"This book examines the process of purge and rehabilitation of memory in the person of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus (?-394). Charles Hedrick describes how Flavian was condemned for participating in the rebellion against the Christian emperor Theodosius the Great - and then restored to the public record a generation later as members of the newly Christianized senatorial class sought to reconcile their pagan past and Christian present.

By selectively remembering and forgetting the actions of Flavian, Hedrick argues, the Roman elite honored their ancestors while participating in profound social, cultural, and religious change." "Hedrick's interpretation sheds new light on the transition from antiquity to the middle ages. It also illuminates political repression in the twentieth century with specific comparisons between ancient and modern practices of the eradication of memory."--BOOK JACKET.