Editing Damnatio memoriae (section)

=== Ancient Rome ===
[[File:1366 - Inscription for Geta (198-209 AD) - Museo Archeologico, Cagliari - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, November 11 2016.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Erased mention of [[Geta (emperor)|Geta]] in an inscription after his {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} ([[Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari]])]]
[[File:Sejanus Damnatio Memoriae.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Sejanus|Lucius Aelius Sejanus]] suffered {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} following a failed conspiracy to overthrow emperor [[Tiberius]] in AD{{nbs}}31. His statues were destroyed and his name obliterated from all [[public records]]. The above coin from [[Augusta Bilbilis]], originally struck to mark the consulship of Sejanus, has the words ''L. Aelio Seiano'' obliterated.]]
In ancient Rome, the practice of {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} was the condemnation of [[List of Roman Emperors|emperors]] after their deaths. If the Senate or a later emperor did not like the acts of an emperor, they could have his property seized, his name erased and his statues reworked (normally defaced). Because there was an economic incentive to seize property and rework statues, historians and archaeologists have had difficulty determining when official {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} actually took place, although it seems to have been quite rare.

Compounding this difficulty is the fact that a completely successful {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} results—by definition—in the full and total erasure of the subject from the historical record. In the case of figures such as emperors or consuls it is unlikely that complete success was possible, as even comprehensive obliteration of the person's existence and actions in records and the like would continue to be historically visible without extensive reworking. The impracticality of such a cover-up could be vast—in the case of [[Geta (emperor)|Emperor Geta]], for example, coins bearing his [[Effigy#Other types|effigy]] proved difficult to entirely remove from circulation for several years, even though the mere mention of his name was punishable by death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geta: The One Who Died |url=http://dougsmith.ancients.info/geta.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203213839/http://dougsmith.ancients.info/geta.html |archive-date=3 December 2010}}</ref>

Difficulties in implementation also arose if there was not full and enduring agreement with the punishment, such as when the Senate's condemnation of [[Nero]] was implemented—leading to attacks on many of his statues<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Russell |first=Miles |last2=Manley |first2=Harry |year=2013 |title=Finding Nero: shining a new light on Romano-British sculpture |journal=Internet Archaeology |issue=32 |doi=10.11141/ia.32.5 |doi-access=free}}</ref>—but subsequently evaded with the enormous funeral he was given by [[Vitellius]]. Similarly, it was often difficult to prevent later historians from "resurrecting" the memory of the sanctioned person.

The impossibility of actually erasing memory of an emperor has led scholars to conclude that this was not actually the goal of ''damnatio''. Instead, they understand ''damnatio'':
{{blockquote|not so much as an attempt to obliterate memory entirely as to transform honorific commemoration into a form of visible denigration. That is: the power of an act of damnatio relies, at least in part, on the viewer of a monument being able to supplement the gaps in an inscription with their own knowledge of what
those gaps had once contained, and the reasons why the text had been removed|[[Polly Low]], {{qi|Remembering, Forgetting, and Rewriting the Past}}{{sfn|Low|2020|page=245}}}}{{Anchor|List of condemned Roman emperors}}These emperors are known to have been erased from monuments:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sandys |first=John |author-link=John Sandys (classicist) |title=Latin epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Latin inscriptions |publisher=[[Cambridge UP]] |year=1919 |pages=232}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Emperor
! Reign
! Notes
|-
| [[Caligula]]
| 37–41
| Disputed whether per senate decree<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Gizewski |first=Christian |title=Damnatio memoriae: Historisch |date=1 October 2006 |work=Der Neue Pauly |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/der-neue-pauly/*-e310400 |access-date=4 September 2022 |publisher=Brill |language=de |doi=10.1163/1574-9347_dnp_e310400 |s2cid=244835165}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Edoardo Bianchi |date=2014 |title=Il senato e la "damnatio memoriae" da Caligola a Domiziano |url=https://doi.org/10.7381/77974 |journal=Politica Antica |issue=1 |pages=33–54 |doi=10.7381/77974 |issn=2281-1400}}</ref>
|-
| [[Nero]]
| 54–68
| ''hostis iudicatio'' (posthumous trial for treason)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| [[Domitian]]
| 81–96
| per senate decree (96)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| [[Commodus]]
| 177–192
| per senate decree (192)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| ''[[Clodius Albinus]]''
|
| ''[[Roman usurper|Usurper]]''
|-
| [[Geta (emperor)|Geta]]
| 209–211
| per his brother Caracalla
|-
| [[Macrinus]]
| 217–218
| ''Usurper''
|-
| [[Diadumenian]]
| 217–218
| ''Usurper''
|-
| [[Elagabalus]]
| 218–222
|
|-
| [[Severus Alexander]]
| 222–235
| Only during the reign of Maximinus Thrax
|-
| [[Maximinus Thrax]]
| 235–238
| per senate decree (238)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| [[Gaius Julius Verus Maximus|Maximus I]]
|
| ''Caesar only''
|-
| [[Philip the Arab]]
| 244–249
|
|-
| [[Philip II (emperor)|Philip II]]
| 247–249
| Philip the Arab's son
|-
| [[Decius]]
| 249–251
|
|-
| [[Herennius Etruscus]]
| 251
| Decius' son
|-
| [[Hostilian]]
| 251
| Decius' son
|-
| [[Aemilianus]]
| 253
|
|-
| [[Gallienus]]
| 253–268
|
|-
| [[Aurelian]]
| 270–275
| Briefly
|-
| [[Probus (emperor)|Probus]]
| 276–282
|
|-
| [[Carus]]
| 282–283
|
|-
| [[Carinus]]
| 284–285
|
|-
| [[Numerian]]
| 283–284
|
|-
| [[Diocletian]]
| 284–305
|
|-
| [[Maximian]]
| 286–305
| per senate decree (310)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| [[Galerius]]
| 305–311
|
|-
| [[Valerius Severus]]
| 306–307
|
|-
| [[Maximinus II]]
| 308–313
| per senate decree (313)<ref name=":0" />
|-
| [[Maxentius]]
| 306–312
|
|-
| [[Licinius]]
| 308–324
|
|-
| [[Constantine II (emperor)|Constantine II]]
| 337–340
|
|-
| [[Constans]]
| 337–350
|
|-
| ''[[Magnentius]]''
|
| ''Usurper''
|-
| [[Magnus Maximus]]
| 383–388
|
|}