4.1 Reflection

My podcast explores the origins and impact of Italian fascism and the influence of Augustus and Mussolini on modern Italian politics. I chose this topic even though I am not very knowledgeable in the sphere of politics (or podcasting), but I was excited to learn something new, and I was really interested in assessing the relationship between modern and ancient politics.

The sources I used for this assessment consisted of scholarly articles discussing the influence of Augustus over Mussolini’s regime and the development of fascism and Mussolini’s cult of personality. I also used open access online articles discussing Roman architecture, Augustus’ public image and the administration of Giorgia Meloni. Throughout my research and the development of my podcast script, I had to discern what information I felt was most important to the larger story I was trying to tell, given I had a time limit to work within and my discussion surrounded the political interconnectedness of multiple different time periods.

Although Mussolini found inspiration throughout antiquity, I focused particularly on his relationship to Augustus, as it struck me as the most prevalent in the development of Mussolini’s cult of personality. Mussolini wanted a long reign and a firm grip on the public’s perception of him. He believed the best way to achieve this was to follow in the footsteps of Augustus as closely as he could for as long as he could.

An obstacle that came up during the production was that as I was talking about the links between Mussolini’s fascist ideologies and the modern Italian political climate, I did not want to come across as too critical of Italy or Italian citizens in the more general sense. I wanted the podcast to reflect my own opinion as well as discuss the facts. As someone who is politically left leaning, I wanted to be clear that I did not agree with the values of Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy.