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QUERY: DAMNATIO MEMORIAE OF ROMAN EMPERORS SOUGHTDario Calomino, Curator of Roman Provincial Coins at the British Museum writes: I work at the British Museum with Andrew Burnett on RPC 6 and I am currently developing a small exhibition on the damnatio memoriae of Roman emperors accompanied by a book. I should explain that I am writing a booklet, not a corpus of all known specimens that show signs of damnatio. The definition of damnatio is also controversial, I am considering examples of defacement of coins for political reasons, mainly to attack the memory deposed emperors, but not exclusively; some nice examples also from different periods (even defaced banknotes for my general introduction) could be considered if relevant.
Can anyone help? Dario can be reached at DCalomino@britishmuseum.org .
We covered the topic of damnatio memoriae once before, in a Featured Web Page suggested by the late numismatic literature dealer John Burns. Here's that article from April 7, 2013, taken from Wikipedia. -Editor Damnatio memoriae is the Latin phrase literally meaning "condemnation of memory" in the sense of a judgment that a person must not be remembered. It was a form of dishonor that could be passed by the Roman Senate upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State. The intent was to erase someone from history, a task somewhat easier in ancient times, when documentation was much sparser. The sense of the expression damnatio memoriae 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 city; in a city that stressed the social appearance, respectability and the pride of being a true Roman as a fundamental requirement of the citizen, it was perhaps the most severe punishment. 
Lucius Aelius Sejanus suffered damnatio memoriae following a failed conspiracy to overthrow emperor Tiberius in 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. To read the complete article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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