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List of freshwater aquarium plant species

Aquatic plants are used to give the freshwater aquarium a natural appearance, oxygenate the water, absorb ammonia, and provide habitat for fish, especially fry (babies) and for invertebrates. Some aquarium fish and invertebrates also eat live plants. Hobbyists use aquatic plants for aquascaping, of several aesthetic styles.

Most of these plant species are found either partially or fully submerged in their natural habitat. Although there are a handful of obligate aquatic plants that must be grown entirely underwater, most can grow fully emersed if the soil is moist. Though some are just living at the water margins, still, they can live in the completely submerged habitat.

By scientific name
The taxonomy of most plant genera is not final. Scientific names listed here may, therefore, contradict other sources. Many of these species are dangerous invasives and should be disposed of in a way that guarantees that they will not enter local waters.

Common aquarium plant species:

 * Aciotis acuminifolia
 * Acmella repens
 * Acorus calamus (Common sweet flag)
 * Acorus gramineus (Japanese sweet flag)
 * Aldrovanda vesiculosa
 * Alisma canaliculatum
 * Alisma gramineum
 * Alisma lanceolatum
 * Alisma nanum
 * Alisma orientale
 * Alisma plantago-aquatica
 * Alisma subcordatum
 * Alisma triviale
 * Alisma wahlenbergii
 * Alternanthera bettzickiana
 * Alternanthera philoxeroides
 * Alternanthera reineckii
 * Alternanthera sessilis
 * Ammania capitellata
 * Ammannia crassicaulis (Synonym Nesaea crassicaulis)
 * Ammania gracilis (Delicate ammania, red ammania)
 * Ammania latifolia
 * Ammannia pedicellata
 * Ammannia praetemissa
 * Ammania senegalensis
 * Anubias afzelii (Narrow-leafed anubias)
 * Anubias barteri var. barteri (Broadleaved anubias)
 * Anubias barteri var. angustifolia
 * Anubias barteri var. caladiifolia
 * Anubias barteri var. glabra
 * Anubias barteri var. nana (Dwarf anubias)
 * Anubias gigantea
 * Anubias gilletti
 * Anubias gracilis
 * Anubias hastifolia
 * Anubias heterophylla
 * Anubias pynaertii
 * Aponogeton appendiculatus
 * Aponogeton bernierianus
 * Aponogeton boivinianus
 * Aponogeton capuronii
 * Aponogeton crispus (Crinkled or ruffled aponogeton)
 * Aponogeton decartyi
 * Aponogeton desertorum
 * Aponogeton dioecus
 * Aponogeton distachyos
 * Aponogeton elongatus
 * Aponogeton fenestralis
 * Aponogeton henkelianus
 * Aponogeton junceus
 * Aponogeton longiplumulosus
 * Aponogeton loriae
 * Aponogeton madagascariensis (Madagascar laceleaf, lace plant)
 * Aponogeton natans
 * Aponogeton rigidifolius
 * Aponogeton tenuispicatus
 * Aponogeton ulvaceus (Compact apongeton)
 * Aponogeton undulatus
 * Armoracia aquatica
 * Arthraxon hispidus
 * Azolla caroliniana (water velvet, mosquito fern)
 * Azolla filiculoïdes (Azolla, moss fern)
 * Azolla pinnata
 * Bacopa amplexicaulis
 * Bacopa australis
 * Bacopa caroliniana (lemon bacopa, water hyssop, giant bacopa)
 * Bacopa crenata
 * Bacopa innominata
 * Bacopa lanigera
 * Bacopa madagascarensis
 * Bacopa monnieri (water hyssop, dwarf bacopa, baby tears)
 * Bacopa myriophylloides
 * Bacopa rotundifolia (Round bacopa)
 * Bacopa salzmannii
 * Bacopa serpyllifolia
 * Baldellia ranunculoides
 * Barclaya longifolia (Orchid lily)
 * Barclaya motleyi
 * Berula erecta
 * Blyxa aubertii
 * Blyxa echinosperma
 * Blyxa japonica (Japanese rush)
 * Blyxa novoguineensis
 * Blyxa octandra
 * Bolbitis heteroclita (sometimes sold as B. asiatica)
 * Bolbitis heudelotii (African or Congo fern)
 * Bucephalandra gigantea
 * Bucephalandra motleyana
 * Bucephalandra catherineae
 * Cabomba aquatica (Yellow cabomba, giant cabomba)
 * Cabomba caroliniana (Green cabomba)
 * Cabomba furcata
 * Cabomba palaeformis
 * Cabomba piauhyensis (Red cabomba)
 * Caldesia parnassifolia
 * Calla palustris
 * Caltha palustris
 * Callitriche hamulata
 * Callitriche hermaphroditica
 * Callitriche palustris
 * Callitriche stagnalis
 * Callitriche terestris
 * Cardamine lyrata (Chinese ivy, Japanese cress)
 * Cardamine rotundifolia
 * Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort)
 * Ceratophyllum submersum (tropical hornwort)
 * Ceratopteris cornuta
 * Ceratopteris pteridoides
 * Ceratopteris thalictroides (water sprite)
 * Cladophora aegagropila
 * Clinopodium brownei
 * Crassula aquatica
 * Crassula helmsii
 * Crinum calamistratum
 * Crinum natans (African onion plant)
 * Crinum purpurascens
 * Crinum thaianum (water onion)
 * Cryptocoryne affinis
 * Cryptocoryne alba
 * Cryptocoryne albida
 * Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia
 * Cryptocoryne auriculata
 * Cryptocoryne axelrodii
 * Cryptocoryne balansae
 * Cryptocoryne beckettii (Beckett's Cryptocoryne)
 * Cryptocoryne blassii
 * Cryptocoryne bogneri
 * Cryptocoryne bullosa
 * Cryptocoryne ciliata
 * Cryptocoryne cognata
 * Cryptocoryne cordata (Giant cryptocoryne)
 * Cryptocoryne crispatula
 * Cryptocoryne cruddasiana
 * Cryptocoryne dewitii
 * Cryptocoryne diderici
 * Cryptocoryne elliptica
 * Cryptocoryne ferruginea
 * Cryptocoryne fusca
 * Cryptocoryne gasserii
 * Cryptocoryne grabowskii
 * Cryptocoryne gracilis
 * Cryptocoryne griffithii
 * Cryptocoryne hudoroi
 * Cryptocoryne keei
 * Cryptocoryne legroi
 * Cryptocoryne lingua
 * Cryptocoryne longicauda
 * Cryptocoryne lucens
 * Cryptocoryne lutea
 * Cryptocoryne minima
 * Cryptocoryne moehlmannii (Moehlmann's cryptocoryne)
 * Cryptocoryne nevillii
 * Cryptocoryne nurii
 * Cryptocoryne pallidinervia
 * Cryptocoryne parva (Tiny cryptocoryne)
 * Cryptocoryne petchii
 * Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia
 * Cryptocoryne purpurea
 * Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
 * Cryptocoryne schulzei
 * Cryptocoryne scrurillis
 * Cryptocoryne siamensis
 * Cryptocoryne spiralis
 * Cryptocoryne striolata
 * Cryptocoryne thwaitesii
 * Cryptocoryne tonkinensis
 * Cryptocoryne undulata (Undulate cryptocoryne)
 * Cryptocoryne usteriana
 * Cryptocoryne venemae
 * Cryptocoryne versteegii
 * Cryptocoryne walkeri
 * Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
 * Cryptocoryne x willisii
 * Cryptocoryne zewaldiae
 * Cryptocoryne zonata
 * Cryptocoryne zukalii
 * Cuphea anagalloidea
 * Cyperus alternifolius
 * Cyperus helferi
 * Cyperus papyrus
 * Damasonium alisma
 * Didiplis diandra (Water hedge)
 * Diodia kuntzei
 * Diodia virginiana
 * Echinodorus africanus
 * Echinodorus amazonicus (Amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus andrieuxii
 * Echinodorus angustifolius
 * Echinodorus argentinensis
 * Echinodorus aschersonianus
 * Echinodorus barthii
 * Echinodorus berteroi
 * Echinodorus bleheri (Broadleaved amazon)
 * Echinodorus brevipedicellatus
 * Echinodorus cordifolius (Radicans sword, spade leaf sword)
 * Echinodorus fluitans
 * Echinodorus grandiflorus (Large-flowered amazon)
 * Echinodorus horemanii (Black-red amazon)
 * Echinodorus horizontalis
 * Echinodorus humilis
 * Echinodorus latifolius
 * Echinodorus longiscapus
 * Echinodorus macrophyllus (Large-leaved amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus martii
 * Echinodorus major (Ruffled amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus opacus (Opaque amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus osiris (Red amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus 'Ozelot'
 * Echinodorus palaefolius
 * Echinodorus paniculatus
 * Echinodorus parviflorus (Black amazon sword)
 * Echinodorus pelliscidus
 * Echinodorus quadricostatus (Dwarf sword)
 * Echinodorus radicans
 * Echinodorus rigidifolius
 * Echinodorus 'Rubin'
 * Echinodorus rubra
 * Echinodorus schlueteri
 * Echinodorus subalatus
 * Echinodorus tunicatus
 * Echinodorus uruguayensis (Uruguay amazon sword)
 * Egeria densa (Elodea, pondweed)
 * Egeria najas
 * Egleria fluctuans
 * Eichhornia azurea
 * Eichhornia crassipes (Water hyacinth)
 * Eichhornia diversifolia
 * Elatine gussonei
 * Elatine hydropiper
 * Elatine macropoda
 * Elatine triandra
 * Eleocharis acicularis (Hairgrass)
 * Eleocharis dulcis
 * Eleocharis minima
 * Eleocharis obtusa
 * Eleocharis parvula
 * Eleocharis vivipara
 * Elodea canadensis (Canadian pondweed)
 * Elodea granatensis
 * Elodea nuttallii
 * Elodea occidentalis
 * Equisetum spp.
 * Eriocaulon amanoanum
 * Eriocaulon cinereum
 * Eriocaulon depressum
 * Eriocaulon parkeri
 * Eusteralis stellata (Star rotala)
 * Fittonia argyroneura
 * Fontinalis antipyretica (Willow moss)
 * Glossadelphus zollingeri
 * Glossostigma diandrum
 * Glossostigma elatinoides
 * Gratiola amphiantha
 * Gratiola brevefolia
 * Gratiola viscidula
 * Gymnocoronis spilanthoides (Spadeleaf plant)
 * Helanthium bolivianum (Bolivian sword) (Synonym - Echinodorus bolivianus)
 * Helanthium tenellum (Pygmy chain sword) (Synonym - Echinodorus tenellus)
 * Helanthium zombiense
 * Hemianthus callitrichoides (Dwarf helzine)
 * Hemianthus micranthemoides (Pearlweed)
 * Heteranthera dubia
 * Heteranthera reniformis
 * Heteranthera zosterifolia (Stargrass)
 * Hippuris vulgaris
 * Hottonia inflata
 * Hottonia palustris (Water violet)
 * Hydrilla verticillata
 * Hydrocharis morsus-ranae
 * Hydrocleys martii
 * Hydrocleys nymphoides
 * Hydrocotyle leucocephala (Brazilian pennywort)
 * Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
 * Hydrocotyle tripartita
 * Hydrocotyle verticillata (Whorled umbrella plant)
 * Hydrocotyle vulgaris
 * Hydrothrix gardneri
 * Hydrotriche hottoniiflora
 * Hygrophila angustifolia
 * Hygrophila corymbosa 'crispa'
 * Hygrophila corymbosa 'glabra' (Broadlead giant stricta)
 * Hygrophila corymbosa 'gracilis'
 * Hygrophila corymbosa 'siamensis'
 * Hygrophila corymbosa 'strigosa'
 * Hygrophila difformis (Water wisteria)
 * Hygrophila guianensis
 * Hygrophila lacustris
 * Hygrophila lancea
 * Hygrophila natalis
 * Hygrophila polysperma (Dwarf hygrophilia)
 * Hygrophila salicifolia
 * Hygrophila stricta (Thai stricta, green stricta)
 * Hygroryza aristata
 * Hyptis lorentziana
 * Iris spp.
 * Isoetes lacustris (quillwort)
 * Isoetes malinverniana
 * Isoetes taiwanensis
 * Isoetes velata
 * Isolepis setracea
 * Jasarum steyermarkii
 * Juncus repens
 * Lagarosiphon cordofanus
 * Lagarosiphon madagascariensis
 * Lagarosiphon major (Elodea crispa)
 * Lagenandra dewitii
 * Lagenandra insignis
 * Lagenandra koenigii
 * Lagenandra lancifolia
 * Lagenandra meeboldii
 * Lagenandra nairii
 * Lagenandra ovata
 * Lagenandra thwaitesii
 * Lemna gibba
 * Lemna minor (Duckweed)
 * Lemna paucicostata
 * Lemna perpusilla
 * Lemna trisulca
 * Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
 * Lilaeopsis carolinensis
 * Lilaeopsis macloviana
 * Lilaeopsis mauritiana
 * Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae (New Zealand grassplant)
 * Lilaeopsis ruthiana
 * Limnobium laevigatum (Amazon frogbit)
 * Limnobium spongia
 * Limnocharis flava
 * Limnophila aquatica (Giant ambulia)
 * Limnophila aromatica
 * Limnophila glabra
 * Limnophila heterophylla
 * Limnophila indica (Indian ambulia)
 * Limnophila sessiliflora (Dwarf ambulia)
 * Limnophyton fluitans
 * Lindernia crustacea F. Muell.
 * Lindernia dubia
 * Lindernia grandiflora
 * Lindernia parviflora
 * Lindernia rotundifolia
 * Littorella uniflora
 * Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal flower, scarlet lobelia)
 * Lobelia dortmanna
 * Lomariopsis sp. (Süsswassertang)
 * Ludwigia alternifolia
 * Ludwigia arcuata
 * Ludwigia glandulosa (Glandular ludwigia, red star ludwigia)
 * Ludwigia helminthorrhiza
 * Ludwigia inclinata
 * Ludwigia inclinata var. verticellata 'Cuba'
 * Ludwigia mullertii
 * Ludwigia natans
 * Ludwigia sedioides
 * Ludwigia palustris
 * Ludwigia pulvinaris
 * Ludwigia repens (Creeping ludwigia, narrow-leaf ludwigia)
 * Luronium natans
 * Lycopodiella inundata (Lycopodium inundatum)
 * Lysimachia nummularia (creeping Jenny, moneywort)
 * Marsilea crenata
 * Marsilea drummondii
 * Marsilea hirsuta
 * Marsilea pubescens
 * Marsilea quadrifolia (water-clover)
 * Mayaca fluviatilis
 * Mayaca madida (Synonym Mayaca sellowiana)
 * Mayaca vandellii
 * Mentha aquatica
 * Micranthemum umbrosum (Helzine)
 * Microcarpaea minima
 * Microsorum pteropus (Java fern)
 * Monochoria vaginalis
 * Monosolenium tenerum (commercial name; plants sold under this name are actually a fern Lomariopsis sp. )
 * Murdannia keisak
 * Myriophyllum alterniflorum
 * Myriophyllum aquaticum (Brazilian milfoil, milfoil)
 * Myriophyllum elatinoides
 * Myriophyllum heterophyllum
 * Myriophyllum hippuroides (Green milfoil, water milfoil)
 * Myriophyllum mattogrossense
 * Myriophyllum proserpinacoides
 * Myriophyllum scabratum (Foxtail)
 * Myriophyllum spicatum
 * Myriophyllum tuberculatum (Red myriophyllum)
 * Myriophyllum ussuriense
 * Myriophyllum verticillatum
 * Myriophylumm oguraense
 * Najas graminea
 * Najas guadelupensis
 * Najas indica
 * Najas marina
 * Najas minor
 * Najas pectinata
 * Nechamandra alternifolia
 * Nelumbo nucifera
 * Neptunia oleracea
 * Nitella capillaris
 * Nitella flexilis
 * Nitella gracilis
 * Nomaphila siamensis
 * Nuphar advenum
 * Nuphar japonica (Spatterdock)
 * Nuphar lutea (Yellow water-lily)
 * Nuphar pumilum
 * Nuphar sagittifolium
 * Nymphaea alba
 * Nymphaea lotus (Tiger lotus)
 * Nymphaea lotus var. rubra
 * Nymphaea micrantha
 * Nymphaea pubescens
 * Nymphaea pygmea
 * Nymphaea stellata (Red and blue water lily)
 * Nymphaea zenkeri 'Red' (Red tiger lotus)
 * Nymphoides aquatica (Banana plant)
 * Nymphoides humboldtiana
 * Nymphoides indica
 * Nymphoides peltata
 * Oenanthe javanica
 * Oenanthe aquatica
 * Oldenlandia salzmannii (Synonym Hedyotis salzmannii)
 * Orontium aquaticum
 * Ottelia alismoides
 * Ottelia mesenterum
 * Ottelia ulvifolia
 * Penthorum sedoides
 * Persicaria hydropiperoides
 * Persicaria praetermissa
 * Pilularia americana
 * Pilularia globulifera
 * Pistia stratiotes (Water lettuce)
 * Phyllanthus fluitans
 * Physostegia purpurea
 * Pogostemon helferi
 * Pogostemon stellatus
 * Pontederia cordata
 * Potamogeton coloratus
 * Potamogeton crispus
 * Potamogeton densus
 * Potamogeton filiformis
 * Potamogeton gayi
 * Potamogeton gramineus
 * Potamogeton lucens
 * Potamogeton malaianus
 * Potamogeton natans
 * Potamogeton perfoliatus
 * Proserpinaca palustris
 * Ranunculus aquatilis
 * Ranunculus limosella
 * Regnellidium diphyllum
 * Riccia fluitans (Crystalwort)
 * Ricciocarpos natans
 * Rorippa aquatica
 * Rotala indica
 * Rotala macrandra (Giant red rotala)
 * Rotala mexicana
 * Rotala ramosior
 * Rotala rotundifolia (Dwarf rotala)
 * Rotala pusilla
 * Rotala wallichii (Whorly rotala)
 * Ruppia maritima
 * Sagittaria chapmani
 * Sagittaria eatonii
 * Sagittaria filiformis
 * Sagittaria graminea
 * Sagittaria guyanensis
 * Sagittaria isoëtiformis
 * Sagittaria latifolia
 * Sagittaria microfila
 * Sagittaria montevidensis
 * Sagittaria natans
 * Sagittaria papillosa
 * Sagittaria platyphylla (giant sagittaria)
 * Sagittaria pusilla (dwarf sagittaria)
 * Sagittaria sagittifolia
 * Sagittaria subulata (needle sagittaria, floating arrowhead)
 * Salvinia auriculata
 * Salvinia cucullata
 * Salvinia minima
 * Salvinia natans (water spangles)
 * Salvinia oblongifolia
 * Salvinia rotundifolia
 * Samolus valerandi (Water cabbage)
 * Saururus cernuus (Lizard's tail)
 * Schismatoglottis prietoi
 * Selaginella sp.
 * Sium floridanum
 * Sium latifolium
 * Shinnersia rivularis (Mexican oak leaf)
 * Spiranthes romanzoffiana
 * Spirodela polyrhiza
 * Staurogyne repens
 * Staurogyne stolonifera
 * Stratiotes aloides
 * Stuckenia vaginata
 * Subularia aquatica
 * Syngonanthus caulescens
 * Synnema triflorum (out of date synonym)
 * Taxiphyllum barbieri (Java moss)
 * Tonina fluviatilis
 * Trapa natans (Water chestnut)
 * Triglochin maritima
 * Triglochin palustris
 * Triglochin striata
 * Trithuria austinensis
 * Trithuria austinensis
 * Trithuria australis
 * Trithuria inconspicua
 * Typha angustifolia
 * Typha latifolia
 * Utricularia bifida
 * Utricularia gibba
 * Utricularia graminifolia
 * Utricularia minor
 * Utricularia vulgaris
 * Vallisneria americana (Dwarf vallisneria)
 * Vallisneria asiatica
 * Vallisneria asiatica var. biwaensis (Corkscrew vallisneria)
 * Vallisneria gigantea (Giant vallisneria)
 * Vallisneria neotropicalis
 * Vallisneria rubra
 * Vallisneria spiralis (Straight vallisneria)
 * Vallisneria tortifolia (Twisted vallisneria, dwarf vallisneria)
 * Vallisneria tortissima
 * Vesicularia montagnei (Christmas moss, Xmas moss)
 * Veronica americana
 * Wolffia arrhiza
 * Wolffia microscopica
 * Wolffiella floridana
 * Zannichellia palustris

False aquatics or pseudo-aquarium plants
Several species of terrestrial plants are frequently sold as "aquarium plants". While such plants are beautiful and can survive and even flourish for months under water, they will eventually die and must be removed so their decay does not contaminate the aquarium water. These plants have no necessary biology to live underwater.

 * Aglaonema modestum (Chinese evergreen)
 * Aglaonema simplex
 * Chlorophytum bichetii (Pongol sword)
 * Dracaena sanderiana (Striped dragonplant)
 * Hemigraphis colorata (Crimson ivy)
 * Ophiopogon japonicus (Fountain plant)
 * Pilea cadierei (Aluminum plant)
 * Sciadopitys verticillata) (Umbrella pine, koyamaki)
 * Spathiphyllum tasson (Brazil sword)
 * Syngonium podophyllum (Stardust ivy)
 * Trichomanes javanicum


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Fonni

Fonni (Fonne) is a town and comune in Sardinia, in the province of Nuoro (Italy).

It is the highest town in Sardinia, and situated among fine scenery with some chestnut woods. Fonni is a winter sports centre with a ski lift to Monte Spada and Bruncu Spina.

Etymology
The term "Fonni/-e" probably derives from the Latin fons, meaning "fountain" or "god of the sources". In fact the village contains numerous spring water fountains.

Culture
The local costumes are extremely picturesque, and are well seen on the day of St John the Baptist, the patron saint. The men's costume is similar to that worn in the district generally; the linen trousers are long and black gaiters are worn. The women wear a white chemise; over that a very small corselet, and over that a red jacket with blue and black velvet facings. The skirt is brown above and red below, with a blue band between the two colours; it is accordion-pleated. Two identical skirts are often worn, one above the other. The unmarried girls wear white kerchiefs, the married women black.

Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods in Fonni are called "Rioni" of these the oldest is called su piggiu or the peak, probably derived by the fact this is the highest and first layer of the village. Others include puppuai and  cresiedda to the south, and logotza to the east.

Churches

 * Sanctuary of the Vergine dei Martiri, Fonni

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Fonni


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Fasces

Fasces (, ; a plurale tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning 'bundle'; fascio littorio) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a Roman king's power to punish his subjects, and later, a magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the labrys (λάβρυς; bipennis), the double-bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.

The image of fasces has survived in the modern world as a representation of magisterial power, law, and governance. The fasces frequently occurs as a charge in heraldry: it is present on the reverse of the U.S. Mercury dime coin and behind the podium in the United States House of Representatives and in the Seal of the U.S. Senate; and it was the origin of the name of the National Fascist Party in Italy (from which the term fascism is derived).

During the first half of the twentieth century, both the fasces and the swastika (each symbol having its own unique ancient religious and mythological associations) became heavily identified with the fascist political movements of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. This is due to Mussolini's more active usage of the symbol and the campaigns of Hitler, Nazis, and anti-fascists alike to make various allusions and comparisons between the two dictators to associate Hitler with Mussolini and his symbolism. During this period the swastika became deeply stigmatized, but the fasces did not undergo a similar process outside Italy.

The fasces remained in use in many societies after World War II because it had already been adopted and incorporated into the iconography of numerous governments outside Italy, prior to Mussolini. Such iconographical use persists in governmental and various other contexts. In contrast, the swastika remains in common usage only in Asia, where it originated as an ancient Hindu symbol, and in Navajo iconography, where its religious significance is entirely unrelated to, and predates, early 20th-century European fascism.

Symbolism
The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment. In ancient Rome, the bundle was a material symbol of a Roman magistrate's full civil and military power, known as imperium. They were carried in a procession with a magistrate by lictors, who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands. In common language and literature, the fasces were regularly associated with certain offices: praetors were referred to in Greek as the hexapelekus (lit. 'six axes') and the consuls were referred to as "the twelve fasces" as literary metonymy. Beyond serving as insignia of office, it also symbolised the republic and its prestige.

After the classical period, with the fall of the Roman state, thinkers were removed from the "psychological terror generated by the original Roman fasces" in the antique period. By the Renaissance, there emerged a conflation of the fasces with a Greek fable first recorded by Babrius in the second century AD depicting how individual sticks can be easily broken but how a bundle could not be. This story is common across Eurasian culture and by the thirteenth century AD was recorded in the Secret History of the Mongols. While there is no historical connection between the original fasces and this fable, by the sixteenth century AD, fasces were "inextricably linked" with interpretations of the fable as one expressing unity and harmony.

Origin
The English word fasces comes from Latin, with singular fascis. The word is usually used in its plural to refer to magisterial insignia, but is sometimes used to refer to bushels or bundles in an agricultural context. This word itself comes from the Indo-European root, referring to a bundle.

The earliest archaeological remains of a fasces are those discovered in a necropolis near the Etruscan hamlet now called Vetulonia by the archaeologist Isidoro Falchi in 1897. The discovery is now dated to the relatively narrow range of 630–625 BC, which coincides with the traditional dating of Rome's legendary fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. An Etruscan origin, furthermore, is supported by ancient literary evidence: the poet Silius Italicus, who flourished in the late 1st century AD, posited that Rome adopted many of its emblems of office – viz the fasces, the curule chair, and the toga praetexta – specifically from Vetulonia. A story of Etruscan origin is further supported by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his antiquarian work, Roman Antiquities.

Regal period
Ancient Roman literary sources are unanimous in describing the ancient kings of Rome as being accompanied by twelve lictors carrying fasces. Dionysius, in Roman Antiquities, gave a complex story explaining this number: for him, the practice originated in Etruria and each bundle symbolised one of the twelve Etruscan city-states; the twelve states together represented a joint military campaign and were given to the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, on his accession to the throne. While Livy concurred with Dionysius' story, he also relates a different story ascribing fasces to the first Roman king – Romulus – who selected twelve to correspond to the twelve birds which appeared in augury at the foundation of the city.

Later stories gave different aetiologies: some described fasces as coming from Latium, others from Italy in general. Macrobius, writing in the 5th century AD, have the Romans taking fasces from the Etruscans as spoils of war rather than adopted by cultural diffusion. In general, it seems that by the sixth century BC, fasces had become a common symbol in central Italy and Etruria – if not also into southern Italy, as Livy implies – for royal prestige and coercive power. The ancient Roman literary record largely depicts the fasces of their time as carried largely symbolically by lictors who were present primarily to defend their charges from violence. However, the same stories depict fasces far more negatively in the context of tyrannies or regal displays.

Plutarch, in his Life of Publicola, describes an incident in which Lucius Junius Brutus, the first consul, has lictors scourge with rods and decapitate with axes – components of the fasces – his own sons who were conspiring to restore the Tarquins to the throne. After Brutus' alleged death in battle, Publicola then passes reforms subordinating magisterial use of fasces for coercion to the people: consuls would lower the fasces before the people during speeches and there would be appeal to the people against a magistrate ordering capital or corporal punishment.

Republican period

During the republic, the Romans used the number of fasces accompanying a magistrate to mark out rank and distinction. The two consuls each had 12 lictors, as did the traditional dictators. The late republican dictators – of which Sulla was the first – were accompanied by 24 lictors and fasces. However, the consuls alternated initiative by month. The consul without initiative would retain a negative on the other consul's actions but would be preceded only by an accensus and be followed by lictors bearing reduced fasces.

Praetors normally held six fasces and were so described on campaign in Greek sources. There were, however, some exceptions. After 197 BC, praetors sent to Hispania were dispatched with proconsular status and therefore received twelve fasces. Around the same time, in the lex Plaetoria, the number of fasces accompanying a praetor in court was reduced to merely two, possibly because a praetor in court "with six fasces might seem imperious".

By the late second century BC, magistrates who had won victories abroad that were proclaimed imperator – a victory title – were decorated with laurel. This acclamation was a necessary prerequisite for celebrating a triumph, a prestigious award for which commanders might wait years. Within the pomerium, Rome's sacred city boundary, the magistrates normally removed the axes from their fasces to symbolise the appealable nature of their civic powers. However, an exception was made during a triumph, when the triumphing general's military auspices were extended into the city so that he could make sacrifices at the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline hill. The laurels decorating the triumphator's axed fasces were removed and decided in a ceremony, placing them in the lap of the cult statue of the Capitoline Jupiter.

During the republic, only persons possessing imperium were granted full complements of fasces; the number granted to promagistrates for their analogous rank was not diminished. Lieutenants exercising delegated imperium were, in the late republic, regularly granted two fasces. Yet others were sometimes assigned lictors as bodyguards or otherwise to assist in official duties, they probably did not carry fasces. Italian municipal officials during the republic were usually accompanied by local lictors, but these lictors did not carry fasces until imperial times.

Popular resistance to magistrates during the late republic sometimes took the form of mobs smashing magisterial fasces. In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus incited a mob to take and break a praetor's fasces; two praetors, a certain Brutus and Servilius, were dispatched in 88 BC to order Lucius Cornelius Sulla, then consul, to desist from his march on Rome and had their insignia of office defaced and destroyed; Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus's lictors were set upon in 59 BC when he – along with some plebeian tribunes – attempted to veto Julius Caesar's land reform bill during their joint consulship, leading to his lictors' fasces being lost entirely. This last breaking of fasces was "a ritualistic act of symbolic violence (the People thus disposing of tokens of the imperium that was in their gift) that substituted for direct physical violence against the person of the consul".

Imperial period
During the Roman Empire, the number of people who were entitled to fasces and lictors expanded. Fasces were first granted to Vestal Virgins by the Senate in 42 BC when the six vestals were allowed one lictor each. They were joined by fasces granted to the three major flamines. Single lictors also preceded members of the sodales Augustales, who were priests of the imperial cult. At the death of the first emperor, Augustus, in AD 14, his widow Livia was voted a lictor by the Senate, though sources disagree as to whether she ever exercised the privilege.

The division of the Roman provinces into imperial and senatorial provinces, with Augustus holding proconsular imperium over the imperial provinces and administering them through legates, also further expanded the number of fasces. Augustus appointed legates with imperium pro praetore as governors, each of which was granted five lictors. When Italy was divided into fourteen regions in 7 BC, the curator of each region was granted two lictors while in office and on station. After the creation of the aerarium militare in AD 6, the three ex-praetors administering it were each granted two lictors as well. Municipal magistrates' lictors also gained fasces during the imperial period.

By the reign of the Severans at the start of the third century, fasces had been redesigned. Depicted on a sestertius struck c. AD 203, fasces no longer took the form of a bundle of sticks, but rather took the form of a long curved stick or two of such sticks bound together. The number of fasces granted to imperial governors titled proconsul stayed at twelve into the late fourth century AD; governors of the rank consularis received five fasces, but most governors – with the rank praeses – had no fasces at all. This later form persisted through to the Eastern Roman Empire: the Byzantine antiquarian, John the Lydian, writing in the sixth century AD described fasces as "long rods evenly bound together" with red straps and axes held aloft. Into the mediaeval period, Byzantine emperors remained guarded by men – by the 14th century, Varangians – carrying staves and axes.

Post-classical reception

While the Latin word fasces did not fall out of use in the mediaeval period, its technical meaning was forgotten. By the end of the first millennium, it was glossed as "somehow connot[ing] 'supreme power' or 'official honours. For example, c. 1439, Jean de Rovroy, when translating Frontinus' Stratagems, was deceived by a false cognate and thought fasces referred to ribbons Roman magistrates would wear on their heads; such misconceptions were apparently common, and dated back to the 11th century. Visual representations of the bundle itself were rare – the 11th century AD Junius manuscript excepted – until the Renaissance.

Renaissance
Renaissance humanists, especially those who read more Latin, however, quickly became well-informed on fasces and their legal technicalities, including the customary removal of axes within the city, lowering before the people, and alternation by the consuls. By the first decade of the 16th century, references to fasces in a more Roman context started to appear. At the same time, recognisable depictions started to reappear in Italy, such as Raphael's painting Conversion of the Proconsul (c. 1515).

By the mid-1500s, the fasces also began to symbolise other things which would have been "unimportant or even unknown to the Romans". Pope Clement VIII's reassertion of Papal juridicial authority after the sack of Rome in 1527 started iconographic developments that would associate fasces with personifications of Justice.

Syncretism of fasces with the Aesop fable of a bundle of sticks being harder to break than each stick alone associated fasces also with domestic concord and in art with personifications of Concord. This symbology also merged with that of justice in that unbinding the rods and axes promoted reflection over just action. In this context, Cardinal Mazarin placed fasces on his coat of arms, "the first individual in the modern era to do so".

From here, depictions of fasces exploded. Antje Middeldorf-Kosegarten, in Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte,

"charts for the post-Ripa period [after 1603] a proliferation of the fasces as symbol across almost every conceivable visual medium, from architectural sculpture to decorative arts, in paintings of every type, on monuments that range from honorific arches to tombs, as well as in medallic art and engravings..."

By the mid-seventeenth century, fasces had become "well established throughout Europe as a catch-all symbol for stable and competent governance". It also expanded to symbolise competent corporate governance. Yet, due to a massive expansion in meaning, the symbol seemed to have died by the 1760s, muddled as little more than a reference to the past.

Revolution

As an emblem, fasces made their way to the colonies in British North America. There, during the American Revolution, the fasces' symbology as referencing strength through unity was adopted as a symbol of the united colonial effort against British rule.

Fasces similarly came to adopt a privileged symbology during the French Revolution. First referring to the 83 departments of 1789, as a symbol of unity, it came to be associated with fraternité and a united French people. Topped with a Phrygian cap, fasces were seen as a reference to the "imagined spirit of the early Roman republic [and] its assertion of ideals of liberty and justice against tyranny". In France, however, use of fasces as a symbol declined starting with the establishment of the Consulate in 1799 through to the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1848.

Similar usage proliferated in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Haiti, in its revolution against France, coined with many depictions of fasces, as did Mexico during its first republic, Ecuador, Chile, and the Roman Republic of 1798.

Modern usage
Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the fasces as a symbol of power since the end of the Roman Empire. It also has been used to hearken back to the Roman Republic, particularly by those who see themselves as modern-day successors to that republic or its ideals.

The Ecuadorian coat of arms incorporated the fasces in 1830, although it had already been in use in the coat of arms of Gran Colombia.

Italy
The Italian word fascio (: fasci), etymologically related to fasces, was used by various political organizations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the figurative meaning of "league" or "union".

Italian Fascism, which derives its name from the fasces, arguably used this symbolism the most in the twentieth century. The British Union of Fascists also used it in the 1930s. The fasces, as a widespread and long-established symbol in the West, however, has avoided the stigma associated with much of fascist symbolism (except in Italy, where exhibiting the fasces can lead to an indictment) and many authorities continue to display them, including the federal government of the United States.

France
A review of the images included in Les Grands Palais de France : Fontainebleau reveals that French architects used the Roman fasces (faisceaux romains) as a decorative device as early as the reign of Louis XIII (1610–1643) and continued to employ it through the periods of Napoleon I's Empire (1804–1815).

The fasces typically appeared in a context reminiscent of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. The French Revolution used many references to the ancient Roman Republic in its imagery. During the First Republic, topped by the Phrygian cap, the fasces is a tribute to the Roman Republic and means that power belongs to the people. It also symbolizes the "unity and indivisibility of the Republic", as stated in the French Constitution. In 1848 and after 1870, it appears on the seal of the French Republic, held by the figure of Liberty. There is the fasces in the arms of the French Republic with the "RF" for République française (see image below), surrounded by leaves of olive tree (as a symbol of peace) and oak (as a symbol of justice). While it is used widely by French officials, this symbol never was officially adopted by the government.

President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing placed one on his presidential flag. In 2015, a logo representing a stylized fasces was used for internet communication by the Presidency of the French Republic. Since 1870, it has also appeared on the badges of deputies and senators known as barometers, which they place conspicuously on their vehicles.

The fasces appears on the helmet and the buckle insignia of the French Army's Autonomous Corps of Military Justice, as well as on that service's distinct cap badges for the prosecuting and defending lawyers in a court-martial.

United States
Since the original founding of the United States in the 18th century, several offices and institutions in the United States have heavily incorporated representations of the fasces into much of their iconography.

Federal fasces iconography

 * On the podium of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington D.C., beneath Abraham Lincoln's right hand
 * The reverse of the Mercury Dime, the design used from 1916 until the adoption of the current FDR dime in 1945, features a fasces.
 * On the obverse of the 1896 $1 Educational Series note there is a fasces leaning against the wall behind the youth.
 * In the Oval Office, above the door leading to the exterior walkway, and above the corresponding door on the opposite wall, which leads to the president's private office; the fasces depicted have no axes, possibly because in the Roman Republic, the blade was always removed from the bundle whenever the fasces were carried inside the city, in order to symbolize the rights of citizens against arbitrary state power (see above)
 * Two fasces appear on either side of the flag of the United States behind the podium in the United States House of Representatives, with bronze examples replacing the previous gilded iron installments during the remodeling project of 1950.
 * The Mace of the United States House of Representatives resembles fasces and consists of thirteen ebony rods bound together in the same fashion as the fasces, topped by a silver eagle on a globe
 * The official seal of the United States Senate has as one component a pair of crossed fasces.
 * Fasces ring the base of the Statue of Freedom atop the United States Capitol building.
 * A frieze on the facade of the United States Supreme Court building depicts the figure of a Roman centurion holding a fasces, to represent "order".
 * The National Guard uses the fasces on the seal of the National Guard Bureau, and it appears in the insignia of Regular Army officers assigned to National Guard liaison and in the insignia and unit symbols of National Guard units themselves; for instance, the regimental crest of the 71st Infantry Regiment (New York) of the New York National Guard consisted of a gold fasces set on a blue background.
 * At the Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln's seat of state bears the fasces—without axes—on the fronts of its arms; fasces also appear on the pylons flanking the main staircase leading into the memorial.
 * The official seal of the United States Tax Court bears the fasces at its center.
 * Four fasces flank the two bronze plaques on either side of the bust of Lincoln memorializing his Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
 * The seal of the United States Courts Administrative Office includes a fasces behind crossed quill and scroll.
 * In the Washington Monument is a statue of George Washington leaning on a fasces.
 * A fasces is a common element in US Army Military Police heraldry, most visibly on the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 18th Military Police Brigade and the 42nd Military Police Brigade.
 * A fasces appears on the shoulder sleeve insignia of the US Army Reserve Legal Command.
 * Seated beside George Washington, a figure holds a fasces as part of The Apotheosis of Washington, a fresco mural suspended above the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building.

State, local and other fasces iconography

 * The main entrance hallways in the Wisconsin State Capitol have lamps that are decorated with stone fasces motifs; in the woodwork before the podium of the speaker of the assembly, several double-bladed fasces are carved, and in the woodwork before the podium of the senate president are several single-bladed fasces.
 * The grand seal of Harvard University inside Memorial Church is flanked by two inward-pointing fasces; the seal is located directly below the 112 m (368 ft) steeple and the Great Seal of the United States inside the Memorial Room; the walls of the room list the names of Harvard students, faculty, and alumni who gave their lives in service of the United States during World War I along with an empty tomb depicting Alma Mater holding a slain Harvard student.
 * The fasces appears on the state seal of Colorado, US, beneath the "All-seeing eye" (or Eye of Providence) and above the mountains and mines.
 * The hallmark of the Kerr & Co silver company was a fasces.
 * On the seal of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, a figure carries a fasces; the seal appears on the borough flag; fasces also can be seen in the stone columns at Grand Army Plaza and on a flagpole in Washington Square Park.
 * The symbol is used as part of the Knights of Columbus emblem (designed in 1883, replaced by a bayonet from 1926 to 1947).
 * Commercially, a small fasces appeared at the top of one of the insignia of the Hupmobile automobile.
 * A fasces appears on the statue of George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon that is now in the Virginia State Capitol; fasces are used as posts of the 1818 cast-iron fence surrounding the capitol building.
 * Columns in the form of fasces line the entrance to Buffalo City Hall.
 * In Newark Penn Station, the exit to Raymond Plaza West is bordered on both sides by 10-foot vertical fasces (each with a double axe-head).
 * VAW-116 have a fasces on their unit insignia.
 * San Francisco's Coit Tower has two fasces-like insignia (without the axe) carved above its entrance, flanking a phoenix.
 * Two monuments erected in Chicago at the time of the Century of Progress Exposition are adorned with fasces; the monument to Christopher Columbus (1933) in Grant Park has them on the ends of its exedra; the Balbo Monument in Burnham Park, (1934) a gift from Benito Mussolini, has the vandalized remains of fasces on all four corners of its plinth.

Modern authorities and movements

 * The collar of the Latvian Order of the Three Stars is decorated with fasces that is supported by lion and griffin
 * Benito Mussolini's tomb is flanked by marble fasces

The following cases involve the adoption of the fasces as a symbol or icon, although no physical re-introduction has occurred.
 * Aiguillettes worn by aides-de-camp in many Commonwealth armed forces bear the fasces on the metal points; the origin of this is unknown, as the fasces is an uncommon symbol in British and Commonwealth heraldry and insignia
 * The Miners Flag (also known as the "Diggers' Banner"), the standard of nineteenth-century gold-miners in the colony of Victoria, in Australia, included the fasces as a symbol of unity and strength of common purpose; this flag symbolized the movement prior to the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade (1854)
 * The British Union of Fascists originally used the fasces on their flag until adopting the Flash and Circle
 * The coat of arms of Ecuador, which also is featured on its national flag, has included a fasces since 1822
 * The coat of arms of Cameroon features two fasces that form a diagonal cross
 * The coat of arms of Cuba features a fasces
 * The third flag of Gran Colombia, a former nation in South America, depicted a large fasces entwined with several arrows
 * The coat of arms of Norte de Santander, a department of Colombia, and of its capital Cúcuta, both feature a fasces
 * The coat of arms of the Romanian Police features two crossed fasces
 * The Grand Coat of Arms of Vilnius, Lithuania features a fasces
 * The crests of many collegiate fraternities and sororities feature the fasces, including those of Chi Phi, Alpha Phi Delta, Sigma Alpha Mu, and Psi Upsilon
 * The academic seal of American University Washington College of Law prominently features a fasces
 * The symbol of the National Party (Uruguay) (Partido Nacional) includes a fasces
 * On the entrance of the Royal Castle of Laeken in Belgium
 * The emblem of the Spanish gendarmerie Guardia Civil includes a fasces
 * Both the Norwegian and Swedish police have double fasces in their coats of arms
 * The emblems of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service and Federal Bailiffs Service include fasces in the double-headed eagle's left foot
 * Insignia of the Philippine Constabulary was include fasces
 * The coat of arms of the Batavian Republic features a fasces

title: Fasces


text:
Fast combat support ship

The fast combat support ship (US Navy hull classification symbol: AOE) is a type of replenishment auxiliary ship. Different from traditional logistic ships, the fast combat support ship is designed with high speed to keep up with the carrier battle group/carrier strike group, while the multi-product station is capable of supplying all types of necessities for the fleet.

US Navy
The fast combat support ship is designed to perform the functions of three old logistic ship types in one hull - fleet oiler (AO), ammunition ship (AE), and refrigerated stores ship (AF). Aside from supplying ships, fast combat support ships need the speed, weapons, sensors, and communications equipment, to serve as an integrated component of the carrier strike battle group. The concept of fast combat support ship was envisioned by United States Navy admiral Arleigh Burke, who laid out the concept as the solution to logistics problems he encountered in World War II.

The first class of the fast combat support ship was the Sacramento-class fast combat support ship, built with multi-product supply stations, the largest fuel capacity, and the largest ammunition capacity in the US Navy at the time. The four ships of the Sacramento-class were 53,000 tons at full load, 796 feet overall length, and carried two Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. The Sacramento-class was retired in 2005.

After replacing the Sacramento-class, the Supply-class fast combat support ship became the largest combat logistics ship in the United States. They can carry more than 177,000 barrels of oil, 2,150 tons of ammunition, 500 tons of dry stores, and 250 tons of refrigerated stores. They receive petroleum products, ammunition, and stores from various shuttle ships and redistributes these items when needed to ships in the carrier strike group. This greatly reduces the number of service ships needed to travel with carrier strike groups. The ships of the class displaced 48,800 tons full load and carried two Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight or two Sikorsky MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters.

Air defense includes the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow radar and infrared surface-to-air missile in eight-cell launchers to provide point defense with 15km to 25km range. There are also two 20mm Phalanx CIWS (close-in weapon systems) and two Mk38 25mm cannons. All Supply-class combat support ships were commissioned until 2001, and then were transferred to Military Sealift Command.

A program to replace the Supply-class ships, the" T-AOE(X) station-ship replacement project", was cancelled in 2005 by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

As of early 2023, USNS Rainier and USNS Bridge have been taken out of service and struck. Along with the remaining two Supply-class ships, US Navy fleets are currently supplied by Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships as well as Henry J. Kaiser-class replenishment oiler and John Lewis-class replenishment oilers.

PLA Navy
In the 21st century, China also developed the Type 901 fast combat support ship, which serves a similar mission in their navy.

United States

 * Sacramento-class fast combat support ship
 * USS Sacramento (AOE-1)
 * USS Camden (AOE-2)
 * USS Seattle (AOE-3)
 * USS Detroit (AOE-4)
 * Supply-class fast combat support ship
 * USNS Supply (T-AOE-6)
 * USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7)
 * USNS Arctic (T-AOE-8)
 * USNS Bridge (T-AOE-10)

China

 * Type 901 fast combat support ship (NATO reporting name: Fuyu-class)
 * PLAN Hulunhu (901)
 * PLAN Chaganhu (905)

title: Fast combat support ship


text:
FASA

FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA Inc. In 2012, a wholly owned subsidiary called FASA Games Inc. went into operation, using the name and logo under license from the parent company. FASA Games Inc. works alongside Ral Partha Europe, also a subsidiary of FASA Corporation, to bring out new editions of existing properties such as Earthdawn and Demonworld, and to develop new properties within the FASA cosmology.

FASA first appeared as a Traveller licensee, producing supplements for that Game Designers' Workshop role-playing game, especially the work of the Keith Brothers. The company went on to establish itself as a major gaming company with the publication of the Star Trek RPG, then several successful original games. Noteworthy lines included BattleTech and Shadowrun. Their Star Trek role-playing supplements and tactical ship game enjoyed popularity outside the wargaming community since, at the time, official descriptions of the Star Trek universe were not common, and the gaming supplements offered details fans craved.

The highly successful BattleTech line led to a series of video games, some of the first virtual reality gaming suites, called Virtual World (created by a subdivision of the company known at the time of development as ESP, an acronym for "Extremely Secret Project") and a Saturday-morning animated TV series.

Originally, the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. This tongue-in-cheek attitude was carried over in humorous self-references in its games. For example, in Shadowrun, a tactical nuclear device was detonated near FASA's offices at 1026 W. Van Buren St in Chicago, Illinois.

History

FASA Corporation was founded by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III in 1980 with a starting capital of $350 ($1,200 adjusted for inflation). The two were fellow gamers at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Mort Weisman, Jordan's father, joined the company in 1985 to lead the company's operational management, having sold his book publishing business, Swallow Press.

Under the new commercial direction and with Mort's capital injection, the company diversified into books and miniature figures. After consulting their UK distributor, Chart Hobby Distributors, FASA licensed the manufacture of its BattleTech figurines to Miniature Figurines (also known as Minifigs). FASA would later acquire the U.S. figures manufacturer Ral Partha, which was the US manufacturer of Minifigs. While Mort ran the paper and metal based sides of the business, the company's founders focused on the development of computer-based games. They were particularly interested in virtual reality (particularly the BattleTech Centers / Virtual World) but also developed desktop computer games.

When Microsoft acquired the FASA Interactive subsidiary, Babcock went with that company. After the sale of Virtual World, Jordan turned his attention to the founding of a new games venture called WizKids.

Current status and intellectual property
FASA unexpectedly ceased active operations on April 30, 2001, but still exists as a corporation holding intellectual property rights, which it licenses to other publishers. Contrary to popular belief, the company did not go bankrupt. Allegedly, the owners decided to quit while the company was still financially sound in a market they perceived as going downhill. Mort Weisman had been talking of retirement for some years, and his confidence in the future of the paper-based games business was low. He considered the intellectual property of FASA to be of high value, but did not wish to continue working as he had been for the last decade or more. Unwilling to wrestle with the complexities of dividing up the going concern, the owners issued a press release on January 25, 2001, announcing the immediate closure of the business.

The BattleTech and Shadowrun properties were sold to WizKids, who in turn licensed their publication to FanPro LLC and then to Catalyst Game Labs. The Earthdawn license was sold to WizKids, and then back to FASA. Living Room Games published Earthdawn (Second Edition), RedBrick published Earthdawn (Classic and Third Editions), but the license has now returned to FASA Corporation, and FASA Games, Inc. is the current license holder for new material. Crimson Skies was originally developed by Zipper Interactive under the FASA Interactive brand in late 2000 and used under license by FASA; FASA Interactive had been purchased by Microsoft, so rights to Crimson Skies stayed with Microsoft. Rights to the miniatures game VOR: The Maelstrom reverted to the designer Mike "Skuzzy" Nielsen, but it has not been republished in any form due partly to legal difficulties. Microsoft officially closed the FASA team in the company's gaming division on September 12, 2007.

On December 6, 2007, FASA founder Jordan Weisman announced that his new venture, Smith & Tinker, had licensed the electronic gaming rights to MechWarrior, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies from Microsoft.

On April 28, 2008 Mike "Skuzzy" Nielsen announced plans to create Vor 2.0.

At Gen Con 2012, FASA Games, Inc. was revealed, which includes FASA Corporation co-founder Ross Babcock on the Board of Directors. While FASA Corporation still owns and manages the FASA IP and brands, FASA Games, Inc would release new games and content. As of 2020, FASA Games has released contents for 2 games; a 4th edition for Earthdawn and the new game 1879 which aims to replace and/or create an alternate future '6th Age' in 'replacement' to Shadowrun.

Role-playing games

 * Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (1982)
 * Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator
 * Doctor Who (1985)
 * MechWarrior (1986)
 * Shadowrun (1989)
 * Legionnaire (1990)
 * Earthdawn (1993)

Board games

 * BattleTech (released in 1984 as BattleDroids, titled BattleTech as of 1985)
 * Battledroids (1984)
 * Classic BattleTech (1985)
 * Renegade Legion (1989)
 * Crimson Skies (1998)

Miniature games

 * VOR: The Maelstrom (1999)
 * Demonworld (second edition: 2011, miniatures by Ral Partha Europe. The first edition was released in 1999 by Hobby Products)

Video games

 * See FASA Studio

title: FASA