BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Four
This narrative of dōrodokia was used to delegitimize opponents even in
unexpected situations. In one fascinating case from the early 320’s, known from
Hyperides’ speech On Behalf of Euxenippus, the defendant Euxenippus was prosecuted
for speaking publicly against Athens’ interests after taking a bribe. 42 As the narrative
goes, after sacking Thebes in 336, Alexander the Great gave Athens the territory in
neighboring Oropus, where there was a shrine to the local deity Amphiaraus. Athens
divided the territory into five regions, one for every two tribes. There was a problem
with the division, however, as the area surrounding the shrine to Amphiaraus—area
which had been consigned to two of the tribes—was thought to belong to the god and
therefore could not be divvied up for those tribes (cf. Hyp. 4.16). So Euxenippus and two
other Athenians were sent to sleep in Amphiaraus’ shrine, that they might have a
prophetic dream from the god about who owned the land (Hyp. 4.15-18). Euxenippus
reported that the land belonged to the god, whereupon one Polyeuctus proposed that the
two tribes be compensated for being deprived of the land. He was immediately tried and
convicted for proposing a contradictory law (graphē paranomōn, cf. Hyp. 4.15), after
139-43 ad 1.10); Diod. 17.4.8, [Plut.] X. Or. 848a. In his speech Against Ctesiphon (Aeschines 3),
Aeschines plays off this common accusation of treasonous bribe-taking when describing Demosthenes’
dealings with the Persian King (Aeschin. 3.238-40). Although the King had initially refused to send any
gold to Athens, in 336 he sent 300 talents to win the city as an ally, a gift which the Athenians refused to
accept. Still, Demosthenes purportedly ended up pocketing 70 talents of that money, probably as an
inducement to persuade Athens to ally with Persia. Here, rather than accuse Demosthenes of having simply
taken money against Athens’ interests, Aeschines claims that Demosthenes took the King’s money and
committed treason by refusing to spend even 10 talents to help Athens’ ally Thebes fight against
Alexander. Demosthenes’ inaction resulted in Thebes’ destruction; for this reason, Aeschines suggests,
Demosthenes was a danger to Athens (Aeschin. 3.24). Dinarchus and Hyperides, too, later call
Demosthenes a traitor for the same reason: Din. 1.10, 1.15, 1.18-21, 1.24, 1.26; Hyp. 5.17, 5.21.
42 Hyperides quotes the charge from the nomos eisangeltikos, under which Euxenippus was prosecuted:
Hyp. 4.1-2, 4-10, 27-30, 38-9. For the wording of this law, see Hansen (1975: 12), Whitehead (2000:
187-9 ad 4.8).
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