BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
as his profiteering is thought to have harmed the masses (plh=qoj a)dikou=si, Lys.
28.13). 35
The speaker uses the trope of profiting e)k tw=n u(mete/rwn in order to cast
Ergocles as one of a familiar breed of corrupt public officials, bad citizens who do the
community injustice in the pursuit of profit (cf. ponhrou/j, Lys. 28.13). In this way,
Ergocles’ offenses are viewed as characteristic of the officials of his day. His opponent
comments:
Not only Ergocles is on trial, but also the entire polis. For today you will
demonstrate to your public officials whether they must be just or whether they
should take as much of your property as possible (w(j plei=sta tw=n u(mete/rwn
u(felome/nouj) and procure their own safety in the same way that these men are
trying to do today. (Lys. 28.10)
By employing a relative clause of characteristic to reiterate Ergocles’ crimes—
overturning cities, stealing money, and committing dōrodokia (Lys. 28.11, cf. 28.1, 3)—
the speaker paints Ergocles not as a unique, and uniquely corrupt, politician, but as a
character type; he is just like the sort of person who would commit these offenses. In
fact, he is a ‘paradigm’ for all men (para/deigma, Lys. 28.11), and he should therefore
be convicted to serve as a lesson to others (Lys. 28.15-16; cf. e)pidei=cai, Lys. 28.9, 15;
e)pidei/cete, Lys. 28.10). With a conviction, Athens would prove that she improves the
character of her leaders (Lys. 28.15); with an acquittal, she would make her citizens only
worse (xei/rosi, Lys. 28.16).
Crucially, this character type is explicitly measured against the benchmark set by
the Thirty’s anti-type. In the middle of his exhortation to make an example of Ergocles,
the speaker instructively contrasts the actions of public officials like Ergocles with the
35 Here, too, the polis’ dangers are contrasted with the safety Ergocles and his philoi seek: Lys. 28.10, 11.
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