The Athenian Amnesty of 403 BC and the Reforms of the Restored Democracy

FAIN: FB-54593-10

Edwin Carawan
Missouri State University, Springfield (Springfield, MO 65897-0027)

The agreement that resolved civil conflict at Athens in 403 BC became the paradigm for amnesty and national reconciliation, a method often praised and sometimes put into practice, from classical antiquity to the post-Soviet era. This study presents a new interpretation of the ancient agreement in its original setting and in view of the subsequent reconstruction of laws and democratic institutions at Athens. The study builds upon a complete collation of testimony in the ancient historians and speechwriters together with the surviving inscriptions, and it develops a new reading of the argumentation in which the evidence is embedded. The study will be published in book form, with an abridged version online. The book is addressed primarily to scholars in ancient law and politics but should also be useful to well-informed nonspecialists who turn back to the ancient parallels for perspective on conflict resolution.

Associated Products

Paragraphe and the Merits (Article)
Title: Paragraphe and the Merits
Author: Edwin Carawan
Abstract: This paper argues against the prevailing view of the ancient Athenian procedure for barring lawsuits, the 'paragraphe'. Based on the earliest testimony (Isocrates 18) we should conclude that this remedy was originally introduced against any suit violating specific covenants of the recent Reconciliation Agreement (403 BC), not to enforce a general amnesty.The trial was then decided by a single ballot (for the plaintiff or for the defendant), not a two-stage procedure as H.J Wolff argued (1966).
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://grbs.library.duke.edu/issue/view/2141
Primary URL Description: Online access to 'Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies' (Duke University), vol. 51, pp. 254-95.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
Publisher: Duke University

The Athenian Amnesty and Reconstructing the Law (Book)
Title: The Athenian Amnesty and Reconstructing the Law
Author: Edwin Carawan
Abstract: na
Year: 2013
Publisher: Oxford: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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