Roman Salute - Early 20th Century in Theatre and Film

Early 20th Century in Theatre and Film

The gesture, already established in the United States through the Bellamy salute, has been traced to the Broadway production of the play Ben-Hur. The play, based on Lew Wallace's book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, opened on Broadway in November, 1899 and proved to be a great success. Photographs show several scenes using the gesture, including one of Ben-Hur greeting a seated sheik and another of a small crowd so greeting Ben-Hur in his chariot. Neither Wallace's novel nor text for the theatrical production mentions a raised arm salute. The salute was evidently added in keeping with the exaggerated style of acting in 19th century theater, which in turn influenced acting in the silent cinema.

The salute frequently occurs in early 20th century films set in antiquity, such as the American Ben-Hur (1907) and the Italian Nerone (1908), although such films do not yet standardize it or make it exclusively Roman. In Spartaco (1914), even the slave Spartacus uses it. Later examples appear in Ben-Hur (1925) and in Cecil B. DeMille’s Sign of the Cross (1932) and Cleopatra (1934), although the execution of the gesture is still variable.

Of special note is the use in Giovanni Pastrone’s colossal epic Cabiria (1914). The screenplay was attributed to Italian nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio, who was known as the "poet-warrior". Inspired by the Italo-Turkish War, in which Italy conquered the North African Ottoman province of Tripolitania, Pastrone perused a politically volatile issue. The film highlights Italy's Roman past and the "monstrous" nature of Carthaginian society, which is contrasted with the "nobility" of Roman society. Cabiria was one of several films of the period that "helped resuscitate a distant history that legitimized Italy's past and inspired its dreams" and which "delivered the spirit for conquest that seemed to arrive from the distant past", thereby presaging the "political rituals of fascism", "thanks ... to its prime supporter and apostle, Gabriele d'Annunzio."

Variations on the salute occur throughout Cabiria on the part of Romans and Africans. Scipio uses the gesture once. Fulvius Axilla, the story's fictitious hero, twice employs it as a farewell greeting to his hosts. The Numidian king Massinissa, guest of the Carthaginian Hasdrubal, raises his right hand and is so greeted in return, once by the strongman Maciste. Princess Sophonisba and King Syphax mutually great each other by raising their hands and declining their bodies. The diversity of the gesture and the variety of nationalities who use it in Cabria is seen as further evidence that the salute is a modern invention, used in the film to highlight the exotic nature of antiquity.