This inscription can be read over the central window of the façade of the “Armando Diaz” high school (Via Acireale 4–8), built by the Governorate and inaugurated on 28 October 1928 (the sixth anniversary of the March on Rome) (see Archivio Storico Istituto Luce, L’annuale della marcia su Roma celebrato con l’inaugurazione delle opere pubbliche realizzate dal regime fascista nell’anno VI, Giornale Luce A0209, 11/1928, from min. 4.00; see also Anonymous 1929).

The inscription is carved in Roman square capitals and conveys a salute to the city of Rome. This very simple text imitates the inscriptions on the House of Lorenzo Manlio (c. 1440–1482) at the Roman Piazza Costaguti (1478). These inscriptions were well-known at the beginning of the 20^th century because of Domenico Gnoli’s Have Roma (Gnoli 1909: 152–155). Marcello Piacentini had already used the text Have Roma and Ave Roma for inscriptions in 1912 (Via Nomentana 60) and 1924 (Via Flaminia 125), respectively. However, on the façade of the “Armando Diaz” high school, the two words are not only reminiscent of an important Renaissance building, but also pay tribute to the Fascist cult of romanità (Nastasi 2020: 191–94). This is emphasized by the architectural context. A fascio was carved above the inscription; it was erased, yet its outline is still clearly visible. The upper section of the façade is moreover still dominated by a reproduction of the Capitoline She-wolf, feeding Romulus and Remus, a particularly popular image during the ventennio. The iconography and the inscription served to convey Fascist ideas about Rome’s greatness and, in particular, about the continuity between ancient Rome and Fascism.

The idea for the inscription may be attributable to the architect Vincenzo Fasolo (1886–1969), who designed this building because he was working for the Governorate at that time.

Bibliography

Anonymous. 1929. ‘I nuovi edifici scolastici del Governatorato’. Capitolium 5 (7): 356–61.

Ferraironi, Francesco. 1937. Iscrizioni ornamentali su edifici e monumenti di Roma con appendice sulle iscrizioni scomparse. Rome: Industria Tipografica Romana, no, 2.

Gnoli, Domenico. 1909. Have Roma. Chiese, monumenti, case, palazzi, piazze, fontane e ville. Rome: Walter Modes.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 508.

———. 2020. ‘‘L’epigrafia in latino negli anni del fascismo. L’uso dei classici tra continuità e fratture’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 175–97. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Antonino Nastasi