Abstract
At the beginning of the IH1*1 century, many practices of damnatio memoriae of the princes are attested by contemporary or late literary sources, but their information appears problematical. The legal procedure which excludes from the collective memory is mentioned only exceptionally and is never the subject of a complete report. On the other hand, the historians abundantly describe the circumstances of the elimination of the princes. This dramatized account, in the case of Alexander Severus, replaces even the mention of the damnatio memoriae.The assassination of a prince in the discharge of his duties sanctions to some extent its reign ; the obliteration of its memory completes a judgement already carried out by the murder : the damnatio memoriae is an ideological justification and allows the return to legality.
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