This work intends to propose a global and diachronic approach to infamy, from 312 BC to 96 AD, in order to decompartmentalize its study, and put it back in its sociocultural context. Infamy refers to the degradation which results from the fulfilment of some latent contempt by a representative of the city. To understand the functions and the forms of this formalization, we started from a prosopographic catalogue from which the three parts of our research are taken. During the degradation ceremonies, infamy was actualized case by case by a civic authority which gauges the citizen's value. These dishonour shows favoured the spread of the values of aristocracy and, by reminding its excellence, made it legitimate. From the 2nd century BC, infamy...