All this Rome talk … look, I lived in Rome in my younger days (over there I’m known as CivilWarUmorismo; here’s me with a fan) and if there’s one Roman thing I’d import to America other than Aperitivo (google it) and a healthy respect for anti-fascism, it’s DAMNATIO MEMORIAE ...

Damnatio memoriae is a (modern) Latin term for the Roman “condemnation of memory.” What does it mean to have your memory condemned? Well, if you’ve ever told your Italian grandma her pasta is “a little too al dente,” it’s that look she gives you right before she kills you.

The Greeks invented the practice and the Romans stole it (shocking, I know). The idea is a ruler has been so repugnant and immoral, you strip EVERY TRACE of them from public life after they’re gone. (Sorry, Trump Hotel -- you’re the Shithole Country Motor Lodge from now on.)

When condemning someone’s memory, the Roman Senate could seize their property, strike their names from the records, topple statues. (In contrast with those who believe "statue toppling" is a modern phenomenon, Romans recognized monuments for what they so often were: propaganda.)

Coins of condemned rulers were destroyed, their names on tablets were etched over, their faces were rubbed out of paintings. (That’s right -- Romans were Photoshopping their atrocious exes out of family photos waaaay before it became the cool thing to do on Instagram.)

The most famous case of a condemned memory was the Emperor Geta, whose brother Caracalla had him killed in their mother’s arms -- truly an All-Time Bummer Of A Way To Go Out. Just speaking Geta’s name could get you a death sentence; it’s like mentioning mine in Hollywood.

Condemnations were tough to carry out, and the Roman Senate was known for, umm, targeting elites whose fancy villas they wanted as their own … hey, we’ve all been there: You see a Zillow listing with GROUP INDOOR PLUMBING in the 52 AD zip code and you stop at NOTHING to get it.

Then as now, only children think History is set in stone; the Romans realized it was a dynamic discipline. So sometimes, bad folks got rehabilitated -- usually as a result of going on “Roman Dancing with the Stars” and humanizing themselves by tripping over their toga.

See, Roman politics, like our own, was very much about reputation -- that’s what made the public shame associated with DAMNATIO MEMORIAE so, well … damning. If your memory is condemned, you can’t just go on MSNBC and make nice with Chuck Todd … ok, maybe HE’D still book you.

What can we learn from Rome? Well, we should DEFINITELY scatter salt over the ashes of Mar-A-Lago when this is over, so nothing can ever grow there again. But we should also remember the power of threatening elites with the only thing they TRULY fear losing: their image rights.

Update: And not FIVE MINUTES after I posted this thread, his Twitter account got zapped.

Good to know SOMEONE in the corridors of power is reading this account.