Remembering Defeat: Civil War and Civic Memory in Ancient Athens

1: Civil War

∞ F C I V I L WA R When Theramenes arrived, Critias stood up and spoke as follows: ‘‘Members of the Council, if any of you thinks that more people are being put to death than is right, let him reflect that these things always take place where governments are changed. Moreover, it is necessary that those who are changing the government here to an oligarchy should have the most enemies, both because Athens is the most populous of Greek cities and because the people have been reared in freedom for the longest time. Now since we believe that democracy is an unbearable form of government for men like ourselves and you, and since we are convinced that the people would never be friendly to the Lacedaemonians, our preservers, while the aristocrats would continue to be loyal to them, for these reasons we are establishing the present government with the approval of the Lacedaemonians. And if we find anyone opposed to the oligarchy, we get rid of him if we can. But, most of all, we consider it right to punish anyone of our own number who is harming this order of things.’’ xen. hell. 2.3.24–26 S ources for the civil war are numerous and detailed; examined collectively, however, they provide a confused and contradictory picture of the surrender, the rule of the Thirty, and the restoration of the democracy.∞ No doubt many of the variations are due to the di√erent genres of the works as well as the personal idiosyncrasies of the di√erent authors who selectively recorded and omitted information in their accounts. But they also stem from the politics of reconciliation. Using the civil war as a weapon in civic discourse, Athenians delved into the past either to establish their own identity and legitimize their own political positions or to contest those of others. Highly politicized and emotionally charged, this discourse not only had an impact on how the Athenians understood the Thirty and their rule, but it also shaped the content and form of the subsequent historical narratives. The politics of reconciliation became so intertwined with the events of the civil war that it is now nearly impossible to disentangle the two. The narrative accounts of the civil war—Xenophon’s Hellenica, Aris- ∂ F T H E H I S T O R I C A L S E T T I N G totle’s Athenaion Politeia, Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch’s Alcibiades and Lysander—often o√er interpretations of the events that are just as tendentious as those of the orators. One can easily find inconsistencies and contradictions in the works of each of these authors, and, when compared , their accounts are sometimes irreconcilable. Since corroborating evidence is often lacking, historians decide which to accept on the basis of probability, reliability of the author, and internal coherence. Nevertheless , these accounts provide the necessary context to consider statements about the civil war found in Attic oratory. And even though many specific details remain in doubt and others will never be known, the general framework is certain. Defeat at Aegospotami forced the Athenians to accept Spartan terms. Surrender put an end to the Athenian empire and left Athens vulnerable to outside interference. Although the Athenians later conflated surrender and dissolution of the democracy, these events were separate and distinct . Several months after the surrender, oligarchs came to power thanks to Lysander, who helped them overthrow the democracy. For thirteen months they ruled Athens and carried out a campaign of violence to rid the community of the democracy and its supporters. Regardless of the sequence of events—whether the Spartan garrison was installed before or after Theramenes’ execution—violence was systemic to the oligarchs’ rule. Most surprising is the lukewarm response the democratic exiles received from their fellow citizens. Few Athenians rallied behind their cause, and most who joined them waited until the later stages of the war. At the same time, there was remarkably little dissension within the ranks of the citizens who remained in the city. Even after the extreme measures of the Thirty and the Ten who followed them, the Three Thousand continued to favor oligarchy until they were forced to reach an agreement with the democratic resistance, thanks again to Spartan intervention . Just as the Spartans had imposed terms of surrender on the Athenians , so too they imposed terms of reconciliation. defeat It is easy—perhaps too easy—for any account of the Athenian surrender to...