by L. Livia Plauta on Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:20 am
Salvete,
finally I have time on my hands to answer this question by Valerius Poplicola, which is one of the main reasons I joined this forum.
At least I am italian, and even if I haven't lived in Italy for the last 15 years I still spent at least two months a year there, so I feel I am competent emough on the subject.
1. Of Benito Mussolini's plan to bring back the Roman empire;
This is actually the crucial point of any talk about ancient Rome. Unfortunately fascists used so much of the visual and conceptual repertoire of ancient Rome, that they got a kind of monopoly, and even if 60 years have passed, still in Italy any mention of reviving roman values will make people automatically think of fascism.
When I tell people in Italy that I joined Nova Roma and what it is all about the first questions they ask is: "are you sure these roman wannabes are not fascists?". So of course I have to explain all about the republican and democratic values of romanity, blah, blah, and I explain that these organizations actually make big efforts to keep fascists out.
The end of it is that they say:"Yes, yes", while from their faces I can see they still believe I've fallen into the clutches of the extreme right.
What most people think of Mussolini's attempt in concrete is that it was totally ridiculous, but the emotional undertones vary according to people's age. A lot of aged people remember (usually not fondly) when in their childhood they had to march as "figli della lupa" (the she-wolf's children) or "piccole italiane". Even younger people who had no part in fascism have seen documentaries, or sometimes have the chance to see every day some of the fascist buildings, with the pseudo-roman iconography.
In fact in Italy any public mention of the "glorious roman past" has been taboo for decades. Only recently the roman town authorities feel ancient Rome is de-politicized enough that they can be really proud about it. That's probably why there has finally been a wave of restorations, discoveries, and opening to the public of a lot of sites that were totally abandoned before.
2. Of modern pagans following after the ancient religion;
Here, again the first reaction of people who hear about neopagans is to ask whether they're fascists. This is partly justified, because neopaganism in Italy and the rest of Europe really has a right wing tradition, and part of the pagan organizations in Italy are (more or less disguisedly) fascist.
On the opposite side of the scale, there seem to also be extreme left-wing pagan organizations. In this case they are prompted by a reaction to christianity as the oppressive and monopolistic state religion, while paganism is seen as an embodiment of pluralism and democracy, which is basically the same train of thought present in other european countries.
It's hard to say what average people think of neopagans, because they hardly ever have a chance to meet any, and there's no relevant media coverage of neopaganism.
As far as I kow, the main attitude is one of "you never know". Some of the Christians probably think there's no harm in worshipping the classical gods too, "just in case". There might be people who consider them demons, but traditional believing Christians are a very small minority in Italy, and they probably worry more about the far wider presence of satanists.
The vast majority of the population varies from the very mild believing Christians (those who only go to church twice a year), the "generic" believers (those who believe in a God, but not the christian one), to the complete atheists. For atheists paganism is just a superstition like any other religion, but I can say by experience that most view it with far more sympathy than monotheistic religions.
One can't forget that the Gods are still present somehow in collective conscience: from expressions ("in culo a Giove" means in a very remote place) to metaphors.
All in all, I have the impression that few Italians would risk the enmity of the Gods by turning openly against neopagans, if they are otherwise acceptable from a political point of view, at most they think they're a bit crazy.
3. Of those who wish to restore the ancient glories such as the colosseo?
Here I don't understand what you mean. If you mean restoration of ancient monuments, of course everybody is favourable. If you mean restoring the use for the colosseum, well, nobody ever proposed that.
4. Of Christianity in relation to pre-Christian ancient Rome?
Christians usually view Christianity as a a huge progress compared to pre-christian cults, which they consider superstitions, and they are convinced that morals as we know them were created by Christianity.
Atheists consider all religions as superstitions. Some of them buy the teory that Christianity had a positive historical role because of its "modern" morality, while others think that, as a monotheistic religion, it was instrumental in shifting the political system to a dictatorship, while polytheism was related with pluralism and freedom of speech.
Basically this is the same range of positions you can find in the rest of Europe.
In Italy, though, what everybody will underline (with the exception of the most "hardcore" Christians, but they are an insignificant minority) is the continuity between Christianity and the pre-existent cults. People know that most of the ancient festivals have been preserved and adapted by Christianity, and that the cult of Saints is the direct descendant of the cult of Gods, so in fact most people tend to think that ALL festivals and traditional celebrations in Italy have a pre-christian origin (which is not always the case).
Well, amice Poplicola, I hope I have partly satisfied your curiosity.
If you want to know more you can always ask the same question over at the italian list of NR.
Cura ut valeas,
Livia