The Athenian Oath Never to Remember Past Wrongs
In 403 BCE, after a brutal oligarchy fell, the citizens of Athens swore not to recall past wrongs, granting amnesty to almost everyone who had served the tyrants. This episode examines how an ancient civic bargain preserved a shattered city, and the enduring dilemma of whether a society must trade justice for peace.
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Sparta installed the Thirty Tyrants in four hundred four BCE, executing roughly fifteen hundred residents without trial.
A legal oath banned citizens from acting on civil war memories or pursuing retaliatory litigation.
Property settlements let original owners reclaim land while buyers kept all movable goods to curb disputes.
Archinus executed a prosecutor without trial to deter citizens from violating the post-war amnesty oath.
Litigants bypassed speech bans by using opponents' oligarchic records as character evidence during unrelated trials.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Terror of the Thirty and the Spartan Peace2 min
- 03The Architecture of Forgetting3 min
- 04Enforcing the Truce in the Shadow of Revenge3 min
- 05The Fragile Border Between Law and Memory3 min
- 06Outro1 min
- 9781009490962 frontmatter.pdf
- Edizioni Ca
- Athens after the Thirty Tyrants and Democratic Memory
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- Pb LCL244.693.xml
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- cam.ac.uk
- Athens transformed 404262 bc from popular sovereignty to the dominion of wealth 1stnbsped 978 0415873925
- Pb LCL244.691.xml
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- Peter Krentz - The Thirty at Athens-Cornell University Press (1982) | PDF | Ancient Greeks | Classical Civilizations
- Polis and revolution responding to oligarchy in classical athens 0521760445 9780521760447
- ess.gov.et
- Isocrates i 9780292799011
- Order and Law in Ancient Athens | PDF | Justice | Crime & Violence
- To Forgive is Divine?: Amnesty in History – The Lemur: Duke's Big Ideas Magazine
- 248630915 The Athenian amnesty and scrutiny of 403
- harvard.edu
- 73120378 b6a6 6bd4 e053 0100007fdf3b
- The End of Impunity
- berkeley.edu
- 404163045 Mapping truth What can geospatial analysis contribute to transitional justice
- THE IMPACT OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION ON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND FORGIVENESS IN SOUTH AFRICA - PMC
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