I started wondering about this for no particular reason I can think of. Who’s idea was it? Was it supposed to be symbolic of something? Did they just start passing out pamphlets at rallies titled: “Forget everything you THINK you know about public greetings!”?

  • frankPodmore@slrpnk.net
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    10 hours ago

    As other people have said, it was borrowed from the Italian fascists, who themselves got it from an 18th century painting showing a famous event from Roman history/legend. There’s no evidence that it was ever actually used in Ancient or Classical Rome.

    Funny side story is that some Nazis and other German nationalists thought it wasn’t ‘German’ enough, so the leading Nazis felt they had to invent an older ‘Germanic’ tradition to justify its usage. So, it’s a fake German tradition that was in fact borrowed from the Italians, who got it from a fake Roman tradition that was actually made up by a French guy.

        • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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          8 hours ago

          Both are mishmash and attributed to how the Romans legacy still fucks with shit

          If you are unaware, Christianity was a Jewish sect that became a mainstay religion because of the Roman Emperor Constantine turning the Romans into Christians

          • davepleasebehave@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            nah man. it was invented by the Flavians as a way to pacify Judea. it just got out of hand. get up to date with the cool new conspiracies.