Damnatio memoriae

Portrait of the Severan family, with portraits of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, and their sons Caracalla and Geta. The face of one of Severus' and Julia's sons has been erased; it may be Geta's, as a result of the damnatio memoriae ordered by his brother Caracalla after Geta's death.

Damnatio memoriae is a Latin practice or phrase that means "condemnation of memory". It means that a person's existence should be cut out of history. In practice it meant removing the name from official records and monuments. However, because information about the person was usually also found in other places, like letters and scrolls, historians today can usually still learn about the person.

Damnatio Memoriae Media

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  Damnatio memoriaecode: la is deprecated of Commodus on an inscription in the Museum of Roman History Osterburken. The abbreviation "CO" was later restored with paint.

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  Coffin believed to belong to Akhenaten found in Tomb KV55, with the face obliterated

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  Part of an honorific decree for Phaedrus of Sphettus, passed in 259/8 BC. The lines mentioning Phaedrus' interactions with the Antigonids were chiselled out as part of the damnatio memoriae of 200 BC.

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  Erased mention of Geta in an inscription after his damnatio memoriaecode: la is deprecated (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari)

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  Lucius Aelius Sejanus suffered damnatio memoriaecode: la is deprecated following a failed conspiracy to overthrow emperor Tiberius in AD 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.

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  The Chapultepec portrait of Moctezuma II, made in 1519 and intentionally damaged in the middle of the 18th century, is the only surviving Chapultepec portrait of a Mexica monarch.