Skilled Memory in Antiquity
Skilled Memory in Antiquity
Because the majority of specifically Jewish sources addressing the issue are later, but the sources that we do have reflect patterns more widely distributed in Mediterranean antiquity, we cast the net for information on ancient Mediterranean memory as widely as possible. Such information suggests that issues of memory were relevant for historiography in antiquity as they are for historiography today.
The ancient historian Thucydides shows us the problems that both memory’s limits and its interpretive structures impose, as suggested above. He complained about the difficulties involved in his quest to determine accurate details, “because those who were eyewitneses of the several events did not give the same reports about the same things, but reports varying according to their championship of one side or the other, or according to their recollection.”68 Such limits from everyday witnesses must be taken into account. Nevertheless, Thucydides felt that, by noting commonalities among the various sources, he did manage to provide an accurate story. Although the gospel tradition may not have had many skilled interrogators like Thucydides, some other factors suggest that it preserves much historical information. Before turning to the Gospels, however, it is important to survey the prowess of some memories in antiquity.
Records abound of carefully trained memories. The elder Seneca was able to recount long sections of over a hundred declamations from his youth,69 though Seneca was admittedly exceptional.70 Difficult as it may seem to most readers today,71 the elder Seneca testifies that in his younger days he could repeat back 2000 names in exactly the sequence in which he had just heard them, or recite up to 200 verses given to him, in reverse.72 Even if his recollections of youthful prowess are exaggerated, they testify to an emphasis on memory that far exceeds standard expectations today.
Seneca also reports that another man, hearing a poem recited by its author, recited it back to the author verbatim (facetiously claiming the poem to be his own).73 He also recalls the famous Hortensius, who listed back every purchaser and price at the end of a day-long auction, his accuracy attested by the bankers. 74 Another source claims that one sophist even in his old age could repeat back 50 names in sequence after hearing them just once.75 Rhetoricians believed that artificial memory, augmented by discipline and training, could move far beyond natural memory,76 and ancients developed mnemonic techniques to help them recall blocks of data astonishing to modern readers dependent on a continuous flow of information.77
Orators would memorize their speeches, often even of several hours’ duration; 78
memoria, i.e., “learning the speech by heart in preparation for delivery,” was one of the five basic tasks of an orator.79 Rhetorical students practiced declamation, offering their practice speeches “from memory.”80 Pliny the Younger praises a rhetorician so skillful that he could repeat verbatim speeches that he had delivered extemporaneously.81 One rhetor memorized his speech as he was writing it out, never needing to read it again;82 he could remember every declamation he had ever delivered, word for word, making books unnecessary.83
At least rhetorically trained hearers could recall elements of speeches, even some that hearers might consider inferior, with memory strong enough even to supplement written sources.84 Likewise, a deceased teacher’s former disciples might also collectively remember bits and pieces of speeches, sewing them together, 85 a process relevant to communal memory and to other cases of groups of disciples carrying on their master’s teachings.
Even if the early church altogether lacked those with the sort of exceptional memories noted by Seneca and some others (and it seems likely that they would have had at least a few members with exceptional memories), it requires far less exceptional communal memory to have preserved the basic substance of Jesus’ message and the direction of his ministry. Communal memory is relevant where a group of hearers could remind one another of various points, with those whose memory was most exceptional taking the lead.86 Whereas “chain” transmission might depend on a single person’s memory, “net” transmission of a community could help guarantee larger amounts of tradition.87 (I return to this concept briefly in discussing traditions passed on from other Jewish teachers to their disciples.) Although not directly relevant to the gospel tradition, communal memory also could preserve some central ideas for even several centuries; thus for example, Megarians retained ethnic hatred against Athens seven centuries after their late-fifth-century BCE conflicts.88