BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
When the defendant in Lysias 21 measures his contribution to the city in
explicitly financial terms—63,600 drachmas’ worth of good—his financializing lens thus
parallels a contemporary focus on guaranteeing that a specific amount of revenue might
accrue to the polis. 73 Yet this ‘financialization’ extends beyond simply measuring
drachmas; in the speaker’s view, it defines even how political justice works. One striking
aspect about the speaker’s financial calculus here is that it constitutes an argument in his
own defense. After all, had he wished to demonstrate simply that he had provided an
imprecisely defined, symbolic ‘good’ for the city, he easily could have done so, and with
an impressive list of good deeds at that. 74 Instead, he enables the jurors to calculate an
exact monetary value for his return—63,600 drachmas (at least)—and it is this number
that he seems to weigh when he begs the jury not to think that there is “so much money”
(tosau=ta xrh/mata) for the sake of which he might wish ill upon the polis (Lys. 21.21).
By providing precise financial expenses, he is able to demonstrate how absurd his
opponent’s case must be: why spend 63,600 drachmas on ‘good’ for the community in
order to receive its goodwill in return, only to turn around and squander that investment
by taking bribes and thereby incurring ill-will? Far from being merely a spectacular
3.148, 6.72, 6.82.1-2, 8.29-30, 9.2.3, 9.5.1-2, 9.41.2-4. Cf. Hdt. 5.30.6, 5.31.2; Timotheus fr. 790 Page;
Dem. 9.41-4, 19.271-2. A statue of Conon was erected in the Agora in 393 after Cnidus in recognition of
his military and financial support—cf. Dem. 20.68-70 and see Gauthier (1985: 96-7)—and note how
Alcibiades tried to win the King’s resources explicitly to help, not harm, the city (Plut. Alc. 37.4).
73 We can push this trend back at least to the last decade of the Peloponnesian War. Certainly, as the
treasury was gradually depleted during the war, the Athenians had enacted similar reforms: notably in
414/3 the collection of a 5% tax (eikostē) on imports and exports throughout the empire instead of the allied
tribute, collection of which had apparently been ineffective: Thuc. 7.28.4 with excellent discussion in
Kallet (2001: 196-9). As Kallet details, the imposition of the eikostē, which was a purely economic matter
presumably lacking the tribute’s overt political connotations of subjugation, marked a broader shift in how
the Athenians were thinking about archē. Increasingly, archē was framed in economic, not political, terms.
See further Kallet (2001: 196-204).
74 Contrast the mere passing mention of liturgies performed and dangers endured on behalf of the polis at,
for example, Ant. 2.2.12, Is. 5.41.1, Lys. 3.47.
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