The inscription (1937) is visible in the first section of the mosaic decoration on the left lane of Viale del Foro Italico, called at that time Piazzale dell’Impero (“Square of the Empire”).

The inscription was realised in sans-serif capitals in mosaic technique with white tesserae on a black background. During the Middle Ages, the lion was the symbol of Rome’s municipality. More specifically, the text of the inscription is an adaptation of the didascaly related to Rome in the so-called “Ebstorf map” (second half of the 13^th century, destroyed during World War II). The map had an inscription saying that Secundum formam leonis inchoata est Roma (“Rome was founded in the shape of a lion”). This idea is also found in Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia (also known as Liber de mirabilibus mundi), dating to the beginning of the 13^th century, where we read that Italiae caput est Roma […], Romani caput imperii, ad formam leonis ob insignem sui dominationem formata. […] Habet ergo Roma formam, ut dixi, leonis (“Rome is Italy’s capital […], capital of the Roman Empire, formed in the shape of a lion because of its eminent domination. […] Therefore, Rome has, as I said, the shape of a lion”) (Otia 2.8). The motif is also attested in Honorius of Autun’s Imago mundi, dating to the 12^th century, which states that Antiqui civitates secundum praecipuas feras ob significationem formabant. Unde Roma formam leonis habet, qui caeteris bestiis, quasi rex, praeest (“The ancients gave the cities the shape of specific animals because of their meaning. Therefore, Rome has the shape of the lion, that prevails, as a king, over the other animals”) (1.26). 

The inscription’s ideological message is emphasized by the visual programme of which the text is part: a lion catching with its claws the earth globe, in which the borders of Italy and its African colonial empire (Libya and Ethiopia) are outlined. Thus, the Latin inscription and the decorative programme it is part of incorporate medieval lion-symbolism in the Fascist cult of Rome. Moreover, the image of the lion can be regarded as a subtle reference to the zodiac sign of Mussolini, born on 29 July (Brunetti 1998: 28; Vidotto 2005: 47).

Piazzale dell’Impero, designed by the architect Luigi Moretti (1906–1973), is the main entry to the sports complex called Foro Mussolini (today Foro Italico) and was inaugurated on 17 May 1937. The sector of the avenue with the mosaic decoration, where we find the inscription, was designed by the painter and decorator Achille Capizzano (1907–1951), who worked with other important artists on the decoration of the Foro. Capizzano probably also authored the inscription. His mosaics show mythological and symbolic images affirming continuity between ancient and Fascist Rome (Brunetti 1998: 27). Here the mosaics present, as in a map, the ground-plan of the most important ancient buildings of the area of Forum Holitorium and Forum Boarium (many of them excavated and/or restored during the ventennio, such as the Theatre of Marcellus and the temples next to it). On the opposite site (on the right lane of the avenue), the mosaics show the ground-plan of the Foro Mussolini (Aicher 2000: 132–34).

Bibliography

Aicher, Peter. 2000. ‘Mussolini’s Forum and the Myth of Augustan Rome’. The Classical Bulletin 6 (2): 117–40.

Brunetti, Maria. 1998. ‘Capizzano e la committenza pubblica’. In Achille Capizzano 1907-1951, edited by Maria Brunetti and Tonino Sicoli, 23–32. Rome: Palombi.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 554–56.

Vidotto, Vittorio. 2005. ‘I luoghi del fascismo a Roma’. Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica 2: 39–51. 

Antonino Nastasi