Bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging
A fasces image, with the axe in the middle of the bundle of rods
Fasces (/ˈfæsiːz/FASS-eez, Latin:[ˈfaskeːs]; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning 'bundle'; 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 Roman king's power to punish his subjects,[1] and later, a magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe, originally associated with the labrys (Ancient Greek: λάβρυς, romanized: lábrys; Latin: bipennis),[a] the double-bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.
The image has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial 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 fasces and the swastika (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the fascist political movements of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy.
The fasces remained in use in many societies after World War II because it had already 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.
^Pearson, Patricia O'Connell; Holdren, John (May 2021). World History: Our Human Story. Versailles, Kentucky: Sheridan Kentucky. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-60153-123-0.
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swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy. The fasces remained in use in many societies after World...
to both the party and the military which typically bore fasces or an eagle clutching a fasces on their caps or on the left arm section of the uniform...
"The Manifesto of the Italian Fasces of Combat" (Italian: "Il manifesto dei fasci italiani di combattimento"), commonly known as the Fascist Manifesto...
Mithras, is guarding the fasces. As a guardian of immortality, he requires a sacrifice of it in return for granting access to the fasces. Lu and Apollo escape...
the end of the 19th century. Fasces are a bundle of birch rods containing a sacrificial axe. In Roman times, the fasces symbolized the power of magistrates...
probably did not carry fasces. The lictor curiatus (pl.: lictores curiati) was a special kind of lictor who did not carry rods or fasces and whose main tasks...
Maria Giovanna Fasce (27 December 1881 - 18 January 1947) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious of the Augustinian nuns in the religious name...
Rome. The fasces and the she-wolf symbolised the shared Roman heritage of all the regions that constituted the Italian nation. In 1926, the fasces was adopted...
Chamber of Fasces and Corporations (Italian: Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni) was the lower house of the legislature of the Kingdom of Italy from...
The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (English: "Italian Fasces of Combat", also translatable as "Italian Fighting Bands" or "Italian Fighting Leagues")...
day: Bastille Day (celebrated on 14 July) The Gallic rooster The lictor's fasces emblem The Great Seal of France Other French symbols include: The cockade...
officially be changed in March 1934 from the plain gold fasces to a Union Flag within a shield and a fasces placed on top. The reasons for this change was that...
Monte Fasce is a mountain in Liguria, northern Italy, part of the Ligurian Apennines. It is located in the province of Genoa. It lies at an altitude of...
Enlightenment and the Republic. Fasces, like many other symbols of the French Revolution, are Roman in origin. Fasces are a bundle of birch rods containing...
Mussolini's own account, the Fasces of Revolutionary Action were founded in Italy in 1915. In 1919, Mussolini founded the Italian Fasces of Combat in Milan, which...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
symbolises peace. An oak branch, which symbolises perennity or wisdom. The fasces symbol, which is associated with the exercise of justice (the bundle of...
Mithras, is guarding the fasces. As a guardian of immortality, he requires a sacrifice of it in return for granting access to the fasces. Lu and Apollo escape...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
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served as his bodyguards. Each lictor held a fasces, a bundle of rods that contained an axe. The fasces symbolized the military power, or imperium. When...
siege along with Hirtius and Pansa (the consuls for 43 BC). He assumed the fasces on 7 January, a date that he would later commemorate as the beginning of...
rods, with battle-ax, known as "Fasces", and symbolical of unity, wherein lies the nation's strength. Surrounding the fasces is a full-foliaged branch of...
Inside the oval is a bored-looking woman in a yellow robe, carrying a fasces, a symbol of unity. The oval is ringed with a motto, in Dutch, Een Draght...
lictors bearing the fasces (traditional symbols of imperium and authority), when outside the pomerium, axes being added to the fasces to indicate an imperial...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
Institutional Ahnenerbe Chamber of Fasces and Corporations Grand Council of Fascism Imperial Way Faction Italian Nationalist Association National Socialist...
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