BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
actively harming the community: greedy elites who, like a Philocrates, potentially aimed
at overthrowing the democracy (esp. Ar. Pl. 568-70). 49 In this respect, we might say that
the ‘rags to riches’ trope, too, was framed in the shadow of the Thirty.
Aristophanes’ comedy moves us past the focus on financial obligations found in
Lysias’ speeches, for in the world of Wealth, money, prosperity and poverty pervade the
way the characters conceptualize the kosmos. 50 In a long and humorous catalogue, two
characters point out that Zeus would be powerless without wealth, for men would no
longer sacrifice to him in order to get wealthy themselves (Ar. Pl. 130-42); nor would
courtesans or artisans continue practicing their trade if they were already wealthy (Ar. Pl.
149-68). Wealth is posited as the cause of political alliances, love, military expeditions,
the actions of politicians, and even the meeting of the Assembly (Ar. Pl. 171-80). 51 In
short, without wealth—specifically money (a)rgu/rion, Ar. Pl. 131, 141, 154, 158; cf.
147)—all things fine and good in the world would be no more (Ar. Pl. 144-5).
In reducing everything to money—in explaining causes and consequences, human
action and natural forces, in economic terms—Aristophanes suggests that the world had
somehow become ‘financialized’. His suggestion does not seem far-off, judging from
other contemporary sources. Especially during this period, elite claims to being a good
citizen were often framed as a financial calculus of the economic expenses a citizen or his
family had incurred on behalf of the polis. To take but a single example, the speaker of
49 As Robin Osborne (2003) has recently detailed, in the fifth century the Athenians were concerned that a
charismatic individual might monopolize power, thus acquiring his riches at the polis’ expense; by the
fourth century, this anxiety over relative power had transformed into fear of outright constitutional change,
i.e. oligarchy.
50 Cf. Albini (1965), David (1984: 32-8), Olson (1990: 225-30).
51 Pay for attending the Assembly, which had only recently been introduced after the restoration of the
democracy, is taken as a particularly clear sign of Athenians selfishness and greed in the Ecclesiazousae.
The lament at Ar. Ec. 303-10 is indicative of the play’s stance towards that new pay. See further discussion
in David (1984: 21-32), Dillon (1987: 178-9) and below.
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