… oooh … that could easily be misconstrued. Well spotted / good knowledge!
Although I think it was fashionable at the birth of modern democracy to worship and copy classical roman and greek cultures.
I’ve long been fascinated by semiotics and iconography.
It’s always been fashionable to ark back to Roman traditions in the Western world, because links to Rome used to grant legitimacy even to the most tenuous claims of rulership (see the clusterf*ck that was the so-called “Holy Roman Empire” during the Middle Ages). Fasces are one of the most famous Roman symbols: the “strength through unity” imagery with a whiff of menace (it was originally used to inflict punishment) is a classic device for any energetic regime, so to speak, and was extremely fashionable in periods full of popular revolutions like late XVIII / early XIX century. Although. of course, American institutions have always loved their imperial imagery (eagles everywhere! Pyramids!).
Unfortunately, for us Italians (and for Germans, to a lesser degree), this sort of iconography is forever tainted; so much so that when I visit the US, I’m quite uneasy around most “classic” buildings (from Berkeley University to the Rockefeller Center) because they share a very direct cultural lineage with Fascism-era public works in Italy.
I’d imagine the full-on seig heils would get a bit tiring after a while. You’d have a right arm like a bunch of coconuts in a sock.
The Romans didn’t leave behind any artwork depicting the modern interpretation of a “Roman salute”, or any descriptions of it in text. It stems from the painting The Oath of the Horatii.
I always wanted to do something like this outside the Houses of Parliament. Churchill’s V for victory sign, facing towards the Palace of Westminster.
No other messages that it could send out would be publicly acknowledged by me.
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