"Perhaps the most eloquent tribute that could be paid him was the great respect and fear demonstrated by Mussolini in the years following the Fiume adventure... Everyone from Mussolini to Premier Franceso Saverio Nitti realized that D'Annunzio could have led a successful march on Rome during his reign at Fiume..."
- Michael A. Ledeen, 'The First Duce'
"I drink to the roses which will flower from the blood."
- Gabriele D'Annunzio, at a gathering in Venice in 1895
"We don't know what Nitti's government is thinking. All we can say is that, if necessary, thousands of volunteers - the best of Italy's youth - will be with D'Annunzio."
- Mussolini's "Long Live Fiume!," in Il Popolo d'Italia
"It is a great mistake to underrate D’Annunzio. This mari is a real force, not only by what he has been in the past, but by what he is, and stands for, to-day. No one did more to bring Italy into the war, and some of his speeches then, like his Fiume orations now, will endure as long as the Italian language. He fought on land, at sea, and in the air. He was severely wounded, and even after the loss of his right eye he remained in the fight. He has always dreamed of a greater Italy, supreme in the Adriatic and extending its influence over the Balkans. He is quite sure that Italy has been robbed of the spoils of victory by the “ingratitude and egotism” of the Allies, and he is just as ready to give his life now for what he believes to be his country’s due as he was to die for her in battle."- from "Fiume Under D'Annunzio" in MacLean's Magazine, 1 Dec. 1920
"The speech of the crown did not take a clear position against the subversive forces which were menacing nothing less than our whole national unity. It forgot the question of Fiume - a torch which held out a flame for our national spirit."- Mussolini, 'My Autobiography'Image: Mussolini visiting D'Annunzio in 1925
"It stands at the very entrance of the Foro Mussolini and it will immortalize for eternity the fortunes of the fatherland, restored by the Leader, the excellent and unconquered spirit of the Leader regarding the fatherland, the immovable loyalty of the citizens to the Leader, and the outstanding achievements of Fascism."
- Codex Fori Mussolini, 27 Oct. 1932, inscribed by Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci
Image: Monolithic obelisk at the Foro Mussolini. The Codex Fori Mussolini was hidden at its base, and only recently recovered.
"To celebrate the birth of Rome means to celebrate our kind of civilization, it means to exalt our history and our race, it means to lean firmly on the past in order to project better onto the future."
- Benito Mussolini, "Past and Future," in Il Popolo d'Italia
