Editing Fasces (section)

== Post-classical reception ==
[[File:V&A - Raphael, The Conversion of the Proconsul (1515).jpg|thumb|Raphael's ''Conversion of the Proconsul'' (1515), depicting fasces to the left of the magistrate]]

While the Latin word {{lang|la|fasces}} did not fall out of use in the mediaeval period, its technical meaning was forgotten. By the end of the first millennium, it was glossed as "somehow connot[ing] 'supreme power' or 'official honours{{'"}}.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=111}} For example, {{circa|1439}}, [[Jean de Rovroy]], when translating [[Frontinus]]' [[Stratagems (Frontinus)|''Stratagems'']], was deceived by a [[false cognate]] and thought {{lang|la|fasces}} referred to ribbons Roman magistrates would wear on their heads; such misconceptions were apparently common, and dated back to the 11th century.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=111}} Visual representations of the bundle itself were rare – the 11th century AD [[Junius manuscript]] excepted – until the Renaissance.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=110–11}}

=== Renaissance ===
Renaissance humanists, especially those who read more Latin, however, quickly became well-informed on fasces and their legal technicalities, including the customary removal of axes within the city, lowering before the people, and alternation by the consuls. By the first decade of the 16th century, references to fasces in a more Roman context started to appear.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=112}} At the same time, recognisable depictions started to reappear in Italy, such as [[Raphael]]'s painting ''Conversion of the Proconsul'' ({{circa|1515}}).{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=113–14}}

By the mid-1500s, the fasces also began to symbolise other things which would have been "unimportant or even unknown to the Romans".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=116}} [[Pope Clement VIII]]'s reassertion of Papal juridical authority after the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sack of Rome]] in 1527 started iconographic developments that would associate fasces with personifications of [[Justice]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=118}}

[[File:Blason Jules Mazarini (alias Mazarin) (1602-1661).svg|thumb|Coat of arms of [[Cardinal Mazarin]], the first to include fasces on arms in modern times{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=126}}]]

Syncretism of fasces with the [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop fable]] of a bundle of sticks being harder to break than each stick alone associated fasces also with domestic concord and in art with personifications of [[Concordia (mythology)|Concord]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=119–20}} This symbology also merged with that of justice in that unbinding the rods and axes promoted reflection over just action.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=122}} In this context, [[Cardinal Mazarin]] placed fasces on his coat of arms, "the first individual in the modern era to do so".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=126}}

From here, depictions of fasces exploded. Antje Middeldorf-Kosegarten, in ''Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte'',

{{Blockquote|
charts for the post-Ripa period [after 1603] a proliferation of the fasces as symbol across almost every conceivable visual medium, from architectural sculpture to decorative arts, in paintings of every type, on monuments that range from honorific arches to tombs, as well as in medallic art and engravings...{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=128}}
}}

By the mid-seventeenth century, fasces had become "well established throughout Europe as a catch-all symbol for stable and competent governance". It also expanded to symbolise competent corporate governance.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=133}} Yet, due to a massive expansion in meaning, the symbol seemed to have died by the 1760s, muddled as little more than a reference to the past.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=135}}

=== Revolution ===
[[File:George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon - DSC05829.JPG|thumb|A bronze cast of [[Jean-Antoine Houdon]]'s statue of [[George Washington]]. Washington's left arm rests on a cloak over fasces with thirteen rods.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=140}} ]]

As an emblem, fasces made their way to the colonies in [[British colonization of the Americas|British North America]].{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=138}} There, during the [[American Revolution]], the fasces' symbology as referencing strength through unity was adopted as a symbol of the united colonial effort against British rule.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=138 et seq}}

Fasces similarly came to adopt a privileged symbology during the [[French Revolution]]. First referring to the 83 [[Departments of France|departments]] of 1789, as a symbol of unity, it came to be associated with [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|''fraternité'']] and a united French people.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=142–43}} Topped with a [[Phrygian cap]], fasces were seen as a reference to the "imagined spirit of the early Roman republic [and] its assertion of ideals of liberty and justice against tyranny".{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=144}} In France, however, use of fasces as a symbol declined starting with the establishment of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] in 1799 through to the proclamation of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] in 1848.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=153–55}}

Similar usage proliferated in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Haiti, in its revolution against France, coined with many depictions of fasces, as did [[First Mexican Republic|Mexico]] during its first republic, Ecuador, Chile, and the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] of 1798.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|p=152}}