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Damnatio memoriae facts for kids

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Portrait of family of Septimius Severus - Altes Museum - Berlin - Germany 2017
The face at the bottom left was erased because of damnatio memoriae.

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. Actually, it was never totally achieved. In practice it meant removing the name from official records and monuments. That left plenty of letters and scrolls from which historians have pieced together the information we have.

Images for kids

  • Römermuseum Osterburken (DerHexer) 2012-09-30 008

    Damnatio memoriae of 'Commodus' on an inscription in the Museum of Roman History Osterburken. The abbreviation "CO" was later restored with paint.

  • KV55 sarcophagus (Cairo Museum)

    Coffin believed to belong to Akhenaten found in Tomb KV55. Note the typical obliteration of the face.

  • 1366 - Inscription for Geta (198-209 AD) - Museo Archeologico, Cagliari - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, November 11 2016

    Deleted mention of Geta in an inscription after his damnatio memoriae (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari)

  • Sejanus Damnatio Memoriae

    Lucius Aelius Sejanus suffered damnatio memoriae 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.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Damnatio memoriae para niños

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