The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture

Elite Romans periodically chose to limit or destroy the memory of a leading citizen who was deemed an unworthy member of the community. Sanctions against memory could lead to the removal or mutilation of portraits and public inscriptions. Harriet Flower provides the first chronological overview of the development of this Roman practice — an instruction to forget — from archaic times into the second century A.D. Flower explores Roman memory sanctions against the background of Greek and Helle...