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Adding to this, fascism is a type of capitalism, with capitalism being defined as its main motivator for economic, social, and technogical development is profit and the means of production are privately owned. Fascism occurs when capital runs out of colonies to exploit, so it turns inwards to try and create an autarky.
Rome was a slave economy where the means of production was literal slaves or worked by members of the plebian class: free citizens who didn’t own land. The patrician class was composed of both wealthy business owners and aristocratic nobility who inherited their titles. The motivation of their economy was the acquisition of land to be used for a variety of purposes and the acquisition of slaves. They weren’t seeking profit so much as they were seeking leisure and security from barbarians.
Eventually, this system gave out in favor of feudalism, where there was no longer a large slave class and military protection was the primary motivator for progress. The plebians and slaves became consolidated into peasantry, where they were tied to the land under a lord which they used for sustenance farming with a fraction of that used to pay a tithe. Nobility was then expected to maintain military training and equipment, while also paying a tithe to someone higher up.
They weren’t seeking profit so much as they were seeking leisure and security from barbarians.
the limits to the exploitation of the feudal serf were determined by the walls of the stomach of the feudal lord - Marx
This isn’t a defense of pre-capitalist ruling classes, just that material needs drove their surplus accumulation. More food, more weapons, more men, more horses, bigger house, bigger fortifications etc
Not the relentless pursuit of profit itself.
of course it isn’t. i just also want leisure and security from barbarians (transphobes, landlords, etc)
Sorry I wasn’t meaning your comment, the Marx on, I’ve had people misunderstanding it as pro feudalism.
More food, more weapons, more men, more horses, bigger house, bigger fortifications etc
There is at least the idea that one could eventually have enough material needs met to relax - the profit motive has no limit
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I don’t know if you can call it independently. It’s a bit like how clothes from the 70s keep coming back in style. They’re not being invented again; it’s an homage.
I cooka the fascismo
if you think fascism existed in ancient rome you’re defining the word fascism so broadly that it basically doesn’t mean anything anymore
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The fasces existed as a symbol of magisterial power for nearly 3000 years before Mussolini came along and named his ideology after it.
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Fun fact: fasces is also the etymological origin of the slur for a gay man that also means a type of odds-and-ends meatball and a bundle of sticks.
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good question. i’m no historian either but my understanding is that italian fascists in the 20th century used the fasces (among other roman symbols) to harken back to an imagined glorious past for the italian people and associate themselves with a golden age. i.e., fascism is inspired by rome and by the fasces in particular, but the roman empire itself was not fascist because fascism didn’t exist and could not exist in the ancient world
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