Achieving Amnesty: The Role of Events, Institutions, and Ideas

This paper offers a causal explanation for why the democratic majority in Athens for the most part did not exploit the power it held in the People's Courts and dokimasia proceedings to drive former oligarchic collaborators out of public life in the years following the fall of the Thirty. A model, based on decision theory, of the decision-making process under the Athenian democracy is developed. Its predictions are assessed against the extant speeches of the period. The author argues that the success of defendants was made possible by common perceptions of recent events, by features of Athens' legal institutions, and by the ingenuity of the speechwriters.