Thread by @DocCrom

Ancient History Quote of the Day: "As for all the images of him, they went around hurling them down, cutting them down and dragging them down, as if they were actually injuring his very body" (Dio 58.11.3). #AHQOTD #Statues

And yes... this is topical!

Image: Jan Luyken, 1698

Sejanus, as with many other individuals whom the Romans deemed nefarious, suffered 'damnatio memoriae', which involved the tearing down of their statues and images, as well as the erasure of their names from public inscriptions.

Dio (59.30.1a, referenced by John of Antioch) tells us that in the aftermath of his assassination "statues and images of Gaius were ripped down, as the people remembered the terrible things they had suffered at his hands".

Image: Bust of Gaius (Met Museum 25.78.35)

Similarly the statues of Agrippina were also torn down in the aftermath of her murder by Nero (Dio 61.16a).

Image: J. Paul Getty Museum (70.AA.101)

That we see damnatio memoriae again and again throughout Roman History is further evidenced by the 'Severan Tondo', and the rivalry between Caracalla and Geta.

https://twitter.com/DocCrom/status/1208001895710810113?s=20

My point here is that to see the toppling of a statue as the destruction of history is, in my opinion, incorrect. If anything it is the creation of history.

#AHQOTD