Roman salute

18th–19th centuries France

Jacques-Louis David's painting The Oath of the Horatii (1784) provided the starting point for the gesture that became later known as the Roman Salute. The painting shows the three sons of Horatius swear on their swords, held by their father, that they will defend Rome to the death. It is based on an historical event described by Livy (Book I, sections 24-6) and elaborated by Dionysius in Roman Antiquities (Book III). However, the moment depicted in David's painting is his own creation. Neither Livy nor Dionysius mention any oath taking episode. Dionysius, the more detailed source, reports that the father had left to his sons the decision to fight then raised his hands to the heavens to thank the gods.

Dominating the center of The Oath of the Horatii is the brothers' father, facing left. He has both hands raised. His left hand is holding three swords, while his right hand is empty, with fingers stretched but not touching. The brother closest to the viewer is holding his arm almost horizontally. The brother on the left is holding his arm slightly higher, while the third brother holds his hand higher still. While the first brother extends his right arm, the other two are extending their left arms. The succession of arms raised progressively higher leads to a gesture closely approximating the style used by fascists in the 20th century in Italy, albeit with the "wrong" arms.

Art historian Albert Boime provides the following analysis:

The brothers stretch out their arms in a salute that has since become associated with tyranny. The "Hail Caesar" of antiquity (although at the time of the Horatii a Caesar had yet to be born) was transformed into the "Heil Hitler" of the modern period. The fraternal intimacy brought about by the Horatii's dedication to absolute principles of victory or death ... is closely related to the establishment of the fraternal order ... In the total commitment or blind obedience of a single, exclusive group lies the potentiality of the authoritarian state.

After the French Revolution of 1789, David was commissioned to depict the formation of the revolutionary government in a similar style. In the Tennis Court Oath (1792) the National Assembly are all depicted with their arms outstretched, united in an upward gesture comparable to that of the Horatii, as they swear to create a new constitution. The painting was never finished, but an immense drawing was exhibited in 1791 alongside the Oath of the Horatii. As in the Oath of the Horatii, David conveys the unity of minds and bodies in the service of the patriotic ideal. But in this drawing, he takes the subject further, uniting the people beyond just family ties and across different classes, religions, and philosophical opinions.

After the republican government was replaced by Napoleon's imperial régime, David further deployed the gesture in The Distribution of the Eagle Standards (1810). But unlike his previous paintings representing republican ideals, in Eagle Standards the oath of allegiance is pledged to a central authority figure, and in imperial fashion. Boime sees the series of oath pictures as "the coding of key developments in the history of the Revolution and its culmination in Napoleonic authoritarianism".

The imperial oath is seen in other paintings, such as Jean-Léon Gérôme's Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (Hail, Caesar, those who are about to die salute you) of 1859. In this painting, the gladiators are all raising their right or left arms, holding tridents and other weapons. Their salutation is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars", or "The Twelve Caesars"). Despite becoming widely popularised in later times, the phrase is unknown in Roman history aside from this isolated use, and it is questionable whether it was ever a customary salute, as is often believed. It was more likely to be an isolated appeal by desperate captives and criminals condemned to die.

19th–20th centuries United States

On October 12, 1892, the Bellamy salute was demonstrated as the hand gesture to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States. The inventor of the saluting gesture was James B. Upham, junior partner and editor of the The Youth's Companion. Bellamy recalled Upham, upon reading the pledge, came into the posture of the salute, snapped his heels together, and said "Now up there is the flag; I come to salute; as I say 'I pledge allegiance to my flag,' I stretch out my right hand and keep it raised while I say the stirring words that follow."

Because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute that emerged in Germany in the 1920s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute. This was done when Congress officially adopted the Flag Code on June 22, 1942. There was initially some resistance to dropping the Bellamy salute, for example from the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Early 20th century in theatre and film

The gesture, already established in the United States through the Bellamy salute, has been traced to the Broadway production of the play Ben-Hur. The play, based on Lew Wallace's book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, opened on Broadway in November, 1899 and proved to be a great success. Photographs show several scenes using the gesture, including one of Ben-Hur greeting a seated sheik and another of a small crowd so greeting Ben-Hur in his chariot. Neither Wallace's novel nor text for the theatrical production mentions a raised arm salute. The salute was evidently added in keeping with the exaggerated style of acting in 19th century theater, which in turn influenced acting in the silent cinema.

The salute frequently occurs in early 20th century films set in antiquity, such as the American Ben-Hur (1907) and the Italian Nerone (1908), although such films do not yet standardize it or make it exclusively Roman. In Spartaco (1914), even the slave Spartacus uses it. Later examples appear in Ben-Hur (1925) and in Cecil B. DeMille's Sign of the Cross (1932) and Cleopatra (1934), although the execution of the gesture is still variable.

Of special note is the use in Giovanni Pastrone's colossal epic Cabiria (1914). The screenplay was attributed to Italian nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio, who was known as the "poet-warrior". Inspired by the Italo-Turkish War, in which Italy conquered the North African Ottoman province of Tripolitania, Pastrone perused a politically volatile issue. The film highlights Italy's Roman past and the "monstrous" nature of Carthaginian society, which is contrasted with the "nobility" of Roman society. Cabiria was one of several films of the period that "helped resuscitate a distant history that legitimized Italy's past and inspired its dreams" and which "delivered the spirit for conquest that seemed to arrive from the distant past", thereby presaging the "political rituals of fascism", "thanks ... to its prime supporter and apostle, Gabriele d'Annunzio."

Variations on the salute occur throughout Cabiria on the part of Romans and Africans. Scipio uses the gesture once. Fulvius Axilla, the story's fictitious hero, twice employs it as a farewell greeting to his hosts. The Numidian king Massinissa, guest of the Carthaginian Hasdrubal, raises his right hand and is so greeted in return, once by the strongman Maciste. Princess Sophonisba and King Syphax mutually greet each other by raising their hands and declining their bodies. The diversity of the gesture and the variety of nationalities who use it in Cabria is seen as further evidence that the salute is a modern invention, used in the film to highlight the exotic nature of antiquity.

Italy

D'Annunzio, who had scripted Cabiria, appropriated the salute when he occupied Fiume in 1919. D'Annunzio has been described as the John the Baptist of Italian Fascism, as virtually the entire ritual of Fascism was invented by D'Annunzio during his occupation of Fiume and his leadership of the "Italian Regency of Carnaro". Besides the Roman salute, these included the balcony address, the cries of "Eia, eia, eia! Alalà!", the dramatic and rhetorical dialogues with the crowd, and the use of religious symbols in new secular settings.

Like other neo-Imperial rituals utilized by D'Annunzio, the salute became part of the Italian fascist movement's symbolic repertoire. On January 31, 1923, the Ministry of Education instituted a ritual honoring the flag in schools using the Roman salute. In 1925, as Mussolini began his fascitization of the state, the salute was gradually adopted by the regime, and by December 1, 1925 all state civil administrators were required to use it.

Achille Starace, the Italian Fascist Party secretary, pushed for measures to make the use of the Roman salute generally compulsory, denouncing hand shaking as bourgeois. He further extolled the salute as "more hygienic, more aesthetic, and shorter." He also suggested that the Roman salute did not imply the necessity of taking off the hat unless one was indoors. By 1932, the salute was adopted as the substitute for the handshake. On August 19, 1933 the military was ordered to use the salute whenever an unarmed detachment of soldiers was called on to render military honors for the King or Mussolini.

The symbolic value of the gesture grew, and it was felt that the proper salute "had the effect of showing the fascist man's decisive spirit, which was close to that of ancient Rome". The salute was seen to demonstrate the fascist's "decisive spirit, firmness, seriousness, and acknowledgment and acceptance of the regime's hierarchical structure". It was further felt that the correct physical gesture brought forth a change in character. A joke claimed, however, that the Fascist salute used one hand because Italians were tired of raising both hands to surrender during World War I.

The bourgeois gesture was supposed to disappear from the view of Italians and not contaminate their daily life. In 1938, the party abolished handshaking in films and theater, and on November 21, 1938 the Ministry of Popular Culture issued orders banning the publishing of photographs showing people shaking hands. Even official photographs of visiting dignitaries were retouched to remove the image of their handshaking.

Germany

In Germany, the salute, sporadically used by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) since 1923, was made compulsory within the movement in 1926. Called the Hitler salute (Hitlergruß), it functioned both as an expression of commitment within the party and as a demonstrative statement to the outside world. Yet in spite of this demand for the outward display of obedience, the drive to gain acceptance did not go unchallenged, even within the movement. Early objections focused on its resemblance to the Roman salute employed by Fascist Italy, and hence on it not being Germanic. In response, efforts were made to establish its pedigree and invent a proper tradition after the fact.

The compulsory use of the Hitler salute for all public employees followed a directive issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on July 13, 1933, one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties. The Wehrmacht refused to adopt the Hitler salute and was able for a time to maintain its own customs. The military were required to use the Hitler salute only while singing the Horst Wessel Lied and German national anthem, and in non-military encounters such as greeting members of the civilian government. Only after the July 20 Plot in 1944 were the military forces of the Third Reich ordered to replace the standard military salute with the Hitler salute.

Elsewhere

Similar forms of salutes were adopted by various groups. Its use in France dates back to 1925, when the Jeunesses Patriotes (Patriotic Youth), a movement led by Pierre Taittinger, would give the fascist salute at meetings while shouting "Dictatorship!". Marcel Bucard's Mouvement Franciste, founded in September 1933, adopted the salute as well as donning blue shirts and blue berets. François Coty's Solidarité Française used the salute as well, though its leaders denied the movement was fascist. By 1937, rivalry amongst French right wing parties sometimes caused confusion over salutes. The Parti Populaire Français, generally regarded as the most pro-Nazi of France's collaborationist parties, adopted a variant of the salute that distinguished itself from others by slightly bending the hand and holding it at face level.

In the early 1930s, the salute was used by members of the Estonian nationalist right wing Vaps Movement, as well as the Brazilian Integralism movement, who used to salute by raising one arm. The Brazilian form of the Salute was called "Anauê" – a word used as a salutation and as a cry by the Brazilian indigenous Tupi people, meaning "you are my brother".

In Greece in 1936, when Ioannis Metaxas and his 4th of August Regime took power, an almost identical salute was adopted – first by the National Youth Organization and later by the government as well as common people – and used even while fighting against Italy and Germany in WW2.

In Spain, on April 27, 1937, General Francisco Franco formally approved the salute in a decree which made it the official salutation to be used by all except the military, who would continue to use the traditional military salutes. This was repealed in September 1945. When the Franco regime restored "Marcha Real" as the Spanish national anthem in 1942 and established new lyrics for it, the first stanza referred to the fascist salute: "Alzad los brazos, hijos del pueblo español" ("Raise your arms, sons of the Spanish people"). These lyrics remained part of the Spanish national anthem until 1978.

After a meeting with Mussolini, in December 1937, Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović adopted a version of the salute as he took to styling himself as Vodja (Leader).

On January 4, 1939, the salute by raising one arm was adopted in Romania under a statute promulgating the Romanian Front of National Rebirth. In Slovakia, the Hlinka Guard's Na stráž! (On guard!) consisted of a half-hearted compromise between a friendly wave and a salute with a straight raised arm.

Italy

Fascist symbols are banned by the postwar Italian Constitution. Specifically, the constitution forbids the reconstitution of the fascist party. According to the Scelba Law, passed June 20, 1952, such a reconstitution occurs when five or more people support undemocratic goals. On June 25, 1993 the Mancino law extended the prohibition to all forms of racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination. Public demonstrations, meetings, and publications of such a kind are banned. Sanctions include being barred from sporting events, and suspension of drivers licenses and passports. These laws, however, are difficult to enforce and seldom used.

The salute has been used many times by prominent individuals as well as groups of people since the war. Famed poet Ezra Pound used the salute in praise of his adopted country of Italy when he returned in 1958 after being released from an insane asylum in America. The salute was on display in the 1968 funeral for Mussolini's youngest daughter, Anna Maria Mussolini Negri. When the Italian Social Movement had its greatest electoral gains since the Second World War in June, 1971, crowds at the party headquarters cheered and gave the outstretched arm salute. On July 29, 1983, on the 100th anniversary of Mussolini's birth, thousands of black-shirted supporters chanted "Duce! Duce!" with their arms raised in the fascist salute on a march from his native village of Predappio in Romagna to the cemetery where he was buried. On the eve of Silvio Berlusconi's election victory in 1994, young supporters of Gianfranco Fini made the fascist salute while chanting "Duce! Duce!"

In 2005, Italian footballer Paolo Di Canio created controversy by twice using the gesture to salute S.S. Lazio fans, first in a match against archrivals A.S. Roma (a team widely supported by Rome's Jewish population) and then against A.S. Livorno Calcio (a club inclined to leftist politics). Di Canio received a one match game ban after the second event and was fined 7,000 Euros, after which he was quoted as saying "I will always salute as I did because it gives me a sense of belonging to my people [...] I saluted my people with what for me is a sign of belonging to a group that holds true values, values of civility against the standardisation that this society imposes upon us." His salute featured on unofficial merchandise sold outside Stadio Olimpico after the ban. Lazio was Mussolini's favorite team. Di Canio has also expressed admiration for Mussolini.

In June, 2009, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, an Italian politician and businesswoman commonly described as a possible successor to Silvio Berlusconi for leadership of the Italian right, was caught in a controversy over her alleged use of the Roman salute, with calls for her to step down. She denied the accusation, stating "I've never either done or thought of doing any gesture that is an apology of fascism, something toward which I've never showed any indulgence, let alone sympathy. And why should I have made a public display of such a despicable gesture shortly after I've been made a minister?" A video of the event was posted on the Web site of the newspaper La Repubblica that showed Brambilla extending her right arm upward in what appears to be a fascist salute. Brambilla said she was just greeting the crowd.

Germany

Use of the salute and accompanying phrases has been forbidden by law in Germany since the end of World War II. Section 86a of the German Penal Code provides for punishment of up to three years in prison for anyone using the salute, unless it is used for artistic, scientific, or educational purposes.

Greece

The Greek nationalist party Golden Dawn uses the Roman salute unofficially. Golden Dawn is accused by its opponents of being neo-Nazi, but the party denies this and claims that the salute is ancient Greek or Roman, and that it is used as a tribute to Ioannis Metaxas and his 4th of August Regime which led Greece against the foreign occupation forces in WWII.

The Levant

The Roman salute appears to be in common use in the Levant. It is used by supporters and fighters of Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, pro-Assad NDF and Assad supporters, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and the Kataeb Party. Opposition fighters in Syria have also been filmed and documenting using it on multiple occasions. From its use, a connection between Nazism and these groups is often alleged. Often these allegations are raised at the expense of the opposing groups, pro-Assad sympathizers alleging Nazi sympathies of the Opposition and vice versa. However, the oath of allegiance by the Lebanese army, and the salute to the flag utilizes the Roman salute - possibly influenced by Vichy France shortly before independence was officially gained in 1944 - still continues to be used by the state today.

Red Hand of Ulster Salute

The Red Hand of Ulster Salute is a modified version of the Roman Salute in which the hand is raised vertically to symbolise the Red Hand of Ulster. It is used by some Rangers F.C. fans to show an affinity with the Loyalist cause. Its similarity to the Nazi salute has caused offence and the football club and its supporters' association have requested fans to stop using it.

Popular culture

A large number of films made after World War II made the Roman salute a visual stereotype of a proto-fascist ancient Roman society. In the 1951 film Quo Vadis, Nero's repeated use of the salute at mass rallies explicitly presents the Roman Empire as a Fascist military state. The movie provided other filmmakers of the time a model, with notable examples including Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Caligula. Not until Gladiator did the Roman epic return to the cinema. In this movie, the salute is notably absent in most scenes, for example when Commodus enters Rome or when the Senate salutes the Emperor by head-bowing.

Variations on the salute also appear in neo-fascist contexts. For example, The Christian Falangist Party, founded in 1985, uses a "pectoral salute", in which the right arm, bent at the elbow, is extended from the heart, palm down. This gesture was used in François Truffaut's 1966 film Fahrenheit 451. The film portrays a futuristic totalitarian society modeled after the fascist state, including black uniforms, book burnings, and thought control. In the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", the salute begins with the right fist being placed over the heart, as in a pectoral salute, and then the arm is stretched out (usually up) before the body, open palm down, as in a traditional Roman salute. In the episode, Captain Kirk and members of his crew are transported to a parallel universe in which the United Federation of Planets has been replaced by an empire characterized by sadistic violence and torture, genocide, and unquestioning obedience to authority. A modified Roman salute is commonly used in the British-American series Rome. Here the salute avoids similarity to the Fascist salute, as the series seeks not to depict these Romans as stereotypical conquerors. Therefore, the salute is not the familiar straight arm salute but rather resembles a pectoral salute, with the right hand is placed over the heart and then extended to the front of the body.