Talk:Littorio/@comment-112.206.204.91-20150908144323/@comment-139.228.166.58-20150924000517

A Lictor (Littorio in Italian) was the bearer of the Roman consular fasces (ceremonial ax) in the ancient Roman Republic. Mussolini's party is named after that fasces (hence Fascist party) and the guy standing at the forefront of their parades and rallies carrying their fasces was called the littorio. During WW2 there was no confusion in either the Axis or Allies side that the class of battleships was called the Littorio class after their ax-bearing eldest sister (she literally had a Fascist fasces installed on board). After the war, the Italians understandably wanted to distance themselves from the Fascists, so they renamed Littorio into Italia (removed the fasces, of course) and started calling the class Vittorio Venetto as a form of historical revisionism. English sources continue to call them the Littorio class because, well, they had no reason to follow the Italians. The waters are a bit muddied nowadays because no one wants to talk about the REAL reason the class was renamed.