New Roman Empire

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The New Roman Empire (Italian: "Nuovo Impero Romano", Latin: "Novum Imperium Romanum") was the new "state" created by Benito Mussolini to describe the Italian colonial empire, especially following Italy's 1935–36 conquest of Abyssinia. It was born during the height of Italian nationalism and contained references to the Roman period:

The Adriatic Sea was called "Mare Nostro" (Italian for "Our Sea") after the Italians invaded Albania and thus gained almost complete control over the Adriatic. It is a direct reference to the Roman name for the Mediterranean, which was called "Mare Nostrum" because the Romans had complete control over the sea.

The name of the Italian regime — "Fascism" comes from the Roman fasces or the Roman symbol for power.

The capital of the Italian state was Rome, just like in the Roman period.

King Victor Emmanuel III was crowned emperor (albeit of Ethiopia, and he never had the title of "Caesar").

Mussolini's Italy is a textbook example of how extreme nationalism looks to the past: Italians, in an attempt to vault their state as perhaps the most glorious in the world, looked to the past for any imagery — distorting it if they had to — that they could use to show that they were once a great state and were now a restoration of that greatness. Since the Roman period is arguably Italy's finest period by far, Mussolini chose to identify his Italy as the restored Roman State.

The states of the "New Roman Empire" were:

Italy
Albania
Libya (south annexed to Italy during Mussolini's reign)
Eritrea
Italian Somaliland
Ethiopia (conquered by Italy in 1936, though not internationally recognized)

Unintended consequences

The creation of the New Roman Empire by Benito Mussolini sparked the creation of the entire prophetic program of Herbert W. Armstrong who based his theological interpretation of the Bible upon this event. According to Armstrong's theology, Mussolini was to become the Beast of Revelation with the Pope becoming the image of the Beast. When it became clear to Armstrong that World War II (which he interpreted as a mere continuation of the original Great War) was not going according to his prophetic plan with Adolf Hitler taking center stage, Armstrong began announcing during WWII that there would be a further attempt to recreate the Roman Empire. As the Common Market began to emerge after the War, Armstrong then declared that it would become a United States of Europe and form the basis for the final rival before the end of the human age and the return of Jesus Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords ruling over the world for one thousand years.

Armstrong's magazine The Plain Truth described these events beginning with its first edition in 1934. His second prediction called for the new USE to destroy both the UK and USA beginning at some time after February 1972 and concluding in 1975. When that event also failed to happen, Armstrong became a self-styled 'Ambassador for World Peace' visiting heads of state until his death in 1986. His Worldwide Church of God then repudiated its founder and most of his beliefs and its membership then fractured into dozens of competing cults and sects. At the peak of his influence, Herbert W. Armstrong's magazine had a circulation of millions and his worldwide broadcasts and telecasts featuring his son Garner Ted Armstrong were among the largest buyers of commercial media airtime.

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