The Art of Forgetting

by Flower, Harriet I.

• ISBN13: 9780807830635
• ISBN10: 0807830631
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-18
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

Elite Romans periodically chose to limit or destroy the memory of a leading citizen who was deemed an unworthy member of the community. Sanctions against memory could lead to the removal or mutilation of portraits and public inscriptions. Harriet Flower provides the first chronological overview of the development of this Roman practice--an instruction to forget--from archaic times into the second century A.D. Early memory sanctions were employed by political families in an effort to preserve their social standing or limit the embarrassment caused by a disgraced relative. Bans in the Late Republic, however, turned into punitive measures used against political rivals. By the imperial period, emperors imposed postmortem disgrace in attempts to control elite dissent or its image, but they could also become subject to such posthumous sanctions themselves. Flower explores Roman memory sanctions against the background of Greek and Hellenistic cultural influence and in the context of the wider Mediterranean world. Combining literary and legal texts, art and archaeology, this richly illustrated study contributes to a deeper understanding of Roman political culture.

Table of Contents

Preface	xix
Acknowledgments	xxiii
CHAPTER I Clementis' Hat: The Politics of Memory Sanctions and the Shape of Forgetting	1	(16)
PART I THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND GREEK PRECEDENTS
CHAPTER II Did the Greeks Have Memory Sanctions?	17	(25)
Greek Laws and Memory Sanctions	18	(5)
Amnesty: (Re)Shaping Civic Memory	23	(3)
Erasing Greek Public Inscriptions	26	(5)
Hellenistic Memory Sanctions in Context	31	(3)
Philip V of Macedon: The Romans Visit Athens in 200 B.C.	34	(8)
CHAPTER III The Origins of Memory Sanctions in Roman Political Culture	42	(25)
The Three Early Republican Traitors	44	(7)
Memory and the Political Culture of the Nobiles	51	(4)
Memoria and Oblivio	55	(5)
Influences on Roman Memory Sanctions	60	(3)
Disgrace and the Manlii	63	(4)
CHAPTER IV Punitive Memory Sanctions I: The Breakdown of the Republican Consensus	67	(19)
The Invention of Punitive Memory Sanctions in 121 B.C.	69	(12)
Sextus Titius' Portrait of L. Appuleius Saturninus	81	(5)
CHAPTER V Punitive Memory Sanctions II: The Republic of Sulla	86	(29)
Sulla's New Republic	86	(12)
Playing with Fire: Cicero, Catiline, and Clodius	98	(6)
Clementia Caesaris: Divus Iulius and the Memory of the Liberators	104	(5)
Punitive Sanctions in the Politics of the Late Republic	109	(6)
PART II THE PRINCIPATE FROM OCTAVIAN TO ANTONINUS PIUS
CHAPTER VI Memory Games: Disgrace and Rehabilitation in the Early Principate	115	(45)
Marcus Antonius	116	(5)
Senatorial Self-Representation under Augustus: L. Munatius Plancus and M. Licinius Crassus	121	(4)
C. Cornelius Gallus, the Poet	125	(5)
"Opposition" to Augustus?	130	(2)
Maiestas under Tiberius: The Case of Cn. Calpurnius Piso	132	(6)
Memoriae Agrippinae	138	(5)
The Erasure of C. Asinius Gallus	143	(5)
Gaius' Ghost and the Memory of the Caesars	148	(12)
CHAPTER VII Public Sanctions against Women: A Julio-Claudian Innovation	160	(37)
Julia, Augusti f.	163	(4)
Disgrace in A.D. 8	167	(2)
Livi(ll)a and the Fall of Sejanus	169	(13)
The Memory of Messalina	182	(7)
Agrippina, Mother of Nero	189	(5)
Tacitus' Julio-Claudian Women	194	(3)
CHAPTER VIII The Memory of Nero, imperator scaenicus	197	(37)
Nero the Enemy	199	(3)
Nero on Stage in A.D. 68	202	(7)
Neronians after Nero	209	(3)
Nero's Inscriptions	212	(11)
Remembering and Forgetting in the Grove of Dea Dia	223	(5)
The Image of Flavian Rome	228	(4)
Epilogue: Fannius' Dream	232	(2)
CHAPTER IX The Shadow of Domitian and the Limits of Disgrace	234	(42)
Nerva's Coup and the Disgrace of Domitian	235	(5)
Domitianic Epigraphy: Patterns and Pitfalls	240	(16)
Domitian at Puteoli and Misenum	256	(6)
Praising Trajan/Blaming Domitian	262	(4)
The Memory World of Pliny's Letters	266	(4)
Memory and Transitions of Power in the First Century A.D.: 69/96	270	(2)
Hadrian's Legacy	272	(4)
CHAPTER X Conclusion: Roman Memory Spaces	276	(9)
Notes	285	(64)
Bibliography	349	(42)
Index	391