Defacing the past : damnation and desecration in Imperial Rome

his book accompanies the exhibition Defacing the past: damnation and desecration in imperial Rome, held at the British Museum (Gallery 69a, Department of Coins and Medals) from October 2016 to May 2017. It aims to narrate how the images of Roman emperors could be attacked and subverted for political and ideological reasons, illustrating the objects of the museum collection that have inspired the show in London alongside a broad range of other examples from different sources and provenances from across the Roman world. The book is intended for a wider audience than just the specialists of the ancient world. It aims especially at considering a broad range of available sources, literary, epigraphic, archaeological and papyrological, but with special emphasis on coins; it focuses on the evidence from the imperial provinces from the 1st to the 3rd century AD; and it discusses examples of defacement of the past resulting not only from the condemnation of the memory of individuals but also from acts of opposition to political power.