Elon Musk, renowned for his tech entrepreneurship and innovation, often brings up contemplations about the past, more specifically, the historical era of the Roman Empire. He shares these thoughts quite regularly, giving the impression that ponderings about this ancient civilization are part of his consistent worldview. Amid these musings, he reflects on the factors that precipitated the decline of the Roman Empire, primarily demographic changes. In his discussions, he even wonders what it would be like to witness a contemporary counterpart of Sulla, a notorious dictator from Roman history.
Sulla was a prominent dictator in the first century BC, notorious for his brutal approach to suppressing opposition, which entailed the execution of hundreds of his political adversaries. In discussing historical symbols and gestures, a certain straight-arm gesture connected to Musk has been the topic of debate recently. This gesture, recognized as the fascist salute, was first introduced to popular culture by Mussolini, the Italian dictator who reigned between 1922 and 1943. Those in favor of Musk quickly came to his defense, attributing the gesture not to fascism but to Roman antiquity, a subject of his clear interest.
So raises the question: Can we differentiate between a Roman salute and a fascist salute, or do they embody the same sentiment? To delve into this, we must first clarify the notion of the Roman salute. For scholars like myself, who devote their lives to studying the intricacies of Roman antiquity, there exists no authentic evidence suggesting the usage of such a salute during the period of Ancient Rome. Martin Winkler, in his analysis of this gesture throughout history, asserts that the so-called ‘Roman salute’ is, in fact, a modern-day fabrication.
When we delve into depictions of Roman times, we encounter emblems of a hand gesture involving a raised palm partnered with a bent elbow, viewed as a form of traditional Roman greeting. The advent of the ‘Roman salute’ as we know it today can be traced back to the time of the French Revolution. The revolutionaries, who were inspired by the political structure of the Roman Republic, invented this salute as part of their symbolic language. The infamous painting ‘The Oath of the Horatii’ by Jacques-Louis David and a 1921 sculpture installed in the Paris Panthéon by François-Léon Siccard are instances of its early visualization.
Taking a cue from the French, other republics initiated the use of this gesture, nurturing its spread across political boundaries. However, the connotations associated with the Roman salute shifted dramatically when it was appropriated by far-right factions in the wake of the Italian nationalist movement orchestrated by poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, which led to the occupation of the Yugoslavian town of Rijeka in 1919. D’Annunzio established a set of symbolic expressions he claimed were borrowed from ancient Rome, impacted significantly by the so-called Roman salute.
Before the seizure of Rijeka, D’Annunzio was profoundly engaged in the cultural contexts of ancient Greece and Rome, and produced remarkable literary works referencing the magnificence of Greco-Roman antiquity. A crucial moment came when these inspirations turned into concrete symbolism that defined fascism. When Mussolini took charge of establishing the Italian fascist movement in 1919, he implemented D’Annunzio’s salute as a central part of the party’s communication.
Winkler theorizes that D’Annunzio envisaged himself as a modern-day Julius Caesar, with Mussolini emulating D’Annunzio in kind. As these ideas were taking form in Italy, the National Socialist German Workers’ party in Germany began to employ the salute in their rituals. Consequently, the ‘Roman salute’ found itself entangled irreversibly with extreme right-wing nationalism, and it became adopted by neo-Nazi movements worldwide.
Today, few people recall the gesture’s original ties to French revolutionary sentiments in the 18th century. Even fewer realize its lack of any substantive connection to ancient Rome. Although we now understand the complex and twisted journey of the ‘Roman salute’, it remains a controversial symbol, drawing on history to inform our present conversations and keeping us perpetually tied to debates and discussions around power, identity, and influence.