BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

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Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two ou)de\n ga\r a)nqrw/poisin oi[on a1rguroj 295 kako\n no/mism’ e1blaste. tou=to kai\ po/leij porqei=, to/d’ a1ndraj e)cani/sthsin do/mwn: to/d’ e)kdida/skei kai\ paralla/ssei fre/naj xrhsta\j pro\j ai)sxra\ pra/gmat’ i1stasqai brotw=n: panourgi/aj d’ e1deicen a)nqrw/poij e1xein 300 kai\ panto\j e1rgou dusse/beian ei)de/nai. o3soi de\ misqarnou=ntej h1nusan ta/de, xro/nw| pot’ e)ce/pracan w(j dou=nai di/khn. a)ll’ ei1per i1sxei Zeu\j e1t’ e)c e)mou= se/baj… 304 …ma/qhq’ o3ti 311 ou)k e)c a3pantoj dei= to\ kerdai/nein filei=n. Do you see the gods honoring evil men? No. But long since men in the city who find it hard to bear 290 me have been murmuring against me, unwilling to keep their necks beneath the yoke, as justice demands, so as to put up with me. I know well that these people have been bribed by those men to do this thing. There is no institution 295 so ruinous for men as money; money sacks cities, money drives men from their homes! Money by its teaching perverts men’s good minds so that they take to evil actions! Money has shown men how to practice villainy, 300 and taught them impiousness in every action! But those who to earn their fee have contrived to do this thing have ensured that in time they will pay the penalty. 304 ...learn that 311 you must not grow used to making money out of everything. (Soph. An. 288-304, 311-12. trans. Lloyd-Jones) Recalling his earlier pronouncement that philoi, not kakoi, would be honored by the polis, Creon here asks how the gods could bestow honor upon kakoi like Polynices, who have done nothing but destroy their temples and break the laws of the land (Soph. An. 284-8). In this respect, Creon prefaces his rant on dōrodokia by emphasizing how timē marks the presence of a reciprocal relationship between philoi. If the gods were to have honored Polynices, the king remarks, they would have been doing so just as if he were a euergetēs (Soph. An. 284), that is, as someone explicitly rewarded—like Cimon and his ilk—for the good services (erga) he provided the polis. 105
Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two Creon delegitimizes the dōrodokos by problematizing the monies used to negotiate his relations with others. While timē marks a relationship between philoi, silver or money marks relations among kakoi like the dōrodokos, at least from Creon’s perspective. 60 After all, silver money is that “bad institution” (kakon nomisma) that has arisen among men (Soph. An. 295-6). Creon is certain that a misthos or ‘wage’ of silver caused someone to bury Polynices (Soph. An. 293-4), but his language is telling, for he envisions a misthos of silver as the reward for a heinous ergon like Polynices’ burial (cf. ei)rga/sqai, Soph. An. 294), just as timē had been the reward for the good deeds of a euergetēs only a few lines prior. In effect, money replaces the timē doled out by king and polis alike, as Creon sets up two different reciprocal relationships, one negotiated by good works and civic honor (timē), the other by a misthos and dōrodokia. 61 For Creon, silver money is more than a medium transacted by the dōrodokos; it is a conceptual frame for understanding their relations. There are, then, major problems with this substitution of money for timē in exchange relationships. First, as the ‘wrong’ medium, silver itself symbolizes the corruption of proper relations between citizen and king. The king warns, “money by its teaching perverts men’s good minds so that they take to evil actions” (Soph. An. 298-9). It is important here that Creon does not presume that the crime was perpetrated by people who were already kakoi; instead, he infers that kakoi led astray perfectly good citizens to join their ranks (e)k tw=nde tou/touj…/parhgme/nouj, Soph. An. 293-4). It is in this sense that the money is thought 60 For a fuller treatment of Creon’s views on money, see Seaford (1998: 131-8). It should be noted, however, that whereas I assume that Creon’s silver functions as a money, Seaford must argue that it specifically constitutes general all-purpose money, in the modern use of the term. The difference stems from my adoption of a relational view of economics, on which see Chapter One above. 61 Creon’s use of misthos here only underscores this point. Insofar as a misthos is a payment—in cash or kind—from a superior to an inferior, it is directly analogous to the hierarchy posited when king or polis bestows honors upon a citizen. Recall that the Eion epigrams, in honor of soldiers who died in battle, were also called a misthos (Plut. Cim. 7.4). 106
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BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam
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© Copyright by Kellam McChesney Co
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legislating dōrodokia. Rather than
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encouragement that made me crazily
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and long-lasting patience were crit
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Athenian dōrodokia
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BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

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