Dictionary of Meaning

<<Back
Please select a letter:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0-9

Roman Salute

*** Shopping-Tip: Roman Salute
Image:David - Oath of the Horatii.JPG Oath_of the Horatii thumb|300px|''[[Oath of the Horatii|The Oath of the Horatii'', by Jacques-Louis David.html" title="Meaning of The Oath of the Horatii.html" title="Meaning of thumb|300px|''[[Oath of the Horatii|The Oath of the Horatii">thumb|300px|''[[Oath of the Horatii|The Oath of the Horatii'', by Jacques-Louis David">The Oath of the Horatii.html" title="Meaning of thumb|300px|''[[Oath of the Horatii|The Oath of the Horatii">thumb|300px|''[[Oath of the Horatii|The Oath of the Horatii'', by Jacques-Louis David The '''Roman salute''' is a gesture in which the arm is held out forward straight, with palms down. Sometimes the arm is raised upward at an angle, sometimes it is held out parallel to the ground. Despite the gesture's name, it is unclear whether the Romans used it in the same context as understood in modern culture; the current interpretation of a "salute" would seem to have evolved over time, more substantially in recent periods.

History

Early images
image:TennisCourtOath.jpg left|thumb|250px|''The Tennis Court Oath'', by J-L David The salute was supposed to have been used in the Roman republic, but there is no clear evidence of this. Indeed it is not known whether salutes in the military sense existed at all in Roman culture. However, a number of images showing similar gestures exist from the Imperial era. These depict Roman leaders addressing their troops ("adlocutio" scenes). Usually the leader has his arm raised in a rhetorical gesture. In some images a few troops are also depicted with raised arms, possibly suggesting acclamation of the leader. Several such scenes appear on Trajan's column. [http://cheiron.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~trajan/images/hi/4.70.h.jpg] [http://cheiron.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~trajan/buildcartoon.cgi?13b] Image:Distribution of the Eagle Standards.jpg right|thumb|250px|a study for ''The Distribution of the Eagle Standards'', by J-L David The association of the gesture with Roman republican culture seems to have emerged in 18th century France with revolutionary and anti-monarchist movements of the era. Several paintings in the neoclassicism Neoclassical style depict Roman heroes adopting variants of the gesture. The most famous and influential of these is Jacques-Louis David's painting ''The Oath of the Horatii'' (1784), which illustrates a pledge of loyalty to the Roman republic. After the French Revolution of 1789, David was commissioned to depict the formation of the revolutionary government in a similar style. In the ''Tennis Court Oath'' (1792) the National Assembly (French Revolution) National Assembly are all depicted with their arms outstretched as they swear to create a new constitution. After the republican government was replaced by Napoleon's imperial regime, David further deployed the gesture in images of Napoleon receiving the acclamation and loyalty of his soldiers. These consciously imitated ancient Roman adlocutio scenes. The most important of these paintings is ''The Distribution of the Eagle Standards'' (1810). As the founder of the French academic art academic school of art, David was imitated by many painters during the nineteenth century, who regularly depicted the straight-arm gesture in scenes of Roman imperial history.

From oath to salute
{{main articles|Bellamy salute and Hitler salute}} These early images of the gesture are not strictly speaking salutes, since most actually depict the swearing of oaths. It was with this function that the so-called Bellamy salute was adopted in the United States in 1892 as part of the Pledge of Allegiance. This required that participants should initially bend their right arm with the hand held against the forehead, as in a conventional military salute. The arm should then be "extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the flag." Similar gestures were adopted elsewhere in the late nineteenth century among both nationalism nationalist and socialism socialist movements. Image:Hitler-car.jpg Hitler salute thumb|200px|Hitler giving the [[Hitler salute|Nazi salute.html" title="Meaning of Nazi salute.html" title="Meaning of thumb|200px|Hitler giving the [[Hitler salute|Nazi salute">thumb|200px|Hitler giving the [[Hitler salute|Nazi salute">Nazi salute.html" title="Meaning of thumb|200px|Hitler giving the [[Hitler salute|Nazi salute">thumb|200px|Hitler giving the [[Hitler salute|Nazi salute Image:Mussosalute.JPG Mussolini.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|120px|left|[[Mussolini giving the fascist salute.html" title="Meaning of 120px|left|thumb|120px|left|[[Mussolini giving the fascist salute">120px|left|[[Mussolini">thumb|120px|left|[[Mussolini giving the fascist salute It is unclear precisely when the oath gesture became transformed into a quasi-military salute, though it appears in this role in some Davidian paintings, most famously Jean-Léon Gérôme's popular ''Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant'' (Hail Caesar! We Who Are About to Die Salute You) of 1859. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/ave.html][http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/collection/popups/pc_european/details27.html] By the end of the 19th century it was adopted in various forms as a sign of allegiance in several mass movements. A version was adopted as the Olympic salute, with arms raised to the side of the body, as in ''The Oath of the Horatii.'' The gesture was also portrayed as a salute in a number of early films about ancient Rome, such as Ben Hur (1907 film) ''Ben Hur'' (1907), ''Nerone'' (1908), ''Spartaco'' (1914) and ''Cabiria'' (1914). The Italian nationalist writer and adventurer Gabriele D’Annunzio, who had scripted ''Cabiria'', appropriated the salute with a neo-Imperial meaning when he occupied Fiume in 1919. [http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/03mtg/abstracts/Winkler.html] It was later taken up by the Italian fascism fascist party to symbolise their claim to have revivified Italy on the model of ancient Rome. In the Italian version the arm was typically raised quite high above the shoulder with the palm bent outwards, in a rhetorical manner similar to Roman imperial statuary. Other fascist groups also adopted versions of the salute, including the German Nazi party, in which the arm was raised smartly to the front, at right angles to the chest with the palm turned downwards. Because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Hitler salute Nazi salute, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the The Star-Spangled Banner national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute. This was done when United States Congress Congress officially adopted the United States Flag Code ''Flag Code'' on June 22, 1942. The association with Nazism has been so strong that the salute has rarely been used by non-Nazi organizations since the end of World War II. There are several exceptions; one is the Republic of China (Taiwan), where the salute is still used during the swearing of oaths in inaugurations. The salute is also still used by some Palestinian militant groups, and the Basij militia in Iran. It is also known to be used by the Tamil separatist organization, the LTTE, while saluting their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. In 2005, Italian football player Paolo Di Canio created controversy by using the gesture on several occasions to salute S.S. Lazio fans. Di Canio has also expressed admiration for Mussolini.

See also
*''Ave'' *Raised fist *Thumbs-down *Thumbs-up Category:Ancient Rome Category:Gestures Category:Greetings it:Saluto romano sv:Romersk salut see Roman salute

*** Shopping-Tip: Roman Salute