Amnesty and Reconciliation in Late Fifth-Century Athens: The Rule of Law under Restored Democracy

Re-evaluates the Athenian Reconciliation Agreement of 403 BCE, its historical causes and its legal legacy.

• Interprets the reconciliation of 403 BCE in the light of the rule of law in Athens, offering a fresh reading of the terms and clauses of the treaty
• Provides a new interpretation of how the amnesty was applied in the legal trials that followed
• Allows for a new understanding of the Athenian reconciliation as the paradigm of amnesty agreements in the Classical and Hellenistic Ages
• Analyses the causes of political division in Athens at the end of the 5th century and how Athenian democracy was resurrected according to legal principle

The Athenian Reconciliation of 403 BCE was the pinnacle of amnesty agreements in Greek antiquity. It guaranteed lasting peace in a political community torn apart by civil conflict, because it recognised that for society to cohere, vindictive action over crimes which predated the exchange of oaths was legally inadmissible.