The Damnatio Memoria
"He does not exist. He never existed."
- George Orwell, 1984
The Damnatio Memoria was a practice utilized by the ancient Romans and Egyptians when someone was such a fucking dickhead that the Emperor or Pharaoh declared that they should no longer exist. When a Damnatio Memoria was issued, all historical references to that person were destroyed or erased and any statues or paintings of them were horribly defaced and urinated upon forcefully so that it was impossible to tell even tell who they were or what they looked like. All mention of their names in the historical record were redacted as hell, torn up, run through a paper shredder and then hurled into a furnace. Basically since it was such an important thing in those cultures to have people remember your legacy, this was a huge "fuck you" and was reserved for the most serious assholes around.
Damnatio Memorii are totally badass because they ensure that the people who are complete major flaming shitburgers aren't even hatefully remembered, which is something the we all aspire to. In fact, a lot of scholars have a hard time even figuring out who some statues were even of since it's impossible to make out the faces and any record of their existence has been completely stricken from the official histories. It's like issuing one of these things makes it so that a person never even existed, which is awesome.
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