The New Roman Empire (Italian: "Nuovo Impero Romano", Latin: "Novum Imperium Romanum") was the new "state" created by Benito Mussolini to describe the Italian colonial empire , especially following Italy's 1935-36 conquest of Abyssinia. It was born during the height of Italian nationalism and contained references to the Roman period:

-The Adriatic Sea was called "Mare Nostro" (Italian for "Our Sea") after the Italians invaded Albania and thus gained almost complete control over the Adriatic. It is a direct reference to the Roman name for the Mediterranean, which was called "Mare Nostrum" because the Romans had complete control over the sea.

-The name of the Italian regime- "Facism" comes from the Roman fasces or the Roman symbol for war.

-The capital of the Italian state was Rome, just like in the Roman period.

Strangely, the Italians never labelled their King, Victor Emmanuel III, "Caesar" (or, in Italian, "Cesare"), as might be expected of a state who tried valiantly to identify itself with the Roman period, but considering that Mussolini's state lasted for just 21 years (collapsing right after Mussolini's death), Italy may have developed the idea further if it had more time. Still, Mussolini's Italy is a textbook example of how extreme nationalism looks to the past: Italians, in an attempt to vault their state as perhaps the strongest and most glorious state in the world, looked to the past for any imagery- distorting it if they have to- that they can use to show that they were once a great state and were now a restoration of that greatness. Since the Roman period is arguably Italy's finest period by far, Mussolini chose to identify his Italy as the restored Roman State.

The states of the "New Roman Empire" were:

• Italy
• Albania
• Libya (south annexed to Italy during Mussolini's reign)
• Eritrea
• W/C Somaliland
• Ethiopia (conquered by Italy in 1936, though not internationally recognized)