| Abstract | Abstract Attempts to explain the success of the Athenian reconciliation in 403 b.c.e. are easily frustrated because the evidence is incomplete and because the conditions of postwar Athens were not exceptional. Peace was not imposed on the Athenians through rules and regulations; rather, it was constructed in civic discourse. The Athenian reconciliation can, therefore, be better appreciated if studied as a cultural construct that was ultimately negotiated on the plane of ideology. Using Lysias 18 as a case study, the author shows how civil war confounded the identity of Athenian citizens. Although discursive analysis cannot explain why the Athenians avoided further civil war, it does allow us to contextualize the disputes of the restored democracy, to appreciate how Athenians remembered defeat and civil war, and to understand how the past either united or divided them.
|
