BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
like a catalogue of dōrodokia—including bribery of prosecutors (Lys. 29.1), witnesses
(Lys. 29.7), orators (Lys. 29.6), and juries (Lys. 29.12)—than an indictment for
possessing public property? To say the least, dōrodokia enjoys a surprisingly prominent
role in these speeches, and one reason why, I argue, is that dōrodokia qua a kind of
financial taking (like embezzlement) functions as a metaphor for Ergocles’ and
Philocrates’ problematic relationship to the polis.
In broadly listing Ergocles’ crimes—betraying other poleis, doing injustice to
Athenian citizens and proxenoi, and going from rags to riches at the expense of the
public’s property (e)k pe/nhtoj e)k tw=n u(mete/rwn plou/sioj gegenhme/noj, Lys. 28.1)—
the speaker quickly shifts attention to the last of these offenses: how Ergocles became
one of the richest men in Athens while the ships he had commanded ended up only
poorer (Lys. 28.2, 4). The magistrate’s most heinous crime appears to be that he enriched
his own home “at your expense” (e)k tw=n u(mete/rwn, Lys. 28.13), an accusation repeated
throughout the speech as Ergocles’ own fortunes are counterbalanced against the polis’.
This conceit is configured in two different ways. First, Ergocles is accused of having
taken bribes while the polis was poor (cf. e)n tosau/th| a)pori/a| tw=n u(mete/rwn
pragma/twn, Lys. 28.11): Ergocles’ dōrodokia was especially bad because at that time
the citizens were financially oppressed from having to pay the eisphora (Lys. 28.3, 4).
And second, he is thought to have grown rich while actively making the polis poor: he
and his friends profited even while his ships actually diminished in number (Lys. 28.2).
Repeatedly, Ergocles’ gains are weighed against the polis’ dangers (Lys. 28.4, 7, 13-14)
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