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In ancient Rome, infamia ( in-, "not", and fama, "reputation") was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term in Roman law, infamia was juridical exclusion from certain protections of Roman citizenship, imposed as a legal penalty by a Roman censor or praetor. In more general usage during the Roman Republic and Principate, infamia was damage to the esteem (aestimatio) in which a person was held socially; that is, to one's reputation. A person who suffered infamia was an infamis (plural infames).
In addition to bankruptcy, a judgment of flagrant dishonesty over contractual relations and other business dealings could result in infamia. Examples of legal actions for which infamia was a penalty (called actiones famosae or actiones turpes) generally involved a betrayal of trust, at times as expressed by lack of respect for another's property rights. A successful lawsuit claiming theft (furtum) or seizure of movable goods by force (rapina) could result in infamia for the defendant.Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, s.v. furtum, p. 480; rapina, p. 667; vi bona rapta, p. 763. In 66 BC, a praetorian edict permitted lawsuits against "fraud by means of deception" (dolus) when no other contractual remedy was available. Dolus was so broadly defined that Cicero characterized this kind of lawsuit as a fishing expedition.Literally, "a Seine fishing of any and all malicious intent" (everriculum malitiarum omnium): Berger, s.v. dolus, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, p. 343, citing Cicero, De natura deorum 3.30.74. A contractual obligation of mandatum was based on friendship and could not involve any payment, but a lawsuit could be brought to seek restitution for loss or damage; a depositum was the contractual placing of property in the keeping of someone who was not supposed to use it, and legal action could be undertaken to show that the depositary did not fulfill his obligation or refused to return it. A conviction for either an actio mandati or an actio depositi resulted in infamia primarily for breaking one's word, beyond material or financial loss.Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, s.v. mandatum, p. 574; depositum, p. 432.
Iniuria (from which English "injury" derives) was a broad category for a wrongful act that could be penalized by infamia, including bodily harm and damage against property or reputation,Berger, s.v. iniuria, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, p. 502. as well as "affronts to decency" and what would now be called sexual harassment.Nephele Papakonstantinou and Anne Stevens, " Raptus and Roman Law," Clio 52 (2020), p. 24.
Other grounds for infamia included dishonorable discharge from the military, bigamy, and "misbehavior in family life."Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, s.v. infamia, p. 500.
Charioteers may or may not have been infames; two jurists of the later Imperial era argue that athletic competitions were not mere entertainment but "seem useful" as instructive displays of Roman strength and virtus.Bell, Sinclair W., "Roman Chariot-Racing: Charioteers, Factions, Spectators", in P. Christesen and D. Kyle (Editors), Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity, January 2014, pp. 492–504, citing Ulpian, Digest, 3. 2. 4, The low status of those who competed in public games in Rome stands in striking contrast to athletics in Greece, where Olympic victors enjoyed high honors.Zahra Newby, "Greek Athletics as Roman Spectacle: The Mosaics from Ostia and Rome," Papers of the British School at Rome 70 (2002), p. 177. A passive homosexual who was "outing" might be subject to social infamia in the colloquial sense without being socially ostracized, and if a citizen he might retain his legal standing.
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