The fasces symbol is a bundle of sticks, fasces meaning 'bundle'. Within the middle of the group of sticks there is often an axe (figure 1), but the fasces can also be seen without an axe (figure 2). This symbol is believed by some to have Etruscan origins before it arrived in the Roman Republic. In ancient Rome, the fasces was carried by lictors for magistrates, to enforce law and order. The fasces represented strength through unity—a bundle of sticks is stronger than one alone—but also the judicial authority of the magistrate.

In more modern times, the fasces has come to be a symbol of fascism. The term ‘fascism’ was even derived from ‘fasces.’ Fascism is a type of far-right ultra-nationalism that assumes a dictatorship over a group of people. Fascism is most interested in the nation instead of the individual and is known to forcefully suppress anyone who opposes the regime. In the United States, and other democratic countries, Fascism is opposed and even feared. The connection of fasces to Fascism is recognized as happening because of Benito Mussolini’s Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party) in the first half of the twentieth century. In the most recent future, the fasces symbol was publicly used by some of the rioters in the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ riot in 2017.

As mentioned earlier, the fasces was originally used to symbolize strength in unity, as well as judicial authority. Throughout the history of the fasces, the connection to strong unity has not died, but rather been used to push different agendas. The representation of judicial authority, on the other hand, has not lasted from the Roman Republic’s usage of the fasces.

In France from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries (and still today, even) and in the United States in the eighteenth century, the symbol of the fasces was used in governmental architecture. Within these years there was the Neoclassical period in history. This period was a time when many people were interested in reviving the classical style of the Romans and the Greeks. At this time, the fasces was not yet a symbol of Fascism, but a reminder of ancient Rome and a representation of the strong, united, community (as on the Lincoln Memorial, above). In both countries, it would be typical to remember classical symbols. For the new nation of the United States, the fasces seems very similar to the national motto e pluribus unum.

Mussolini’s adoption of the fasces as the symbol for the Fascist party, in the first half of the twentieth century, had two main drives—first, to link Mussolini and his goals with ancient Rome. By using a symbol of ancient Rome, he was trying to gain authentication and give (false) connections between his ideas and an ancient origin. The second drive of Mussolini’s adoption of the fasces is the support of it’s original meaning, strength in unity. For Mussolini, the individuals of Italy needed to join to form a strong unity, thus the symbol of the fasces was symbolically similar, just being used for the end means of a Fascist state.

In the Charlottesville riots in 2017, the fascist group Vanguard America held shields with the fasces symbol. (See for example this splinter group.) To this group, the use of the fasces is a reference to Mussolini and Fascism, ancient Rome, and the strength in unity symbolism. However, to this group, they are very clear in their beliefs of what the nation or unified group should be: white people. To them people that are white are superior to everyone else, and the United States should not be diverse, but solely white.

I find it very interesting that throughout the shifts of the usage of the fasces in history and modern day, the initial symbolic meaning of this symbol remained, even thought it was used for different ends. The used of this symbol to gain authority from ancient Rome reminds me a great deal of Cola di Rienzo's actions in late medieval Italy.