An intriguing friction between democracy and memory reveals itself in ancient Athens, the cradle of the democratic idea. In 403 BCE, after the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants, the transition to democracy was made possible by a decree forbidding any recollection of the Thirty. The prohibition on memory conjoined to the pardon of the Thirty came with an oath that bound Athenians to publicly promise that they “shall not recall the misfortunes.” This event is widely understood as the model amnesty in Western history. The amnesty of antiquity had amnesia at its root in both practice and etymology. The coincidence of amnesia, amnesty, and democracy would not be confined to antiquity. Over two thousand years later, President Woodrow Wilson took the stage at the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg.