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 censor or praetor.[1] In more general usage during the 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).