BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Three
spheres. In the last chapter we saw how in the fifth century a Cimon might be extolled
for lavishly spending his money in private, albeit on informal public services like feeding
his demesmen. In the fourth century, however, as the speaker of Lysias 21 suggests, the
paradigm was to be frugal in private, to spend one’s money only on formal public
liturgies. 82 In this sense, it is important to note the striking extent to which the speaker of
Lysias 21 divides monies into ‘mine’ and ‘yours’, that is, into private and public funds. 83
Indeed, such a clear demarcation of monies is good evidence that the dēmos’ earlier
desire to control political monies and to legitimate only certain liturgical channels had
worked.
Crucially, the growing depersonalization of the public sphere—its further and
clearer demarcation from the private sphere, as found in Lysias 21—was born of concrete
changes in the patterns of social relationships that were leveraged within the practice of
politics. Two political trends in particular contributed to the continued growth of this
depersonalized space. First, as emblematized by the creation of a series of new political
boards, there was a greater focus on collaborating and thereby preventing the
concentration of political authority within a single domain. 84 The board of nomothetai, or
lawgivers, provided an immediate check on the Assembly’s lawmaking abilities, helping
to prevent conflicting or unclear legislation. 85 Similarly, a board of forty dikastai kata
82 Cf. Lys. 21.16. On this point, Humphreys (1978b) is essential.
83 See, for example, Lys. 21.11, 13-14, 15, 16. Again, for the speaker the mere possession of such funds
constitutes an essentially private, or personalized, act that should be far removed from the impartial justice
required in the public sphere. For this reason, he remarks that benefactors probably should not be judged
by their beneficiaries (Lys. 21.22).
84 On the increased coordination among fourth-century public officials and political bodies, see especially
Rhodes (1980: 303); on Athenian political coordination more generally, see Ober (2008).
85 The nomothetai were a board of ten, selected one per tribe from the list of annually selected jurors,
beginning either in 403/2 or in 399 after the completed revision of the law code. On the nomothesia
process, see Harrison (1955), MacDowell (1975), Rhodes (1985), Ostwald, (1986: 521-2) Hansen (1991:
165-75).
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