Date of Award

Spring 2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Director

Kathy Pearson

Committee Member

Maura Hametz

Committee Member

Elizabeth Zanoni

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H47 P33 2013

Abstract

In Ancient Rome, the transition from Republic to Empire was a volatile time. Augustus used his skills as a propagandist to consolidate his military position and craft specific images after the death of Julius Caesar. Augustus needed to appeal to Roman ideals in leadership, and recover the morality and traditional family values which had become lost in the Late Republic. In conjunction with this, he attempted to bolster religion and create a lasting legacy in a dynastic and architecturally structural sense.

Almost two thousand years later, Mussolini echoed many of the same themes as Augustus in his use of romanitá He capitalized on traditional ideas of ancient Rome to consolidate power within his fascist government and establish himself as II Duce. Also, Mussolini used fascist ideology to manipulate the tenets of the Catholic Church to renegotiate the position and image of religion in fascism and his role within that religion. The effectiveness of each ruler's propaganda varied due to the forceful implementation of his agenda and outside political factors that existed during the time in which these men lived. This paper studies Augustus and Mussolini's use of propagandist methods in establishing the specific images each man wanted the people to embrace and, in some cases emulate, during their respective regimes.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/1xty-w131

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