Could someone explain the reason there are two fasci in Congress and on the Senate's emblem?

Question

Congress:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3/KarlSpackler/Congress.jpg

Senate Emblem:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Senate_cap.PNG/200px-Senate_cap.PNG

Answer 1

They're called fasces. A fasces is a Roman device. Actually, it originated from the ancient Etruscans from whom the earliest Romans derived their religious jurisprudence nearly three thousand years ago. It's an axe head whose handle is a bundle of rods tightly strapped together by a red sinew. It symbolizes the ordering of priestly functions into a single infallible sovereign, and autocrat who could require life and limb of his subjects. If the fasces is entwined with laurel, like the pair on the House wall, it signifies Caesarean military power. The Romans called this infallible sovereign Pontifex Maximus, "Supreme Bridgebuilder."

Today's Pontifex Maximus is the Pope, but he does not hold that title alone. He shares it with a mysterious partner, a military man, a man holding an office that has been known for more than four centuries as "Papa Nero," the Black Pope - currently Adolfo Nicolas who succeeded Peter Hans Kolvenbach on January 19 of this year. The House fasces represents the Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), who indeed rules this world.

All roads lead to Rome, and the the United States government is "Roman Catholic" to the core.