During the ventennio fascista, the Latin word dux became a pervasive symbol of Italy’s leader and played a central role in the regime’s propaganda efforts. Endowed with distinct meanings that set it apart from the Italian duce, the term was actively deployed in various performative and material forms, including Mussolini’s portraits, landscape inscriptions, and human mosaics. This lecture explores the intellectual and cultural history of dux in Fascist discourse, demonstrating how this three-letter word came to represent key tenets of Mussolini’s autocratic leadership. Drawing on varied textual and material sources, it shows how the word’s semantic and semiotic versatility served as a powerful tool of authority in Mussolini’s Italy.
About the speaker
Han Lamers is Professor of Classics at the University of Oslo and Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome. He studied Classical Philology at Leiden University (BA, MPhil) and Art History at KU Leuven (BA, MA) and earned a PhD (2013) from Leiden University. His research interests include the literary and cultural history of Ancient Greek and Latin, particularly in early modern and modern Europe, as well as the history of scholarship. He is also a co-editor of Symbolae Osloenses: Norwegian Journal of Greek and Latin Studies.
