ABSTRACT
Damnatio memoriae is a punishment with ancient origins. In a ritual instituted by the second King of Rome, Numa, any Vestal Virgin who broke her vows of chastity would suffer damnatio memoriae. Interiors are composites: the meeting places of many things; and applied to the interior, acts of damnatio memoriae involve the disruption of the order of the meetings between diverse objects, rather than the simple defacement of one. Damnatio memoriae was selectively and skilfully used in Roman public life. As Harriet Flower has argued in The Art of Forgetting, her study of the practice of damnatio memoriae, oblivion was the natural state of affairs in the Roman mind. This chapter use s three stories to explore what the practice can reveal about not just loss and memory but also those things which are lost and remembered: Nero's Golden House, The Trial of Charles I and The Last Boudoir of Marie Antoinette.
