Scipio Africanus: film, internal colonization and empire

Abstract

This paper analyses the film Scipione l'Africano ( Scipio the African) (Gallone, 1937), relating it to the fascist land reclamation and internal colonization project in the Pontine Marshes as well as Italy's imperial ambitions in Africa. The film, dealing with the defeat of Hannibal by Roman military leader Scipio, posits clear parallels between the Roman empire and the fascist regime, and between Scipio and Mussolini. The paper argues that the filming of Scipio the African on the `conquered' landscape of the Pontine Marshes was a metaphorical allusion to the supposedly successful Italian colonial project in Africa in the 1930s. The landscape of the Pontine Marshes is examined first of all, followed by analysis of the filming of Scipio the African in the marshes through newsreels from the era. The paper then examines the film's content, focusing on representational parallels between a glorious Roman past and a projected victorious fascist future, mediated through the success of the fascist internal colonization initiative in the Pontine Marshes.