History and silence: purge and rehabilitation of memory in late antiquity

Abstract

In AD 431 a statue of the senator Virius Nicomachus Flavianus was erected in Trajan’s Forum at Rome. On its base was inscribed an imperial letter that rehabilitated Flavianus’ reputation (CIL 6. 1783). Flavianus had committed suicide after the usurper Eugenius, whose revolt he had supported, was defeated in 394. In the aftermath, Flavianus was subject to damnatio memoriae for his part in the rebellion. This disgrace and subsequent rehabilitation form the theme of H.’s study, which has at its heart a study of the inscription on the statue base.