Contesting the Lessons from the Past: Aeschines' Use of Social Memory

Abstract

Against tendencies of viewing the orators' historical allusions as empty rhetorical phrases or manipulative cover-ups for Realpolitik this study of historical paradigms in the debate over the Peace of Philocrates argues that the past constituted political capital in its own right. Using theories of social memory, it contextualizes Aeschines' and his opponents' historical examples within the Athenian memorial framework and thus tries to gauge their ideological and emotive weight. Drawing on family memories, Aeschines effectively challenged the Athenian master narrative by linking the rejection of a reasonable Spartan peace offer to the traumatic memories of total defeat and the terror regime of the Thirty.