In this essay, the author analyzes the fascist military campaign against Ethiopia from a peculiar bottom-up perspective, or rather, from the city of Naples. Such an approach moves from the specific role of Naples as a crossroads both in the preparation phase and in that of open warfare. This logistical role makes the city an extraordinary observation point on the flows of soldiers, workers, animals, and vehicles that passed through its port. The essay looks inside the fascist war machine by using local and peripheral institutional sources. In this way, it is possible to highlight capacities and limits of mechanisms such as the institutional network set up to manage the logistical flows, the troop cantonment, and the selection and dispatch of militarized workers in the context of the emerging fascist empire.
