Erased deKooning -- er, Caesar

When you vote out the old leader sometimes the new leader feels the need to erase memory of the previous leader.   The Roman senate was so glad to get rid of Domitian that after they assassinated him, an official act of damnatio memoriae was passed.  Not only were his images decapitated, but written references  on public buildings were erased.  From the stone.   Here my sister examines a plaque at UPenn Museum of Archaeology. 

The original plaque said:

"to the imperator caesar
son of the deified vespasian,
domitian augustus
victor in germany, pontifex maximus
holding the power of tribune for the fifteenth year, imperator for the twenty second time
consul for the seventeenth time, perpetual censor, father of the country
the flavian augustan colony
of puteoli
by thee indulgence of the great
and divine princeps
having been moved closer to his city"

I didn't take a close up to show how the plaque looks "post-damnation" but it resembles the cream cheese plate after a brunch: just grooved, dragged furrows where the sentences were.  I was a little stingy with the camera that day so you'll have to use your imagination.  In fact, the picture above was taken with the built-in web cam on my little Asus Eee Netbook.

Comments

[Denise]

I've noticed tha same things at the DIA- mostly the genitals were removed. Demasuclation is a pretty straight forward dis I'd say.