]

By the time of the Roman Republic, the fasces had developed into a thicker bundle of birch rods, sometimes surrounding a single-headed axe and tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder. On certain special occasions, the fasces might be decorated with a laurel wreath.[4]

The fasces was a portable kit for flogging and decapitation. Roman lictors arrested and punished people, and acted as bodyguards for the powerful; they used the rods to lash people, and the ax to execute them. The laws of the twelve tables ended summary execution of Roman citizens in the fifth century, though fasces continued to be a powerful symbol of violent repression in ancient Rome.[5][6]

The symbolism of the fasces suggests strength through unity (see Unity makes strength); a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break. This symbolism occurs in Aesop's fable "The Old Man and his Sons". A similar story is told about the Bulgar (pre-Bulgarian, proto-Bulgarian) Khan Kubrat, giving rise to the Bulgarian national motto "Union gives strength" (Съединението прави силата).

Republican Rome
Rome, cloister of San Paolo, outside wall: marble panel with the six facie bundles.

The fasces lictoriae ("bundles of the lictors") symbolised power and authority (imperium) in ancient Rome, beginning with the early Roman Kingdom and continuing through the republican and imperial periods. By republican times, use of the fasces was surrounded with tradition and protocol. A corps of apparitores (subordinate officials) called lictors each carried fasces before a magistrate, in a number corresponding to his rank. Lictors preceded consuls (and proconsuls), praetors (and propraetors), dictators, curule aediles, quaestors, and the Flamen Dialis during Roman triumphs (public celebrations held in Rome after a military conquest).

According to Livy, it is likely that the lictors were an Etruscan tradition, adopted by Rome.[7] The highest magistrate, the dictator, was entitled to twenty-four lictors and fasces, the consul to twelve, the proconsul eleven, the praetor six (two within the pomerium), the propraetor five, and the curule aediles two.

Another part of the symbolism developed in Republican Rome was the inclusion of just a single-headed axe in the fasces, with the blade projecting from the bundle. The axe indicated that the magistrate's judicial powers (imperium) included capital punishment. Fasces carried within the Pomerium—the boundary of the sacred inner city of Rome—had their axe blades removed; within the city, the power of life and death rested with the people through their assemblies. During times of emergency, however, the Roman Republic might choose a dictator to lead for a limited time period, such as Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was the only magistrate to be granted capital punishment authority within the Pomerium. Lictors attending the dictator kept the axes in their fasces even inside the Pomerium—a sign that the dictator had the ultimate power in his own hands. There were exceptions to this rule: in 48 BC, guards holding bladed fasces guided Vatia Isauricus to the tribunal of Marcus Caelius, and Vatia Isauricus used one to destroy Caelius's magisterial chair (sella curulis).

An occasional variation on the fasces was the addition of a laurel wreath, symbolizing victory. This occurred during the celebration of a Triumph — essentially a victory parade through Rome by a returning victorious general. Previously, all Republican Roman commanding generals had held high office with imperium, and so, already were entitled to the lictors and fasces.

Usage

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

The Italian word fascio (plural 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, and many authorities continue to display them, including the federal government of the United States.

  • War Flag of the Italian Social Republic
  • Eagle perched on fasces as adorned on caps and helmets of Fascist Italy

France

A review of the images included in Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau[8][9] 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",[10] 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.[10]

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.

United States
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
The reverse of the Mercury dime, with a fasces
Emancipation Memorial

State, local and other fasces iconography
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, but 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 m (368 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 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 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, made 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
  • 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[13]
  • The crest of the Chi Phi Fraternity, founded first in 1824, is divided into three sections, representing the triple origin of the Fraternity. The largest section of the crest contains a fasces with an ax, and represents the fraternity's value of Union. The symbol represents one facet of the Chi Phi Fraternity's early triple-origin; the one started in 1860 at Hobart University. According to the fraternity's lore, the rods represent the 12 Hobart founders, and the ax belonged to the Beta, or vice-president of the organization. The symbol was designed to resemble the ax bound by fasces as carried by Roman lictors when outside the Roman Pomerium. [14]

Examples of US fasces iconography

Modern authorities and movements

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

See also

References
  1. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine: fasces
  2. the term for a single-bladed axe being hēmipelekys "half-pelekys", e.g. Il. 23.883.
  3. Haynes, S. (2000). Etruscan civilization: A cultural history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
  4. "Fasces". 2011-03-26. Archived from the original on 2014-02-20. Retrieved 2011-04-13.
  5. Marshall, Anthony J. (1984). "Symbols and Showmanship in Roman Public Life: The Fasces". Phoenix. 38 (2): 120–141. doi:10.2307/1088896.
  6. "Lictor". Livius articles on ancient history. December 16, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  7. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:8
  8. 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
  9. Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau , II me Série, Les Appartments D'Anne D'Autriche, De François I er, Et D'Elenonre La Chapelle, Labrairie Centrale D'Art Et D'Architecture, Ancienne Maison Morel, Ch. Eggimann, Succ, 106, Boulevard Saint Germain, Paris, 1912
  10. Site of the French Presidency Archived November 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. history.house.gov website. Accessed Feb. 27, 2020.
  12. The Supreme Court Historical Society Archived November 28, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  13. Bach, Ira and Mary Lackritz Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Public Sculpture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1983 p. 11-12
  14. website, Chi Phi Fraternity, www.ChiPhi.org
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