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fasces

Latin Phrases
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A bundle of rods bound around an axe; the Roman symbol of magisterial authority and collective strength.

Detailed Definition
Fasces were carried by lictors preceding Roman magistrates and symbolized both the authority to punish and the strength of unity: individual rods are weak, but the bundle is strong. In poetry, the fasces appear as a symbol of civic power, Roman authority, and the union of strength. In modern verse, their association with fascism has given them a deeply ambivalent resonance, appearing in poems that explore the seduction and the violence of authoritarian power and collective identity.
Example
Example in poetry:
The fasces appear in Livy's account of Rome's early history and pervade Roman civic poetry as symbols of legitimate magisterial authority; their bundled rods representing the unity of Rome's citizens; Mussolini's appropriation of the fasces for his Fascist movement gave the image a catastrophic modern meaning that post-war poets — Paul Celan, Primo Levi, W.H. Auden — could not ignore; A student studying political iconography in poetry might trace the fasces from Roman civic virtue through Fascist appropriation to contemporary poetry's use of the image; Ezra Pound's controversial sympathies with Mussolini gave the fasces a troubling presence in the Cantos, and the post-war judgment of Pound's work was shaped by the question of how a poet could aestheticize the symbol of political terror; A contemporary poet writing about the rise of authoritarian movements might invoke the fasces as an image that carries within it both the ancient tradition of civic authority and the modern history of its catastrophic abuse
Additional Notes
Fasces have a peculiarly complex history in modern culture: the word fascism is derived directly from fasces, since Mussolini's movement adopted the symbol of the bundle of rods as its emblem of national unity and authority. Students should note that the fasces appear in many significant American contexts — they are carved on the Lincoln Memorial, appear in the House of Representatives chamber, and were widely used in American civic iconography in the early twentieth century — which means that the symbol's meaning shifted dramatically after 1922. The study of fasces in poetry requires attention to this historical instability: a poem using the fasces before Mussolini carries different resonances from one using it after. This is a good example of a classical symbol whose meaning has been permanently altered by modern historical events. Related terms include the lictor (the official who carried the fasces), the imperium (the authority symbolized by the fasces), and the history of fascist aesthetics.
Also Known As
the bundle of rods rods and axe fascio fasci
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