BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
crimes of the Thirty: “Whosoever…in a democracy harms the multitude (plh=qoj
a)dikou=si) while making their own private homes larger at your expense (e)k tw=n
u(mete/rwn) deserves your anger far more than do the Thirty,” he remarks (Lys. 28.13).
As the speaker explains, the Thirty had been elected to do the people harm
(kakw=j…u(ma=j poih/seian, Lys. 28.14), so there was no surprise when they achieved
just that. By contrast, officials like Ergocles were elected to do the exact opposite. That
Ergocles had endangered the polis rather than save it thus made him more heinous than
even the Thirty (Lys. 28.12-14).
For the speaker, the Thirty prove to be not simply a convenient threshold for
measuring character but particularly a model for understanding the motivations of
Ergocles and his philoi. If profiting e)k tw=n u(mete/rwn and harming the multitude were
characteristic of the Thirty, then Ergocles’ actions brought him dangerously close to the
oligarchs. Ergocles’ response in court, naturally, would have been to prove his own
democratic affiliation—but the speaker warns the jury about just such a rhetorical move
on Ergocles’ part (Lys. 28.12). According to the speaker, Ergocles in fact desires to set
up an oligarchy (Lys. 28.7, 11), and his anti-democratic sentiments are tellingly
reminiscent of the Thirty themselves. First, Ergocles is depicted as wanting to rule, not to
be ruled by others, just like the Thirty became tyrant-like masters of the Athenians (Lys.
28.7). Moreover, like the Thirty who wished both to control the political institutions by
which officials were held accountable and to rid the city of (democratic) sykophants who
might try to hold them accountable, Ergocles reportedly calls his democratic accusers
sykophants (Lys. 28.5-6). By escaping accountability and pursuing more profit, Ergocles
too hoped to “cut out” the sykophants (e)kko/yh|j, Lys. 28.6).
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