The postcard was privately produced and is dated to 30 October 1922, just two days after the Fascists’ March on Rome. Fabricated by Foto Zaccaria in Florence, the card displays the National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II (inaugurated in 1911 and located at the Piazza Venezia in Rome), a child dressed as Italia turrita (‘Turreted Italy’) giving the Roman salute, a bundle of fasces with olive leaves, and an image of Mussolini himself.

The interpretation of the Latin phrase is uncertain. Cinge tempora is a common phrase in Latin literature. In classical Latin, it is usually conjoined with an instrumental ablative indicating the material with which the temples are to be girded. Ausonia (Italy) can be read as a vocative. The second line is more open to interpretation. It might be construed as a separate clause: ‘The ancient light has come (or is coming) to Rome’. This interpretation is rendered less plausible by the comma after lux. Alternatively, prisca lux can be taken as an apposition to Ausonia (‘Italy, you ancient light’). In that case, Romam venit can be construed as an independent clause, referring to Benito Mussolini (‘he has come [or is coming] to Rome’ (discussion of the Latin in Lamers 2023: 81, n. 41).

The indentation of the second line evokes the shape of an elegiac couplet. Although the text does not follows metrical conventions, it may reflect the writer’s desire to recreate a poem of praise and victory (as does the use of the phrase cinge tempora) in the tradition of Vergil and Horace.

For further discussion of the postcard, see Lamers (2023: 78–81). The card is recorded in Sturani (1995: 224, no 12) and Sturani (2003: 56, no 67).

Bibliography

Lamers, Han. 2023. ‘Language on Display: Latin in the Material Culture of Fascist Italy”’. Journal of Latin Cosmpolitanism and European Literatures 8: 69–101.

Sturani, Enrico. 1995. Otto milioni di cartoline per il duce. Immagini e storia 1. Turin: Centro scientifico editore.

———. 2003. Le cartoline per il Duce. Turin: Edizioni del Capricorno.

Han Lamers