Augustus and Franco’ s regime

Echoes of the Bimillenary of Augustus in Spain

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse several events in Spain between 1938 and 1940 as local echoes of the bimillenary of Augustus in Italy. In all these events a fundamental role was played by Falange, one of Spain’s leading fascist groups of the time, both in terms of intellectual direction and practical organisation. They had ties with the Mussolinian leaders and intellectuals, and one of the recurring themes in their propaganda was the fraternity between Italy and Spain which they dated back to a common, ancient Roman and Catholic past. In the first years of Franco’s new regime this classicist ideology, in particular the link with Augustus and ancient imperial Rome, contributed to the building of a new national identity, based on a glorious past and conducted by a new charismatic leader.