Fasces

St33L · Jan 16, 2015

Anyone make this before? It's a bundle of sticks with an axe blade. It's of pre-Roman origin... and I believe it's more for symbolic purposes, so function-wise, it's probably not as great over a solid handled axe... though it could work decently I guess.

According to Wiki...: "The fasces had its origin in the Etruscan civilization, and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a magistrate's power and jurisdiction."

And, if you think you've seen it before... you may have. It's on the reverse of the Mercury dime.

Larcivs Lepidvs · Jan 16, 2015

Not a weapon, but a symbol of power.

gadunz · Jan 16, 2015

And the origin of the word fascism.

EChoil · Jan 16, 2015

Good name for it. Gimme another vowel, Pat.

gadunz · Jan 16, 2015

And the origin of the word faggot

a faggot of sticks equals a bundle of wood sticks or billets that is 3 feet (0.91 m) in length and 2 feet (0.61 m) in circumference.[1] The measurement was standardised in ordinances by 1474.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(unit)

EChoil · Jan 16, 2015

A faggot is too large to take it in the ax. Would have to be much smaller.

St33L · Jan 19, 2015

How about a double fasces, as seen on this 1936 Gettysburg commemorative legal tender half dollar coin?

I think it will look better if the blades were larger though. I wonder if any bladesmith actually made a commemorative fasces before...

EDIT: Added a larger image of the reverse below.

B34NS · Jan 19, 2015

The sticks were usually wrapped around a complete axe, the head sticks out of the bundle. Not more than symbolism.

St33L · Jan 19, 2015

Gotcha, I do see what I think is the axe's pommel at the end of that double fasces. Still looks brutish though - imagine someone charging head on at you with that!

Probably hard to wield, unless the bundled sticks have a smaller diameter... or big hands I suppose lol.

Foilist · Jan 19, 2015

In Ancient Rome, elected magistrates had fasces, which were symbols of their legal and civic authority - sort of like a badge or a judge's gavel today. Typically escorts called lictors would hold the fasces for the magistrates.

Other Mediterranean civilizations used axes symbolically too. Little double axe icons have been excavated all over Bronze Age Minoan sites on Crete. In fact, the word Labyrinth (from the Minotaur myth set on Crete) means something like "place of the double axe."

Czechmate · Jan 19, 2015

St33L · Jan 20, 2015

Czechmate said:

I don't get the Walmart part... is something cheap? I feel slow right now lol.

Silvanus · Jan 20, 2015

St33L said:
I don't get the Walmart part... is something cheap? I feel slow right now lol.

It's implying that the individuals that shop at Walmart are poorly educated and would "axe" a question, rather than properly pronounce "ask"