File name Kenneth Scott - Mussolini and the Roman Empire.pdf

Mussolini and the Roman Empire Author(s): Kenneth Scott Reviewed work(s): Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 27, No. 9 (Jun., 1932), pp. 645-657 Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3290234 . Accessed: 22/01/2013 08:30 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Classical Association of the Middle West and South is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:30:34 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MUSSOLINI AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE By KENNETH ScoTr Western Reserve University In his autobiography Benito Mussolini has written these words: I have never, with closed eyes, accepted the thoughts of others when they were estimating events and realities either in the normal course of things or when the situation appeared exceptional. I have searched, to be sure, with a spirit of analysis the whole ancient and modern history of my country. I have drawn parallels because I wanted to explore to the depths, on the basis of historical fact, the profound sources of our national life and of our character, and to compare our capacities with those of other people. The statement outlines the sane and reasoned course of a statesman who realizes that he is not a prophet to see the future by some divine gift. The words are those of one with the common sense to realize that past experience is the only weather gauge for what is to come, who has had the patience and the intellectual curiosity to listen to the teachings of men who in centuries gone by faced practically the same great problems with which the world is confronted today. In short the sentiment shows a frame of mind and a mentality strikingly different from that of a professor of pedagogy who recently inquired whether anything that happened before 1850 could have any possible value or interest for our present generation. The present premier of Italy has answered by word and deed the pedagogue's question, and the "parallels" which he has drawn between imperial Rome and modern Italy show that his study of the past has not been in vain. Ancient Rome had already aroused the admiration of the future leader of the blackshirts when on March 23, 1919, he assembled at Milan his first group of sixtythree men. Perhaps he recalled how in the darkest depths of the Middle Ages Cola di Rienzo, another Italian patriot and idealist, 645 This content downloaded on T