The iscription (1925) was originally displayed in the former “Museo Mussolini”, inaugurated on 31 October 1925 in Palazzo Caffarelli as an addition to the Capitoline Museums (see here). The author of the text is Raffaello Santarelli.

The inscription was carved in Roman square capitals on a plaque that was affixed to a wall of the museum’s central hall (designated as Room VIII). The letters were retraced with colouring (‘rubricated’).

The text commemorates the building’s restoration and its transformation into a museum of archaelogical finds and modern artworks. The exhibits included remains of the basement of Jupiter Optimus Maximus’ temple (sixth century BC) (the priscae magnitudinis vestigia referred to in the text). The inscription moreover commemorates the museum’s dedication to Mussolini for his role of the avenger of romanità. The dating formulas are notable: the text begins by acknowledging the 25^th year of Victor Emmanuel III’s reign, then references the Jubilee year (as with the other 1925 inscriptions by Santarelli), and concludes by highlighting the third anniversary of the March on Rome on 28 October 1922, as the museum was inaugurated on 31 October.

The special royal commissioner, Filippo Cremonesi (1872–1942), is referred to as regius civitatis praefectus (‘royal prefect of the City’) in a slight variation compared to the inscription on the museum’s façade and the one on the Acqua Marcia’s cistern in Villa Borghese, where the formula used is Urbi praefectus regius.

Above the inscription, an ancient fragment with sculpted fasces was aimed to underline the link between Roman antiquity and Fascism.

The current location of the plaque is unknown; it is probably preserved in one of the storage rooms of the Capitoline Museums. Research efforts remain ongoing to locate it.

Bibliography

Sapori, Francesco. 1926. ‘I nuovi musei del Campidoglio dedicati a Benito Mussolini’. La rivista illustrata del Popolo d’Italia 4 (1): 44–49.