his fanatical devotion to Mussolini, his own daughter later said of him: 'He breathed only by the Duce's order.' The man in the street was more or less of the same opinion and Starace was regularly lampooned almost openly by student songs and poems that circulated almost freely despite the Fascist regime and the political police. It was said, about the "bestiary" symbolic of Fascism: "The wolf, which is voracious; the lion which is ferocious; the eagle, which is rapacious, the goose; which is Starace." («La lupa, che è vorace; il leone ch'è feroce; l'aquila, che è rapace; l'oca, che è Starace») A mock epitaph was coined by students, written on walls even during the Fascist period, which read: "Here lies Starace, dressed in orbace [wool, see below], capable of nothing, Requiescat in pace."( «È morto Starace, vestito d'orbace, di nulla capace, requiescat in pace»). Another variation of this rhyme read: "Here lies Starace / clad in orbace / rapacious in peace / in war a fleeting type / in bed a pugnacious one," («Qui giace Starace / vestito d'orbace / in pace rapace / in guerra fugace / a letto pugnace») recalling the exhortation he addressed his compatriots, according to which "all party organs work: have to work so, even the genitals." (Orbace was a special sort of raw wool cloth made in Sardegna that Starace had made compulsory for Fascist party officials' uniforms, as part of the Fascist autarky policy, and is said to have been very itchy.) Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son in law and foreign affairs minister wrote of Starace in his diary: "The Italians are people that may pardon anybody who treated them wrong... but they won't pardon somebody who has been breaking their... boxes (polite substitute for... balls)". Awards and decorations Knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Officer of the Military Order of Savoy (24 August 1936), previously a Knight (17 May 1919) Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy Silver Medal of Military Valour Bronze Medal for Military Valour, 4 times Cross of Merit of War - Grant for Military Valor Cross of Merit of War Commemorative Medal for the Italo-Austrian War 1915–1918 Commemorative Medal of the Unity of Italy Allied Victory Medal 1914-1918 Commemorative Medal of the March on Rome in gold "on the occasion of his appointment as Secretary of the PNF" (7 December 1931) in silver