The Roman fasces
The club copy of the ceremonial Roman fasces is a bundle of gold rods wrapped in red leather around a double-headed axe.
The fasces ("bundle") symbolised the imperium power of the Roman magistrates (later the emperor) to inflict corporal punishment (beating with the rods) or even death (beheading by the axe), although no Roman magistrate could summarily execute a Roman citizen after passage of the laws of the twelve tables. To be executed in Roman "old style" meant being beaten with rods while tied to a x-shaped cross and then beheaded. This was the punishment that the senate ordered for the emperor Nero, which prompted him to commit suicide.
The fasces appears to have originated from the Etruscans, as evidenced by surviving artifacts showing a thin bundle of rods surrounding a two-headed axe that may have been influenced by the labrys, the Minoan double-headed axe. Under the Roman Republic, the fasces developed into a thicker bundle of birch rods, sometimes surrounding a single-headed axe and tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder. The fasces suggests strength through unity, since a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break.
The lictors were special officials that carried the fasces and preceded the magistrates or emperor. The highest magistrate, the dictator, was entitled to twenty-four lictors and fasces, the consul to twelve, the proconsul eleven, the praetor six (two within the pomerium), the propraetor five, and the curule aediles two. During a triumph (victory parade) the fasces was decorated with a laurel wreath. The "fasces" is the origin of our modern word "fascism" to denote totalitarian power. But it is used by many organisations and governments merely as a symbolic continuation of Roman authority, law and order.
The fasces ("bundle") symbolised the imperium power of the Roman magistrates (later the emperor) to inflict corporal punishment (beating with the rods) or even death (beheading by the axe), although no Roman magistrate could summarily execute a Roman citizen after passage of the laws of the twelve tables. To be executed in Roman "old style" meant being beaten with rods while tied to a x-shaped cross and then beheaded. This was the punishment that the senate ordered for the emperor Nero, which prompted him to commit suicide.
The fasces appears to have originated from the Etruscans, as evidenced by surviving artifacts showing a thin bundle of rods surrounding a two-headed axe that may have been influenced by the labrys, the Minoan double-headed axe. Under the Roman Republic, the fasces developed into a thicker bundle of birch rods, sometimes surrounding a single-headed axe and tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder. The fasces suggests strength through unity, since a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break.
The lictors were special officials that carried the fasces and preceded the magistrates or emperor. The highest magistrate, the dictator, was entitled to twenty-four lictors and fasces, the consul to twelve, the proconsul eleven, the praetor six (two within the pomerium), the propraetor five, and the curule aediles two. During a triumph (victory parade) the fasces was decorated with a laurel wreath. The "fasces" is the origin of our modern word "fascism" to denote totalitarian power. But it is used by many organisations and governments merely as a symbolic continuation of Roman authority, law and order.
