While Quintilian (Inst. 11.2.39) is skeptical of the system of loci, as I noted, he has no doubts whatsoever that memory can be trained, because he has improved his own memory (11.2.39). Plutarch (Mor. 9e [= ‘‘On the Education of Children’’]) was a firm believer in such education and had an excellent memory himself. Psychological studies have demonstrated that practice makes perfect and multiple methods are best (McDaniel and Pressley 1987: 300; Vogl and Thompson 1995; Wilding and Valentine 1996).
Consider some of the remarkable feats of memory reported in various ancient sources, all made by notable people. Would anyone today remark about a particular statesman’s memory? While Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, said that ‘‘all politics is local’’ and members of Congress often have elaborate files to keep track of their constituents, having a good memory is not among the characteristics that spin doctors use to sell their candidates. In contrast, in antiquity those with good memories were duly noted and lauded. The elder Seneca ( Controv. 1 praef. 2) could reel off 2,000 names he had just heard. The elder Pliny gives a typical list of memory feats:
Cyrus rex omnibus in exercitu suo militibus nomina reddidit, L. Scipio populo Romano, Cineas Pyrrhi regis legatus senatui et equestri ordini Romae postero die quam advenerat. Mithridates duarum et viginti gentium rex totidem linguis iura dixit, pro contione singulas sine interprete adfatus. Charmadas quidam in Graecia quae quis exegerit volu-mina in bibliothecis legentis modo repraesentavit. (Pliny, Naturalis Historia 7.88-9; tr. Rackham 1952)
King Cyrus could give their names to all the soldiers in his army, Lucius Scipio knew the names of the Roman people, King Pyrrhus’ envoy Cineas knew those of the senate and knighthood at Rome the day after his arrival. Mithridates who was king of twenty-two races gave judgments in as many languages, in an assembly addressing each race in turn without an interpreter. A person in Greece named Charmadas recited the contents of any volumes in libraries that anyone asked him to quote, just as if he were reading them.
The importance of politicians remembering their constituents was clearly just as important then as it is now.
World History
