August
16
/ 2023
In Roman times, a decree of Damnatio memoriae was the chief way of obliterating the memory, nearly always posthumous, of those perceived as having transgressed in some way, as was the case of Emperor Magnus Maximus, in 389 AD. Virtually erased from public consciousness in the Roman Empire, his memory nevertheless later cast a very long shadow across the Roman diocese of Britain, from whence he had emerged some years earlier as a self-proclaimed emperor – an usurper, or in Latin tyrannus – which is what he is nearly always referred to in Roman history, past and present. Nevertheless, he was acknowledged by the Eastern Emperor Theodosius I in 384 AD, and by the Roman senate either then or in
