Proscription

Common card · No. 233988

Proscription (Latin: proscriptio) is, in current usage, a 'decree of condemnation to death or banishment' (Oxford English Dictionary) and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in ancient Rome, where it included public identification and official condemnation of declared enemies of the state and it often involved confiscation of property. Its usage has been significantly widened to describe governmental and political sanctions of varying severity on individuals and classes of people who have fallen into disfavor, from the en masse suppression of adherents of unorthodox ideologies to the suppression of political rivals or personal enemies. In addition to its recurrences during the various phases of the Roman Republic, it has become a standard term to label: Sulla's proscription – a reprisal campaign by the Roman proconsul and later dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, to eliminate the supporters of his rival Marius in the...

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