BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
citizen. While elite citizens might still acquire political authority through their
contributions to the polis, the means by which they acquired this authority needed to be
kept distinct from monies of empire so imbued with the valence of kratos. New modes of
politics arose, as the next section will trace, but the legitimacy of these modes was
constantly contested. In what should be by now a familiar move, the terms of this debate
focused on the dōrodokos, as the Athenians used him to think through what legitimate
politics really looked like.
The New Politicians as dōrodokoi:
In the previous section we saw how, around the time of Pericles, the dēmos began
to compete with elites for the authority to be the patron of the dēmos. This idea was
considered briefly in conjunction with public buildings and the Springhouse Decree, but
it seems to underlie two other shifts that occurred in the second half of the fifth century.
First, there was a proliferation of political monies: cleruchies, colonies, and pay for
various groups of people, including soldiers, jurors, artisans and laborers, public officials
and many, many others. These monies have rightly been understood as ways for the
dēmos to enjoy a share of the empire, and doubtless, too, they at least fostered greater
participation in the democracy, as scholars frequently emphasize. 75 But these monies
also played a crucial role, as we will see, in legitimating the dēmos’ position as patron of
the community. These monies helped forge a ‘new politics’: like patronage, only
redistributing the dēmos’ own money back to itself. 76 As this section will trace, these two
75
Rhodes (1981: 339-40 ad AP27.4), Markle (1985), Ostwald (1986: 182), Ober (1989: 143), Stadter
(1989: 117 ad Per. 9.3).
76
Connor (1971) is essential on this shift. See also Ostwald (1986: 175-91), Whitehead (1986: 305-10),
Schmitt Pantel (1992: 179-208).
112