Damnatio memoriae

Damnatio memoriae (Latin for "damnation of memory", in the sense of removed from the remembrance) was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman Empire. The sense of the expression and of the sanction is to cancel every trace of the person from the life of Rome, as if he had never existed, in order to preserve the honour of the Urbs; in a town that stressed the social appearance and respectability (and the pride of being a civis romanus) as a fundamental requirement of the citizen, it was perhaps the severest punishment.

Similar practices were applied in other societies

The cartouches of the heretical pharaoh Akhnaton were mutilated by his successors.

Related Topics:
Cartouche - Akhnaton

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus to become famous.

Related Topics:
Herostratus - Temple of Artemis in Ephesus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Ephesus leaders decided that his name should never be repeated again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Marino Faliero, fifty-fifth Doge of Venice, was condemned to damnatio memoriae after a failed coup d'état.

Related Topics:
Marino Faliero - Doge of Venice - Coup d'état

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A famous example of the concept of damnatio memoriae in modern usage is the "vaporization" of "unpersons" in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four ("He did not exist; he never existed"). Rumor among students at Harvard College holds that a special punishment is reserved for persons who falsified application materials; the College "expunges" the falsifier's record, damning his memory from any record of having associated with the institution.

Related Topics:
Unperson - George Orwell - Dystopia - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Harvard

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More modern examples of damnatio memoriae in actual practice was the removal of portraits, books, and any other traces of Stalin's opponents during the Great Purge.

Related Topics:
Stalin - Great Purge

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~