Herostratus

In 356 BCE, an obscure man set fire to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, reducing one of the ancient world's architectural marvels to ash. Arrested and tortured, Herostratus confessed he had one motive: everlasting fame. He was executed, and authorities passed a law forbidding anyone from speaking his name - a damnatio memoriae meant to erase him. Ancient writers documented him anyway, even contemporaries of the fire, preserving exactly what he wanted. Modern scholars see his act as a forerunner to later acts of violence committed for attention, from the assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria to the September 11 attacks. His crime has been adapted in Western literature since the Middle Ages, appearing in works by Alessandro Verri and Jean-Paul Sartre, often recast into modern settings where the logic of his infamy still holds.