1866–1944
✕ Executed by firing squad
Quadrumvir of the March on Rome who led the police and the militia and commanded the invasion of Ethiopia
Born in Cassano d'Adda, he became an army second lieutenant in 1884, fought in the Italo-Turkish War and the First World War, rose to corps command and retired as a major general in 1920. He helped organise the National Fascist Party and as a quadrumvir staged the March on Rome in 1922. He then served as chief of police and commander of the Fascist militia, and was tried and acquitted over the 1924 murder of Giacomo Matteotti. Governor of Tripolitania from 1925, he drove repression in Libya with poison gas and concentration camps, and became minister of colonies in 1929. Supreme commander of the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, he took Adwa but was relieved for slow progress. He voted to oust Mussolini in the Grand Council in 1943 and was shot after the Verona trial in 1944.
Activities and affiliations
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1884–1936
Italy state institutionsSupreme Commander in EthiopiaMain
Military command -
1921–1943
Political and party leadership
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1923–1924
Blackshirts (MVSN)Militia commander and chief of police
Security, intelligence and policing -
1925–1935
Italy state institutionsGovernor of Tripolitania, colonial minister
Government and administration