BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
such a narrative was in fact contested in Pericles’ day. 91 Note how, if we follow
Plutarch’s narrative here, Pericles’ innovation is actually shot through with overtones of
political subordination of the dēmos. 92 This would not have sat well with all Athenians.
In fact, some of Pericles’ contemporaries referred to his measures and others’ as bribes.
Plutarch himself says that with public pay Pericles was able to “bribe” the masses
(sundeka/saj to\ plh=qoj, Plut. Per. 9.3; cf. Plut. Per. 34.2), and Aristophanes also
insinuates that public pay was a bribe from politicians to obtain favorable jury treatment
(Aristoph. V. 669-79; Pax 632-3, 644-8; Eq. 801-9; cf. fr. 100). 93 As in the previous
section, where we saw that Pericles’ problematic control over public monies was
reflected in public accusations of dōrodokia, again accusations of dōrodokia crop up as
Athenians tried to police the borders of legitimate politics.
Crucially, the dōrodokos was again configured as a disobedient citizen, someone
who had somehow inverted the vertical relations between community and citizen. In
Aristophanes’ Wasps and Knights, for example, Cleon is lambasted for corrupting the
dēmos by bribing it with jury pay. 94 This is a problem not just because the dēmos is
corrupted—although the Wasps’ satire of jurors who pursue money over just judgment is
91
Administering the dēmos’ own funds: th\n tw=n dhmosi/wn dianomh/n, Plut. Per. 9.3; cf. dido/nai toi=j
polloi=j ta\ au(tw=n, AP 27.4.
92
In currying their favor by instituting misthophoria, he was said to “relax the reins” of his rule somewhat
(ta\j h(ni/aj a)nei/j, Plut. Per. 11.4), a metaphor that parallels both Creon’s own inability to control
Antigone (Soph. An. esp. 473-7) and contemporary discussion about Ephialtes’ problematic role in the
democracy (Plut. Per. 7.6). Similarly, Plutarch frames Pericles’ use of political monies—specifically,
cleruchies and misthoi, or wages—as the means by which he acquired such exceptional authority within the
polis (Plut. Per. 9.1).
93
In this light, note Aristotle’s clunky transitions from Pericles’ provision of public pay to the issue of
judicial bribery (to\ deka/zein), which he claims first arose at this time (AP 27.4-5). Because it was Anytus,
not Pericles, who first made judicial bribery public, this line reads almost like a non sequitur unless we
supply a missing conceptual link between Pericles’ public payments and ‘bribery’ of jurors.
94
Ar. V. 669-79, Eq. 801-9. In both plays, Cleon is frequently accused of both giving and receiving bribes:
Ar. V. 960-1, 669-79; Eq. 402-3, 453-9, 994-6, 1080-3. Cf. Nu. 591 and, for similar accusations, Ar. Eq.
103, 258, 707, 824-7. See also Ar. Ach. 5-8 with scholiast (=Theopompus FGrH 115 F 94) with discussion
in Olson (2004: ad loc) and Carawan (1990).
117