The Ancient World Online: The abolitio memoriae in Rome and the Roman world (1st century BCE—4th century CE)

As a result of a research program dedicated to the condemnation of
memory in Roman antiquity, which began in the 2000s and is part of a
rapidly evolving field of study, this collective volume offers an
original synthesis based on an exhaustive examination of the available
sources (epigraphic, iconographic, literary and legal). It includes the
work of researchers associated with the program and European specialists
and develops a series of methodological reflections, case studies and
historiographical perspectives on a specific procedure of the Roman
world, redefined here as abolition of memoryafter having been described as damnation of memory
from 1936 onwards, an expression subsequently used for all periods of
history. It thus allows us to complete our approach to the collective
memory in Rome and its vectors of diffusion of an outstanding political
communication (from public displays to private spaces).

Publisher:
Northern University Press

Place of publication:

Villeneuve d’Ascq

Published on OpenEdition Books:
November 26, 2025

Digital ISBN: 978-2-7574-4552-5

DOI: 10.4000/15831 Series:

History and civilizations

Year of publication: 2025

ISBN (Print version): 978-2-7574-4508-2

Number of pages: 558

Stéphane Benoist, Sabine Lefebvre, Anne Daguet-Gagey et al.

Foreword

First part. 20 years of methodological reflections onabolition of memory

Second part. The practices of an instrumentalized communication of memory: the milliaires

Third part. Differentiated approaches “of a memory in action”: theabolition in contexts

A. The name of festivals and cities abolished

B. Memory abolished from military units

C. The case of the memory of women, members of the imperial family

Stéphane Benoist, Sabine Lefebvre, Anne Daguet-Gagey et al.

Epilogue

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