Italia tandem imperium habet suum: Fascist Italy’s Roman Empire

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyses diverse documents of Fascist romanità from the time of the invasion of Ethiopia, 1935–1936. It begins by discussing the maps set up in 1934 on the wall of the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome by the architect Antonio Muñoz. Each map showed the Roman Empire at different points in its history and, on the eve of the invasion of Ethiopia, promoted a clear ideology of imperial expansion. Next, the chapter outlines the course of the invasion itself, then brings together a number of Italian texts and images that promoted the invasion of Ethiopia as a continuation of Rome’s civilizing mission. This chapter builds up to Mussolini’s 1936 proclamation of the foundation of empire. The chapter concludes by considering the theft of the Axum Stele and its removal to Rome as a continuation of ancient Roman practices of plundering obelisks.