Expanding the Roman Imperial Analogy

Abstract

Chapter 3 addresses Jones’s complex analogy between ancient and modern empires which would eventually include all the destructive regimes of his era. While the events of the 1930s only reinforced his distrust of British imperialism and communism, they also encouraged him to explore fascism’s claims to stand as a challenge to Western crisis. Jones’s fears of war, support of appeasement, rejection of capitalist democracy and even his Catholic identity drew him to sympathise with Adolf Hitler (raising questions around his response to anti-Semitic discourse), yet by the end of the Second World War he had come to reject all forms of fascism. This chapter maps the controversial journey of Jones’s thought and the shape it gave to his vision of Rome. It examines his sustained engagement with fascism—tracing the ways he interweaves fascist rhetoric of revived Roman Empires with his criticisms of other modern regimes—until Rome emerges as a symbol of pure totalitarian power.