The medal’s obverse displays the city’s eponymous hero Hercules, fighting the Nemean lion with his bow and club. The two hundred years mentioned on the obverse refer to the first large-scale excavations at the site of Herculaneum starting in 1738, although the rediscovery and first excavations took place as early as 1709.  The excavations at Herculaneum were heavily used in Fascist propaganda. Mussolini highlighted the inability of previous governments to excavate the site and portrayed it as a symbol of their lack of determination. This was contrasted with Fascism’s rhetoric of determined action (Brennan 2020: 1). The restauration of the ancient city also played a role in Fascism’s ambition to recover and ‘liberate’ the greatness of the Roman Empire from the remnants of unwelcome pasts. This rhetoric can be observed in various instances, such as the inscription at the Theatre of Marcellus . The idea of ‘liberating’ the remains of ancient Rome is implicit in the medal’s use of erutis (from eruo), which means to dig up but can also be taken in a transferred sense to mean to rescue or free from a burden (cf. Cic. Att. 10.14.1).

The medal’s reverse features parts of the excavated ruins of Herculaneum with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background. The lower section of the reverse shows the Latin text placed between two fasces.  It was not unusual for Mussolini to be identified with Hercules, as can be inferred from other medals and artifacts (Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2016: 68-69). Just as Hercules was considered the founder Herculaneum, Mussolini could present himself as its ‘refounder’.