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What the heck is it called ...

astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
... when a cut is placed across the face or throat of the emperor on a Roman coin as an act of disrespect? I can't remember the Latin word for it ... and it's driving me crazy!

I just picked up an original "Dictionary of Roman Coins" by Stevenson and I wanted to look it up ... and my brain froze!
Numismatist Ordinaire
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces

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    SmEagle1795SmEagle1795 Posts: 2,136 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Damnatio Memoriae
    Learn about our world's shared history told through the first millennium of coinage: Colosseo Collection
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    astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ah ... thank you!
    Numismatist Ordinaire
    See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
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    SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,011 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That's not quite the full story. Damnatio memoriae was a legal edict to attempt to erase from the historical record all reference to a certain person. A coin issued in the name of someone under damnatio memoriae would usually be melted down, though some provincial bronzes did tend to be defaced rather than recycled. Note the important aspect of a damnatio coin is the removal of the name, rather than damage to the portrait. Wikipedia has a good example of a coin of consul Sejanus.

    Deliberate damage or defacement of the coinage portrait of an emperor who was not under damnatio would have been considered treasonous and, if the emperor in question was divine, sacrilegious. If some of the more paranoid emperors executed people for taking "their" coins into a public latrine, they certainly wouldn't have looked kindly upon such a deliberate and permanent insult.
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
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    astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>That's not quite the full story. Damnatio memoriae was a legal edict to attempt to erase from the historical record all reference to a certain person. A coin issued in the name of someone under damnatio memoriae would usually be melted down, though some provincial bronzes did tend to be defaced rather than recycled. Note the important aspect of a damnatio coin is the removal of the name, rather than damage to the portrait. Wikipedia has a good example of a coin of consul Sejanus.

    Deliberate damage or defacement of the coinage portrait of an emperor who was not under damnatio would have been considered treasonous and, if the emperor in question was divine, sacrilegious. If some of the more paranoid emperors executed people for taking "their" coins into a public latrine, they certainly wouldn't have looked kindly upon such a deliberate and permanent insult. >>

    Thanks!
    Numismatist Ordinaire
    See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
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