Was it? Look at the first century BC. Octavian took power and transformed the Republic into an empire. Even the word fascism comes from the Latin Fasces, a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle, used to execute citizens at the order of magistrates. The story of Rome is absolutely about fascist self destruction.
It’s true that fasces is an Italian word, but Fascism was coined by Benito Mussolini in 1915. I do see your point about the characteristics being present throughout Ancient Rome though.
The modern term of fascism can be applied in retrospect. For example, early America can easily be described as an Apartheid during chattel slavery and the Jim Crow era. And the ethnic cleansing of native Americans can be described as a genocide despite the term being coined in the 1940s
Considering in the times of ancient Rome that barbarian, which is a dehumanizing term, referred to practically any native people Rome was intent on conquering to expand the empire. I think it fits
Was it? Look at the first century BC. Octavian took power and transformed the Republic into an empire. Even the word fascism comes from the Latin Fasces, a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle, used to execute citizens at the order of magistrates. The story of Rome is absolutely about fascist self destruction.
It’s true that fasces is an Italian word, but Fascism was coined by Benito Mussolini in 1915. I do see your point about the characteristics being present throughout Ancient Rome though.
The modern term of fascism can be applied in retrospect. For example, early America can easily be described as an Apartheid during chattel slavery and the Jim Crow era. And the ethnic cleansing of native Americans can be described as a genocide despite the term being coined in the 1940s
Considering in the times of ancient Rome that barbarian, which is a dehumanizing term, referred to practically any native people Rome was intent on conquering to expand the empire. I think it fits