---
title: Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (British leaflet to Italy)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant-pwe-leaflet-1942/
description: 'Line-drawing leaflet under the headline ''Ave Caesar!'': a giant Hitler in a swastika cap works strings that raise a small Mussolini''s arm on a balcony…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (British leaflet to Italy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant-pwe-leaflet-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant-pwe-leaflet-1942.jpg)

# Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (British leaflet to Italy)

Line-drawing leaflet under the headline 'Ave Caesar!': a giant Hitler in a swastika cap works strings that raise a small Mussolini's arm on a balcony, while rows of helmeted Italian soldiers march below a signpost reading 'Russia, Libia e morte'. The tell: the Roman gladiators' salute is turned into the caption 'Morituri te salutant', and the puppet-strings picture casts Mussolini as Hitler's instrument.

- **Date:** 1942
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** Political Warfare Executive (PWE), United Kingdom (attributed by the holding record; the leaflet itself names no issuer)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Churchill Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=churchill-government)
- **Leader:** [Winston Churchill](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=winston-churchill)
- **Audience:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=mixed)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Regime:** [Churchill wartime government](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/churchill-government/)
- **Leader:** [Winston Churchill](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/churchill-government/#winston-churchill)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (image of a British Library holding)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ave-Caesar---Crown-copyright-jpg_141626.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** UK Crown copyright, published 1942, expired (50 years); Commons uploader's CC BY-SA 4.0 tag not relied on Political Warfare Executive leaflet, Crown copyright (expired); British Library copy as photographed and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
AVE CAESAR!

[signpost:] RUSSIA,
LIBIA
E MORTE

Morituri te salutant
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
HAIL CAESAR!

[signpost:] RUSSIA,
LIBYA
AND DEATH

Those about to die salute you
```

'Ave Caesar' and 'Morituri te salutant' are Latin; the signpost is Italian. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← 中日基本條約簽訂一週年來矣！ (The Sino-Japanese Basic Treaty's first anniversary has come!), four-panel leaflet for Hankou](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hankou-basic-treaty-anniversary-leaflet-1941/) [Belajarlah! Pakailah! Bahasa Nippon! (Learn! Use! The Japanese Language!) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/belajarlah-pakailah-bahasa-nippon-1942/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)