Wee[k] 3: Bear Down Domitian

I'm reposting a thing because I can't figure out how to edit something and make that edit stick.

I'll be heading to the UA in approximately 10 hours...

Week 3 has gone by incredibly fast. I'm learning a lot about Rome, and it's nice to be able to sit and read and learn. Professor Kendall and I discussed the topic for my final paper, and after talking it through, I decided to write about the idea of memory in relation to these epigraphs(like the one below). She gave me an article to read about Roman triumphal painting which is exactly what it sounds like. There were a few sections of the article that mentioned memory, and those piqued my interest, helping me to decide on my topic. I have since passed the article on to Hope, and this was the way information got around in ye olden days of no electronics. It reminded me of a passage I read in a book about how individuals would read a book or pamphlet then pass it on to a friend and so on. Anyways, hey look! Pictures!

For the final product of my project, I'm going to create a corpus of epigraphs from around Tucson, and this is one I found on the UA campus on Friday, "Bear Down" with a  backwards "N." This epigraph is promoting school spirit. The success of the basketball team could act as a catalyst for school spirit. Maybe the individual who wrote this is an avid basketball fan. It's unclear from just the text. Sharpies are permanent, easily accessible, and quick for writing something that you want to be permanent. This was written with sharpie on a metal maintenance box of some sort. The Romans used to inscribe epigraphs into metal, and they considered something inscribed into metal to be "ultra" permanent. I think times have changed. Sharpie can be scrubbed off if one is persistent enough while an inscription has to be carved away(see below). This potentially says that public writing does not possess the same level of permanence that it had during the Roman's time. Although, we have the internet where everything is permanent. 

The morning class finished Vespasian in a day which I was a bit sad about. The guy seems pretty cool. Now we have moved onto Domitian, Vespasian's youngest son who was never intended to be emperor. 

This is an inscription about or to Domitian. Most emperors were deified, but the one's that weren't received what was called a damnatio memoriae. It was a posthumous condemnation by the Senate that was intended to erase an mention of the damned individual from society. I wrote my Capstone Latin paper on this idea, and it ties into my SRP as well. An inscription in stone was meant to be permanent, but when it's erased, the erasure is made permanent. This damnatio memoriae was not successful because we know Domitian's name and life. Professor Kendall's morning class went over Domitian's like and rule which provided me with background as to why the Senate hated him. He treated them like the advisory board that they were which put a twist in their togas. Did he deserve to be publicly erased from memory? Maybe, Suetonius certainly thinks so. 

Laborate bene, amici.