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When Mussolini coined the term fascism, he adopted the ancient Roman fasces as its symbol—a bundle of rods, with an ax-head, bound together with unifying cords.

“The fasces is essentially a mobile kit for punishment,” Brennan said.

“Fully a quarter of all manhole covers in Rome still have the fasces on them.”

Brennan’s next book — due next year from Oxford University Press — is about another common feature of Roman architecture: fasces, those bundled rods that became a symbol of fascism.

Second from the left: Mussolini’s symbol, the fasces.