ABSTRACT
In 1926 December 30, the lictors' fasces, the symbol of Fascism, became the official emblem of the state, and Italians recognized that, with the year that was ending, a stage of their history was being concluded. Henceforth they would live under a new system that had been established through two years of intense legislative labor—the ultra-Fascist laws—and the indifferent, like the advocates and the adversaries, saw that Fascism '"was solidly entrenched behind the government". From 1926 to 1935—almost ten years—Fascism limited itself to the exaltation of nationalism, to the proliferation of belligerent statements without, however, engaging in any military adventure. The more the years went on the more the world of II Duce betrayed its artificial character. Between Mussolini and reality there were not only his own blindness and the adulation of his intimates but also the host of policemen of the "Presidential Brigade" who became a kind of outside extension of the walls of Palazzo Venezia.
