Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) was the political leader (Duce) of Italian Fascism, from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in Milan (1919) until his execution by Italian partisans near lake Como (1945). In 1921, Mussolini established the National Fascist Party. He was appointed first minister after the so-called ‘March on Rome’ (28 October 1922) by King Victor Emmanuel III and remained in power until his deposition on 25 July 1943. Under Mussolini, Italy was transformed into a Fascist, one-party dictatorship that aspired to create a totalitarian state (for an overview of Mussolini’s biography, see Gentile 2012).

Mussolini, with his ideologues and cultural bureaucrats, made ancient Rome the backbone of Fascist ideology and propaganda. This included the promotion of Latin. A series of educational reforms boosted its position at Italian schools, especially the “Riforma Gentile” (1923) of Giovanni Gentile (Minister of Public Education, 1922–1924) and the “Carta della Scuola” (1939) of Giuseppe Bottai (Minister of National Education, 1936–1943). Latin language and literature were promoted as essential subjects for young Italians, and the active usage of the language was encouraged (Fedeli 1977; Bordoni and Contessa 2009; Bruni 2005: 77–100). In addition to educational reforms, the principal motor of the Latin revival more widely was the Istituto di Studi Romani (ISR), established in 1925 and directed by Carlo Galassi Paluzzi (1893–1972). Under the honorary presidency of Mussolini, the ISR developed various initiatives to promote knowledge of Latin, including national contests in Latin composition. Mussolini personally awarded prizes to the winners during a special ceremony in Palazzo Venezia, his headquarters in Rome. The leader of Italian Fascism also expressed support for the ISR’s ambition to turn Latin into the lingua franca of international scholarship and science (Galassi Paluzzi 1939: 70).

Opinions about Mussolini’s own knowledge of Latin differ. While his mistress, Margherita Sarfatti (1880–1961), claimed that the leader of Fascism knew both Latin and Greek (Sarfatti 1926: 98), others have doubted this claim (Smith 1976: 143). Jan Nelis observes that Mussolini had “a certain, albeit limited knowledge of Latin” (Nelis 2007: 397). Nelis’ assessment is more in line with the available evidence than Sarfatti’s appraisal of Mussolini’s knowledge of the language.

Mussolini learned Latin mainly as a young adult from private teachers, whom he seems to have consulted on an ad hoc basis. In 1901, Mussolini studied Latin for a while with Carlo Avogaro in Forlì (Pini and Susmel 1953: 60). More than three decades later, in 1933, Mussolini still remembered Avogaro as the one who had initiated him to the study of Latin (Mussolini 1958: 415). This suggests that, before his lessons with Avogaro around the age of 18, Mussolini’s Latin studies had been minimal. After his return from Switzerland (1902–1904), as he was teaching in Tolmezzo (1906–1907), Mussolini again took Latin lessons, this time with a local priest, whom Sarfatti identified as “Monsignor Candotti” (Sarfatti 1926: 98). At that time, he aspired to take the admission exam to the Reale Accademia Scientifica Letteraria in Milan to become a certified teacher in modern languages on the higher levels. Translating Vergil and Caesar gave him difficulties, and progress with learning Latin was slow, at least partly because of a lack of resources. He was encouraged in his studies by his friend Alberto Calderara in Bologna (on him, see D’Ascenzo 2011). Calderara sent him Giovanni Battista Gandino’s Latin textbooks and helped him with translating Vergil and Caesar (Mussolini 1951: 218–221). Some years later, around 1910, Mussolini again took Latin classes, this time with Rodolfo Mondolfo, a teacher in Forlì, as he felt he still lacked classical learning (Pini and Susmel 1957: 175). Notwithstanding Mussolini’s later enthusiasm for Latin, it seems he did never study the language thoroughly.

Mussolini’s writings generally do not reflect a profound knowledge of Latin. In his speeches and other writings, he incidentally used Latin words and phrases, sometimes idiosyncratically or incorrectly. For example, in a letter to Calderara, dating to 1907, he used the curious closing formula ego te valeo instead of vale or cura ut valeas (Mussolini 1951: 218). He also deployed Latin phrases rhetorically in his texts. In a famous article on the frontpage of Il popolo d’Italia of 21 April 1922 (entitled ‘Passato e avvenire’), for instance, he used the well-known phrase Civis Romanus sum (“I am a Roman citizen”) to convey his notion of Fascist romanità (Mussolini 1956b: 161). He repeated the formula in a speech he held exactly two years later, on 21 April 1924, when he received Roman citizenship (Mussolini 1956a: 234). The phrase echoed Mucius Scaevola (according to Liv. 2.12.9), Cicero (Verr. 2.5.162) and St Paul (according to Acts 22:27) and was well-known in modern political discourse.

Under Mussolini’s reign, Latin came to be regarded as a privileged means of expressing Fascist notions of romanità (Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2016a; Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2016b: 16–21). His own statements about Latin are usually also highly political and serve to convey something of his idea of romanità. At the award ceremony of the ISR’s Latin competition in 1939, for instance, Mussolini praised the prize-winners for distinguishing themselves in Latin, which he called “a clear, concise language, worthy of the strongest people that has ever appeared on the face of the earth” (Galassi Paluzzi 1939: 71). One year later, at the same ceremony, Mussolini declared that Latin was “the language of our times, of our very difficult but also very beautiful Fascist times” and that the language placed the Italians “under a serious obligation, because it is the language of a people of soldiers, of conquerors, of builders, of legislators, of victors” (Galassi Paluzzi 1941: 35; translation from Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2016: 229). These statements were reported in the press, including ISR’s magazine Roma (Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2016: 232n42). On other occasions, too, Mussolini expressed appreciation of some features of Latin, including its “formidable syntax”, which he found absent in Italian (Mussolini 1960: 13).

While Mussolini did not write Latin texts himself, he was the subject of several compositions in the language. In 1929, the Fascist school association (Associazione nazionale insegnanti fascisti) organized a competition of Latin poetry, called “Dux” after its main subject. The competition was won by Luigi Illuminati with a triptych (Dux) in praise of the leader of Italian Fascism. Additionally, some of Mussolini’s own writings and speeches were translated into Latin, most notably his speeches concerning the Italian empire (Lamers 2017; Luggin 2020). Vincenzo Ussani and Giovanni Napoleone moreover rendered some of Mussolini’s statements into the language of ancient Rome. It is difficult to say which of these compositions Mussolini actually knew. He was certainly aware of Nicola Festa’s Latin translation of his ‘imperial speeches’, whose publication he authorized. Moreover, Mussolini appreciated the Latin elegies lamenting the premature death of his son Bruno (1941), composed by Domenico Tinozzi and Francesco Giardinieri, which he cited in his Parlo con Bruno (Mussolini 1941: 149–150).

A fuller discussion of Mussolini’s understanding and perception of the Latin language is in preparation.

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Han Lamers