Italy's Most Evil Road

Dead center in the most touristic part of Rome is a fascist road. How did it get there?

Sources:
Luc Verhuyck - SPQR: Anekdotische reisgids voor Rome
Heather Hyde Minor - Mapping Mussolini: Ritual and Cartography in Public Art during the Second Roman Empire. Imago Mundi, Vol. 51 (1999), pp. 147-162

Thumbnail by: @neoexplains

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Corrections:
At 01:13 I say the Monument to Victor Emanuel II is celebrating the founding of the Italian Republic. This didn't happen until after WW2. I mixed it up with the Unity of Italy in 1871.
A lot of people seem to be Trajan and Septimus Severus experts! The statement of Mussolini's intent on deciding what plaque to put up comes from the SPQR book mentioned in the sources. If you have another source I should read on the subject do let me know :)

[professorholmes]

My great-grandparents were part of those people who were forced to leave their houses because they were deemed unseemly by Mussolini. They were transported to new neighbourhoods during the night, far away from the city centre and from their jobs, with no one knowing what was happening. Nowadays, you can walk underneath Via dei Fori Imperiali through the cellars of the buildings that used to be there.

[riccardomallardo]

That monument doesn't celebrate the founding of the italian republic, it celebrates King Victor Emanuel II after the conquest of Rome, after ww1 it also became the tomb of the unknown soldier. Italy became a republic in 1946.

[steroidbaggins]

Septimius Severus was from africa but he wasn’t a foreigner, he was a provincial. He came from a noble Italian family that mixed with the Berber natives. He was still a Latin, still a Roman, though of course he did face scrutiny for his provincial origins

[mousta]

That monument doesn't celebrate the Italian republic. It's called "Vittoriano" ("the Victorian") and it was built in 1911 to celebrate the 50 years anniversary since the unification of Italy. The monument is dedicated to Victor Emanuel II, first king of Italy and unifier of the nation that also of course gives the name to the monument. After WW1 in the Vittoriano has been instituted the "Motherland Althar" with the tomb of the unknown soldier always guarded by a guard of honor. The soldier is an Italian that died during ww1 and was unidentified and represents all Italian personnel fallen on the line of duty.

[matteoorlandi]

This video show that people shpuld really do more than approssimativly reading wikipedia before talking about a nation's history.

[dale]

1:10 "this monument" is the Altare della Patria, and it was built to commemorate the unification of Italy under it's first king, Victor Emmanuel II. Not to celebrate the Italian Republic. I mean, it's other name is The Victor Emmanuel II Monument, how could you think it was about the republic?

[NorDank]

7:43 Severus wasn't black for those wondering

[barrankobama]

At the time those map were drawn Severus was considered ethnic Italian, the idea that he was half Punic only gained popularity in the 90s.
And to this day is not clear if it's true that under Severus the Empire was bigger, since we have no idea of the actual borders in the desert, and surely nobody at the time was considering that.
So there was no intentional removal of Severus, since in the eyes of people in the 1930s he was just another ethnic Italian born in a Province, exactly like Trajan.

[the_katzy]

A few important details I feel should've been included:

-The fasces alludes to the trade unions of Italy, not the individual: this would later plug into the corporatist state. IIRC The name itself comes from the labor syndicates that were colloquially known as fasces, following the whole "unions together strong" line of thinking.

-Italian Fascism was like the Romans in the sense of civic nationalism, where if you earn citizenship you are considered an Italian. There was no racial element until Mussolini decided he wanted to get in bed with Hitler. He didn't care about "ethnic Italians" and we have records of considerable Jewish membership in the PNF before 1938, with Mussolini even having a Jewish mistress. Also Septimius Severus would've been nominally Latin (which would be considered "white" nowadays even if that label is dumb as hell( since the Arabs hadn't conquered North Africa yet and the area was more integrated with Europe via Roman Mare Nostrum than across the Sahara to subSaharan Africa, and also a citizen.

[challalla]

The so-called Roman salute isn't based on actual Roman sources but is a product of modern popular perception without historical basis. Not that Mussolini really would have cared about historical accuracy.

[aleattorium]

"Obelisks are... Egyptian" hey man, actually not only Egyptian, all over ancient times there are obelisks, even in Rome! But you can also find obelisks in Pre-Columbian societies as well. Anyways, building a tall pointy thing is not exclusive to Egyptians.

[georgestefan]

Severus was not "African". He was born in Lybia, but as other said, he was italian and pheonician

[XMarkxyz]

A couple more things not said for making the narration fit better or simply by inaccuracies: the EUR wasn't design as a suburb but as the place for the World Exhibition of '42 the letters spell it out (Esposizione Universale Roma), also there was only the skeleton of the buildings during the fascist regime and it was completed only in the '50s but the style was kept, to see an actual fascist "suburb" built during the regime just visit La Spienza University; the thing about Septimius Severus (yes you got the name wrong, there is an I missing) he was only half native from north africa (mixed berber and punic) the other half of his family (his mother's) was from an ancient Italian family, but the real reason why he is not celebrated is because traditionally it's the empire of Traianus the one recognized with most importance

[praetorianguard]

The Roman Empire reached it's maximum extension in 117dC, when Trajanus, who btw was born in Spain, ruled. I don't really know where you got Septimus Severus from.

[paolomargini]

Many years ago in Roma I asked an archaeologist about the problem of this wide road laid over God only knows how many interesting relics of the ancient civilisation, so that we might never come to know them.
She answered that paradoxically, being sure that a lot of stuff under there is built with marble or other soft stones which are quickly deteriorated by rain and mainly by smog, it is better that the underlying Roman features are kept preserved under the road until future technologies could be able to do the job in a clean way.

[Eugeneinrome]

Nothing Worse, than the personal opinions of a part time tourist in Rome, with very limited knowledge of history or architecture!

[dattilo]

Not sure that Septimus Severus was excluded because he was african. I think you made a misstep in regards to fascism and racism. Racism wasn't really a big thing for the fascist movement, it was always about cultural superiority. Lots of early fascists were actually jews, and Mussolini even made statements belittling hitler's racial policies until he decided to become best friends with him.

[juanmosterdijk]

Even though Septimus Severus was a "foreigner", so was Trajan as well. He came from Itálica (Nowadays Santiponce near Sevilla, Spain) as Hadrian also did, his successor. Furthermore, these are two of the greatest Roman emperors and part of the Five Good Emperors. I would argue that citizenship was the most important factor for Romans, more than the place of birth. Nevertheless, it may be true that the fascist regimen in Italy would prefer to advocate for a "Spanish/Iberian" emperor than for an "African" emperor.

Having made my point clear, I also want to say that I find your videos very interesting and informative; knowing how to expose things of the present day that have an origin in the past. Keep up the good work. Greetings from a Spanish-Dutchman in Seville.

P.S.: If you ever come to this city, here you have a local guide.

[czechmeoutbabe]

I think Italian Fascism is a lot more important to understanding what Fascism is at it's core, but people always think that the Nazis are the OG for some reason