In 403 BC. e. A short but bloody period in the history of Ancient Athens ended: the army of democratic exiles put an end to the rule of the “thirty tyrants.” The victors could have enjoyed revenge, but instead the Athenian citizens—probably for the first time in history—came to a decision on amnesty. The warring parties swore “not to remember the misfortunes of the past” - to forget about the civil war (stásis) and the atrocities associated with it. But is it possible to finally erase stásis from memory and turn the page? What if the conscious act of political oblivion initiates a process analogous to Freudian repression? Nicole Loro scrupulously studies the traces of this process, drawing on a wide arsenal of ancient sources and modern analytical tools. Her Athens lives, fights, mourns, but most importantly, continues to preserve the memory of past events that citizens agreed to forget. Nicole Loreau (1943–2003) is a researcher of the history and anthropology of Ancient Greece, professor at the École Supérieure des Sciences Sociales in Paris.