BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Introduction
ideological principles that underpinned political organization. Political and legal equality
among citizens, cooperation and collective action, public accountability, and the
preservation of certain quasi-rights like personal security or the liberty to speak out in
public were all hallmarks of the Athenian democracy. 13 In this respect, trying to
understand Timagoras’ motivations does not require stepping into a wholly ‘different’
world; as such, it can allow us to look back and see that our own world might be more
‘different’ than we normally assume.
By confronting the assumptions that differentiate ‘then’ from ‘now’, I mean to
call into question why we make those assumptions in the first place. In other words,
examining the potential trajectories of Athens’ democracy—recovering bribery from its
shadows—can be a valuable exercise in re-examining the potential paths of our own
government, in rethinking the tenuous line we draw between politics and corruption, and
in reconceptualizing the relationship between bribery and democracy. One goal of the
chapters to come is to present a different way of drawing these lines, using Athens as an
example but always being careful to abstract an analytical framework that can readily be
applied to the contemporary world. That said, this dissertation can provide only
suggestions for future work and ultimately leaves such application to others.
There are three main assumptions, three specific ways of thinking about bribery
and its regulation that must be set aside if we are to understand the actions of Timagoras
and the Athenians. We can group these assumptions into theoretical problems as follows.
In order to understand Timagoras’ motivations in taking dōra, we must first clearly
13 Viewing Athens as a case-study in democratization has been recently championed by Ober (2008); cf.
Lanni (2006; forthcoming), Karayannis and Hatzis (2008). For detailed studies of the development—
though not necessarily the ‘democratization’—of the Athenian polity, see Ostwald (1986) and Sealey
(1987); for an overview of the Athenian democracy in the fourth century, Ober (1989), Hansen (1991).
Equality: Raaflaub (1996). Quasi-rights: Ober (2005: 92-127).
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