Gabriele D'AnnunzioItalian Decadent poet, novelist, playwright, aviator, womanizer, journalist, and anarchist. Blind in one eye after an airplane accident during the First World War. (The plane was on the ground at the time.) After the war was over, he led an "expeditionary force" to conquer the city of Fiume (present-day Rijeka) on the Dalmatian coast. There he imposed martial law and set up a utopian government whose primary principle was music. He managed to hold the city for a year, surviving by acts of piracy. Eventually the Italians had enough of this nonsense and shelled his palace, forcing D'Annunzio to abdicate. It was fun while it lasted. He had a strong influence on Mussolini, specifically on his oratorial style, and for a time was a rival of Il Duce until he "accidentally" defenestrated in 1922. No hard feelings though: Mussolini gave him a splendid villa on the Lago di Garda, where D'Annunzio spent the rest of his days living in utter decadent excess, dying in 1938.Timeline
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