The Duce Salutes the Poet:
Mussolini and the Virgil Monument

Sophie Mills (University of North Carolina, Asheville)

In 1927, Mussolini erected a monument to Virgil in Mantua. Such a dedication may be considered just one of the many examples of his attempts to equate the glories of fascism with the glories of ancient Rome, and to equate his leadership with that of Augustus and Julius Caesar. Two sides of the monument bear brief quotations from Virgil, all of which are intimately connected with Mussolini’s vision of Italy. The left-hand side bears a famous quotation from Anchises’ statement of the essence of Rome in Aeneid 6.851-53, and its significance is obvious as an expression of Mussolini’s ambitions for Italy as a colonial power, which he attempted to realise in the next decade with the invasion of Ethiopia. In his 1928 autobiography, Mussolini conceives of Italy under his leadership as an even greater power and benefactor of humanity than Virgil’s Rome is in this passage: while Virgil’s Rome merely founded the Empire, Mussolini’s has offered humanity Christianity as well, and while Virgil downplays Rome’s cultural expertise, Mussolini claims that Rome has taught, and will teach, law and art to the world.

Even more interesting are the quotations chosen for the other side of the monument. The first is taken from Eclogue 5.45-7 in which Menalcas praises Mopsus for his poetry, while the second is Virgil’s greeting to his country at the climax of the laudes Italiae (Georgics 2.173-74). The first has an obvious reference to Virgil, but it may also be significant that this is taken from the Eclogue concerning Daphnis. Daphnis is a civilising culture hero, of the type that Mussolini’s autobiography rather suggests that he aspired to be. Furthermore, since ancient times, people have suggested that the Eclogues have an allegorical dimension, and Servius claimed that Daphnis was intended to represent Caesar. While there is no reason to think that this is actually true, it is part of the literary tradition surrounding this poem, and Mussolini, as a devotee of classical literature and a passionate devotee of Caesar would almost certainly have known this. For those who knew their context and something of the history of Classical scholarship, therefore, these lines are not merely an appropriate quotation from Virgil to honour Virgil, but may actually be connected with one of Mussolini’s great obsessions.

As for the last quotation, I will argue that it is a shorthand for the entire laudes Italiae and that through it, viewers of the monument are intended to remember Virgil’s exaltation of the uniqueness of Italy, the fertility of the land and of its people, the importance of custom and traditional morality, family values and excellence in war. All of these are integral to Mussolini’s own idealised conception of Italianness, or Romanità, and, most importantly, his policies in this period were consciously intended to strengthen this idealised Italy. So a handful of lines on these monuments, chosen presumably by the Duce himself, have a significance disproportionate to their length. In this paper I will explore the strong connection between the context and significance of these lines as they appear in Virgil and Mussolini’s politics and ideology, especially as they are represented in his 1928 autobiography.