From a reviewish sort of thing in the New Straits Times of Michael Macrone’s Brush Up Your Classics: An Informative and Entertaining Guide to Understanding the Most Famous Words, Phrases, and Stories of Greek Classics. (inter alia)

Most of us are familiar with Aesop and his fables. He lived in sixth-century Greece. I am not surprised if phrases like “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, “to blow hot and cold”, “the lion’s share” or “sour grapes” are attributed to him. But “fascist”? That’s news to us. Yes, it came from the story of a bundle of sticks. A father, fed up because his children were always at loggerheads, gave them a bundle of sticks to break. They couldn’t. The moral of the story is: united we stand. The Latin word for bundle is fascis plural fasces. Ironically, fascism became a political doctrine associated with, among others, Italy’s Benito Mussolini.

• via Ancient Greeks enriched our word power.

Okay … I’m semi-confused because while the ‘bundle of sticks’ story in Aesop is familiar enough with its “united we stand” moral, but I had never seen it connected etymologically to fascism before. A quick scan of google for Aesop and fascism brings up piles of examples, of course, but I’m having a great deal of trouble linking the Greek story etymologically to the portable execution kit borne by lictors for magistrates who had the power to give the ‘unbind the fasces’ order. Trotsky did mention a fable of Aesop in one of his pamphlets, but it wasn’t this one. Anyone know when the ‘thematic’ connection was made?