SS Lazio

Società Sportiva Lazio (SS Lazio) is one of the most famous clubs in the world. Founded in 1900, they, as an organisation, compete in over 40 different sports. They are most famous, I think, amongst my generation, who grew up seeing them dominate Italian and European football. In the 90s, they reached the UEFA Cup Final in 1998 before winning the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and Super Cup in 1999 and then the Serie A title in 2000.

Formed by young men in the Prati district of the city – slightly outside the main city centre and traditionally a rural area – the club and region have always had a degree of anti-establishment feeling to them. Prati as a district began to be built up after Italy’s unification in 1861. It was meant to house new workers moving in from outside of Rome who were coming to staff the new national government offices being constructed. Its mayor at the time, the London-born (but still very Italian) Ernesto Nathan, butted heads with the Catholic Church during his tenure as Prati was being built up. Nathan wanted to see a more modern, secular (non-religious) Italy, with government services like schools and hospitals taken away from the Church’s control. Needless to say, this didn’t go down well with the Church, and their quarrel lasted for the entire time Nathan was in charge – so much so that, when planning the street system for Prati, he made sure that no street would have a clear view of St Peter’s Basilica (the Vatican/Pope’s house). So it was in this very secular-leaning region – with people who had moved in from many different areas of Italy and perhaps didn’t have that same sense of duty to the Vatican – that they began kicking around a ball and seeking a new identity for themselves and their district.

This defiant streak stuck with the club. During Mussolini’s fascist government, they wanted to merge all Rome’s football teams into one larger club so they could compete against the powerhouses of Italian football from the north (like Milan). AS Roma, Lazio’s rival club, was formed as a result. Lazio was pressured to fold and join, but refused. They remained independent. They like to do things their own way.

Now, onto the actual identity of the club and the badge.

Looking again, in a subtle way, to undercut the Catholic Church, they chose an identity that pre-dated the Christian Church. In the best traditions of the Renaissance itself, they looked back to the classical world – to Ancient Greece and Rome – for their sense of self.

Their colours – light blue – were the colours of Greece and the ancient Olympic Games. Their crest? A Roman Imperial Eagle (called the ‘Aquila’) was a regimental standard for each Roman Legion and was used around Imperial Rome (Colchester – the old capital of Roman England – have a Roman Aquila on their badge too). The team’s mascot is a real eagle, called Olimpia, who flies across the stadium before every game. Fittingly, the most famous landmark in the Prati district is not a Catholic monument, but Hadrian’s Mausoleum – the great Roman Emperor who ruled more than 200 years before Christianity became the official religion of Rome.

By choosing to hark back to the classical past – perhaps to avoid the more ‘modern’ Catholic symbolism – they were doing the most Italian thing ever. The Renaissance that swept across Italy during the 15th century was built along exactly the same lines – looking back to ancient texts, philosophers and artists to see what could be relearned. This trend was part of a wider movement known as ‘Humanism’, where the emphasis in research and culture became the achievements of man – and not God. This caused tensions at the time too. Most famously, in 1633, the Roman Inquisition (essentially the Catholic thought police) sentenced Galileo Galilei to lifelong house arrest for heresy after he published a book supporting the heliocentric (Sun-centred) model of the universe.

Italy has long been a land of contradictions – pride in and adherence to Catholic teachings and the authority of the Pope – but also an undercurrent looking to embrace their older identity as an Empire built on classical, pre-Christian thought. That difference, whilst not always obvious, can be seen in the city of Rome itself.

The capital is packed with Renaissance imagery (not all of which upset the Catholic Church – which did well to embrace many parts of the Renaissance, especially those that allowed it to have fancy new buildings and religious-inspired artworks).

St. Peter's Basilica became the ultimate symbol of Renaissance ambition, combining Christian belief with the grandeur of Ancient Rome through its enormous dome designed by Michelangelo. Nearby, the Sistine Chapel showcased Renaissance ideas through Michelangelo’s famous ceiling paintings, blending Biblical stories with realistic human anatomy and artistic techniques inspired by classical sculpture. Tempietto, designed by Donato Bramante, also reflected this revival of classical Roman architecture in a deeply religious setting.

Secular Renaissance monuments in Rome focused more on wealth, culture and political power. Palazzo Farnese was built as a grand palace for the powerful Farnese family and demonstrated Renaissance ideas of symmetry, proportion and status. Meanwhile, Villa Farnesina celebrated mythology, beauty and learning rather than religion, featuring frescoes by Raphael inspired by stories from Ancient Greece and Rome.

So there you have it.

Lazio. A team that flies (literally, during home games) the Roman Aquila, that wears the colours of Ancient Greece, and that comes from a region with a long history of defying the authorities and doing its own thing.

There is nothing more Italian than that.

Enjoyed discovering the history behind this badge? This story also appears in Wolsey Academy's Renaissance History curriculum, where students explore the people, places, ideas and events that shaped the Renaissance through enquiry-based lessons, projects and historical investigations.

Teachers can browse the full collection at www.wolseyacademy.com/shop and receive 50% off any lesson bundle using the exclusive #GetTheBadgeIn code GTBI50.