Origins of the \'Hollywood\' Roman salute?

[Nathan Ross]

Yeah those Legatae were Rock Stahs

:lol: Funnily enough, that's what I thought of when I first read that Josephus quote - it does sound exactly like a whole bunch of metalheads. But surely not...

Then again, taking another look at the Trajan's Column relief - doesn't it look pretty much like the first four rows at a rock gig? (minus barriers, bouncers, stagedivers - probably deleted due to artistic convention) Perhaps that's all that's meant by all this 'acclaiming' and 'saluting' - exactly the same gestures that people use today to 'acclaim' and 'salute' those they admire: a pointing hand, a raised fist, a wave, or all of the above, all at once.

Anyway, regarding the title of this thread (which has been going on for almost a year - is that some sort of record? Should it get a medal? :wink: ) - as I understand it, the true originator of the 'Hollywood' (aka 'Nazi') Roman salute as we generally understand it today was the Italian poet, self-dramatist, war-hero and proto-fascist Gabriel D'Annunzio. In 1914 D'Annunzio wrote the screenplay for the silent epic 'Cabiria', about the Punic wars, possibly the first depiction of the Roman 'empire' on film and massively influential abroad. He also acted as 'historical advisor': being a huge egotist and everything he basically imposed his own view of what Romans looked like, including the 'one arm' salute, taken from ancient statues (notably those of M. Aurelius and Augustus) - this view was then adopted by Hollywood for their own Roman epics, and the look became a convention: leather tunics, little visored helmets, 'one arm' salutes etc.

D'Annunzio himself was not content with just writing epics - he wanted to live them too! In the first world war he distinguished himself flying planes and leading torpedo-boat squadrons (a little man, he loved fast machines), and in 1919 formed his own private army and led them to 'conquer' the city of Fiume. In Fiume he organised his followers (who wore black shirts) into Romanesque 'legions' and 'cohorts' and made the 'Roman' salute mandatory. He also named himself 'Duce', from the latin Dux. Needless to say, all this was later adopted in its totality by Mussolini, who in turn passed it to Hitler.

Interestingly, the Italian version of the 'Roman' salute seems not have been as stiff and jutting as the German one - more of a languid wave. Old newsreel footage of Mussolini on his walkabouts in the 20s and 30s show Italians giving the salute with the hand thrown up almost vertically above the head. When a large crowd all salute together, it resembles a horde of one-armed people trying to do a Mexican wave.

Anyhow - not sure if any of that is pertinent to the debate on 'real' Roman saluting at all...