BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
win over the masses fostered more ‘democratic’ politics: attention to and inclusion of the
interests of more citizens, and consequently policies aimed at the benefit of the masses as
a whole, instead of a smaller subsection of it. In effect, this meant that any citizen who
had an idea would have a greater chance of having it proposed by a politician (and
thereby hopefully approved) than he would have earlier in the democracy. On the other
hand, this meant that any citizen who had an idea would have a greater chance of having
it proposed by a politician. When all it takes is a persuasive public speaker to have a
motion approved, there is potentially less quality control on the kinds of issues brought
up for public discussion or, worse, the kinds of proposals successfully voted on. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, therefore, this new, potentially more democratic political technology
brought with it concomitant concerns that the democracy had become an ochlocracy or a
polity ruled by the fickle masses. 100
This outline should be familiar, but what I would like to pose here is the question
of how this shift actually came about. How exactly did Cleon and others manage to forge
this new style of politics? Cleon’s most distinctive difference from his predecessors was
that he repudiated his circle of friends and proclaimed himself to be friend—‘lover’ as
Aristophanes would call it—of the dēmos as a whole. 101 While no subsequent politician
would follow suit in rejecting his own philoi, after Cleon most of them did try to court the
people’s favor, as Aristophanes famously parodies in the Knights. Like Cleon, however,
these politicians were consistently open to the accusation that they were peddling their
100
Ober (1998: 72-121) thoroughly discusses the criticisms that emerged in the late-fifth and early-fourth
centuries.
101
Ar. Eq. 732-4, 1340-4 with Connor (1971: 96-104). See also Thuc. 3.36.6, 4.27.5-28.5, 4.21.3; AP
28.3; Plut. Nicias 8.3; Theopompus FGrH 115 F 92. As Creon’s own civic-oriented conception of philia
might suggest, the conceit that a politician was a ‘polis-lover’ was common in this period—e.g. Thuc.
2.60.5 (Pericles); Thuc. 6.92.2, 4 (Alcibiades); cf. Thuc. 2.43.1, Ar. Lys. 541-8—and was symptomatic of
this broader realignment of civic values: Connor (1971: 103-5), Raaflaub (1994: 129-30). For Cleon’s
relationship with his friends, see especially Connor (1971: 91-4).
120