Abstract
AbstractChapter 5 rounds off the archaeological case studies with a detailed look at inscriptions that underwent erasure. While we often associate erased inscriptions with the Roman political habit of damnatio memoriae, the erasures presented here, which show the late antique removal of pagan material, functioned differently. Particular attention is paid to the methods of erasure and which parts, exactly, were removed. The chapter contextualizes these rasurae by examining the widespread trend among both pagans and Christians in this period to “unname” the gods, that is, make them anonymous. The erasures are also compared with the well-documented violence that was sometimes enacted on pagan statues. Ultimately, this chapter concludes that the selective, careful, and rare erasure of pagan inscriptions aimed not so much to disgrace the past, but to put some distance between it and the late antique present.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
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