BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Introduction
Epicrates wittily remarks that the Athenians should send to Persia numerous ambassadors
drawn from the ranks of the poor, that they, too, might share in the King’s wealth and
thereby solve the city’s financial woes. 9 As Timagoras recalls, the people on that
occasion—that is, at the comic performance—laughed at Epicrates. By no means,
however, did this laughter signal approval. The entire embassy seems to have been put
on trial for dōrodokia; while Epicrates was famously acquitted in that trial, Epicrates’
fellow ambassador Onomasas was found guilty and sentenced to death, just like
Timagoras later would be. 10 And within two years Epicrates himself would be sentenced
to death, again on a charge of dōrodokia while on an embassy. 11
If we follow Plutarch, Timagoras’ fatal misstep came in recalling the wrong
ambassador, or perhaps the wrong embassy altogether. In that case, though, we are hard-
9 That Epicrates is here referred to by his nickname as ‘shield-bearer’ strongly suggests that Timagoras was
recalling not a private conversation between himself and his ‘shield-bearer’, but some public event that had
involved the well-known figure of Epicrates ‘shield-bearer’. I propose that the event he recalls was the
very scene parodied in Plato’s Presbeis, precisely the kind of context in which we would expect the dēmos
to ‘laugh’ at Epicrates’ words. Dover (1950) notes, contra the standard view, that the comedy itself need
not have referred to any actual expedition but could have been a comic fiction, much like Trygaeus’ private
embassy in Aristophanes’ Peace. Yet in response it should be pointed out that even a private fiction could
have parodied an actual expedition.
10 Following Lysias 27.3. There are, however, considerable problems with the chronology of Lysias 27 and
the reference therein to an expedition with Epicrates and Onomasas. Including these two embassies, there
were potentially five different major events involving Epicrates in the second half of the 390’s. In 395
Timocrates was sent by the King to bribe Greek leaders, including Epicrates and Cephalus at Athens, to
adopt an anti-Spartan alliance: Paus. 3.9.7-8, Hell. Oxy. 2.2-5, Xen. Hell. 3.9.1-2 with Bruce (1967: 60 ad
Hell. Oxy.II.2) and Rung (2004). Epicrates’ envoy to Persia with Phormisius (394/3 or 393/2) is parodied
in Plato Comicus’ Presbeis; see also Athen. 6.251a-b. Finally, Epicrates was part of the embassy to Sparta
to secure ratification of the King’s Peace (392/1). I follow Davies’ (1971: 181 ad APF 4859) suggestion
that the reference at Lys. 27.3 is to the very embassy parodied in Plato’s Presbeis, meaning that that
embassy included Epicrates, Phormisius, and Onomasas.
The date of Lysias 27 is more problematic. It cannot be from 394/3, for then when would the
previous embassy with Onomasas have occurred? It might refer to 393/2, but we would have to posit an
otherwise unattested embassy in that case. One difficulty with assuming that the speech comes from the
trial of 392/1 is that Philochorus records that Epicrates and the others were tried in absentia (328 FGrH
F149a); still, Epicrates potentially was present for his own trial but left before he was sentenced. This
accords well with other instances in which those sentenced to death left Athens before the sentence was
pronounced: see Chapter Six below.
11 Dem. 19.277-80, Philochorus 328 FGrH F149a, Aristid. 1.283 Dindorff with schol. Our evidence is
inconclusive, but possibly Epicrates was allowed to return to Athens: see APF 181 on an early fourthcentury
gravestone for an Epicrates of Cephisia (IG ii 2 6444).
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