The athenian amnesty of 403 consists in both voluntary forgetting and an oath against remembering and use of the term mnesikakein in this context involves wielding memory like a weapon the idea of purposefully recalling civic misfortunes thus evolves from a pre phrynichus neutral act to an openly hostile and vindictive act by the end of the fifth century amnesty serves to rid the city of uncomfortable memories of conflict to erase the past abstractly as one more concretely . Athens 403 bce the bloody oligarchic dictatorship of the thirty is over and the democrats have returned to the city victorious renouncing vengeance in an act of willful amnesia citizens call for if not invent amnesty they agree to forget the unforgettable the past misfortunes of civil strife or stasis more precisely what they agree to deny is that s. Note 5 retrouvez the divided city on memory and forgetting in ancient athens author nicole loraux published on april 2006 et des millions de livres en stock sur amazonfr achetez neuf ou doccasion. An exploration of the roles of conflict and forgetting in ancient athens athens 403 bce the bloody oligarchic dictatorship of the thirty is over and the democrats have returned to the city victorious renouncing vengeance in an act of willful amnesia citizens call for if not invent amnesty they agree to forget the unforgettable the past misfortunes of civil strife or stasis