Immediately following the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Elon Musk addressed crowds at the parade congregated in the Capital One Arena. After thanking the crowd for showing up to re-elect the 45th president, he overshadowed the whole day by twice making a gesture that many have interpreted as the Nazi salute or “Sieg Heil” used first by Fascists in Italy in the 1920s and then adopted by members of the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s.
The response to this moment was immediate, with many on the left decrying this as “abhorrent” and something that “must worry every democrat,” while others denied he was making a fascist salute. The Anti-Defamation League, which has been very vocal in the past 15 months in calling out the antisemitism of Palestinian protests and anti-Israel sentiment, said in a tweet that he made “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” and Dr. Aaron Astor, a historian at Maryville College, TN wrote that it was “a socially awkward autistic man’s wave to the crowd where he says ‘my heart goes out to you,’” gaslighting people with a healthy dose of ableism. The far-right and various domestic terrorist groups in fact celebrated Musk’s actions, identifying it precisely as a Nazi salute, with infamous extremist figures such as Nick Fuentes, Evan Kilgore, and Keith Woods all praising Musk and his actions. And for a figure who has voiced his support for far-right movements in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy, all of whom have ties to fascist groups or histories, should we really be surprised that he would behave in such a way?
While the debate will continue to rage, it is also the Roman connection to this action that interests me. Mainstream media and people on the right have been referring to his salute as a Roman salute. This term has a long history, but it turns out not even close to long enough to include the actual Romans. George Mason University Classicist Martin Winkler has done a deep dive into the history of the so-called Roman salute, and has conclusively proven that the Roman salute was invented in the theatrical productions of the nineteenth century for use during “toga plays” inspired by Jacques-Louis David’s 1784 painting The Oath of the Horatii.
It subsequently made its way into the general mindset through the invention of cinema. While Roman art depicts salutes and greetings that are similar, none reflect the specific salute performed by Elon Musk at the inauguration parade. It was instead this media proliferation of the Roman salute, featuring a thump of the chest and then the full extension of the right arm at around 135° with palm down, that led to its use by extremist political groups in the twentieth century. Although it had existed for decades in fictional displays of ancient Roman power, it was not given its explicitly fascist ideological meaning until 1919 when Italian Gabriele D’Annunzio used it at a ritual in Fiume, inspiring Mussolini to adopt it.
That a symbol of Romanitas, albeit a fictional one, should be taken up by the fascist parties of the early-to-mid twentieth century is not surprising, given Mussolini’s explicit propagandistic program of framing his Italy as the new Roman Empire and Hitler’s fascination with Germany’s alleged connection to ancient Greece. Fascist political parties and their supporters throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day have connected themselves to the ancient world through the use of ancient symbols in an attempt to legitimize their white supremacist goals and activities. Images from the ancient world and phrases such as Molon Labe (Come and take them – a phrase attributed to Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans stood against the Persian army and adopted by proponents of the second Amendment and the NRA) were seen in abundance during the January 6th, 2021 insurrection attempt at the Capitol. Nick Fuentes, celebrating Musk’s salute in an unhinged video, starts to call it the Roman salute but then ends up referring to it as “a straight-up, like, Sieg Heil.” So why is the mainstream media referring to it as a Roman salute?
I am willing to give some benefit of the doubt to the mainstream media, which, like so much of the population, has received the messaging that such a salute originated in the Roman world through cinema and imagery. For example, an Al-Jazeera article discussing the salute the following day stated that the “gesture dates back to a salute that is said to have been used in ancient Rome.” Many people do indeed say this, albeit erroneously, because that claim has been baked into the social consciousness. However, more cynically, and, unfortunately, I believe more accurately, is that it is in the best interest of our mainstream media, controlled by the billionaire elite who have pledged their support for the new president, to act as apologists for the new regime and aid the transition to authoritarianism.
That the mainstream media has a white supremacist agenda and provides national and local affiliate stations with acceptable talking points is a widely known ‘secret,’ and this very gesture helps to illustrate exactly this point. While the rest of the world openly acknowledged that Musk was performing a Sieg Heil salute, with Germany’s Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology going so far as to remove a portrait of him from their astronautics gallery, US news has generally ‘both sides’ed that moment. While some may argue that it is just balanced journalism, I would like to draw attention to an article from Fox 5 DC written by Jillian Smith on January 21st, in which the author directly quotes from Winkler’s previously mentioned academic work. She states that “the saluto Romano was previously used as a sign of respect in ancient Roman culture.”
The whole thesis of Winkler’s work The Roman Salute: Cinema, History, Ideology is that the claim that the Nazi salute is Roman is false. Smith quotes “This salute was based on an ancient Roman custom, just as the term Fascism itself is associated with the Roman fasces – the bundle of rods with an axe in their middle that were a symbol of the power of office held by higher Roman magistracies and some priests.” However, the sentence she quotes starts with the phrase “According to the Fascist ideology of the 1920s and in common perceptions still current…” and the sentence is followed by the statement, “As will be seen, however, the term “Roman salute” is a misnomer.” That she saw the text of his work and omitted these phrases suggests a conscious downplaying of the gesture and an attempt to obfuscate the ties to Nazism by associating it with Rome, an imperial power used historically and today by colonizing countries and enterprises to legitimize the atrocities capitalist white supremacy needs to enact to succeed. The links between the discipline of Classics and white supremacy are many and constitute a much larger discussion. Still, as a good rule of thumb, wherever you see references to ancient Greece and Rome in so-called Western culture, it is always good to ask yourself why they are being used, whom the references benefit, and whom they exclude.
Dr. Ian Lockey is a teacher at Friends Select School in Philadelphia
This is fascinating, and hardly surprising. The fabrication of a romantically mythic, but “usable,” past by fascist ideologues seems always to have been part of the program.
A lovely and objective response to a main-stream political talking point. I suppose, anyway, the conversation stems further than the load-bearing motion people rush to defend.
Thank you for your informed and cautionary account. As a former teacher of Classics I appreciate you pointing out ill-informed or deliberately partisan uses of Roman and Greek heritage, even though I am not apologetic about issues of imperialism and sexism in it, that, I am afraid, are very actual