The ancient Romans had a practice called Damnatio Memoriae, which was to banish someone’s memory from public life. It was also sometimes known as oblivion. It called for the complete deletion of the person’s name or image from all statues, inscriptions, coins, and texts.

While the practice neither began nor ended with the Romans, they are ones who gave it the name we used today.

Learn more about the history of expunging people from history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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