BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Four
Given that paradigm, it is unsurprising to find that Demosthenes and his purported
consorts in the Harpalus Affair did not seem to be the only problem in Athens: as
Dinarchus warns, there were “many people (pollou/j) in the city taking bribes against
your [sc. the people’s] interests” (kaq’ u(mw=n, Din. 1.11). Like Demosthenes before him,
Dinarchus underscores how the city was endangered by a class of “leaders and
demagogues” conspiring to mislead the dēmos and profit privately (oi( h(gemo/nej kai\ oi(
dhmagwgoi/, Din. 1.99; cf. 2.22-3, 3.1, 3.19), and it was precisely these many others who
needed to have a strong message sent to them (Din. 1.11). Hence, the conviction of
Demosthenes and the rest would be a necessary, and necessarily forceful, indication that
the Athenians would not tolerate traitors in their midst.
Unlike Demosthenes, however, who posited that the internal threat at Olynthus
was instigated by an external source (Philip), Dinarchus identifies what is essentially a
wholly internal threat. Harpalus was no Philip or Alexander, and as a matter of fact this
dangerous group of traitors was plotting against Alexander (and the city), not for him. 68
As Dinarchus warns, there was no hope in times of danger if the city allowed widespread
dōrodokia with impunity, for corrupt leaders would consistently betray the city’s interests
(Din. 1.67, 1.88, 1.107, 3.10, 3.19). According to Dinarchus and Hyperides, the life of
the city was thought to hang in the balance of this trial, and it was the specific culprit of
widespread, domestic dōrodokia which endangered the very foundations of the city. 69
68 Only once does Dinarchus suggest that Harpalus posed an external threat to the city, and this mention
comes only in passing, at that (Din. 2.30). While I do not deny that Harpalus could have been involved in
fomenting a revolt against Alexander—so Badian (1961)—the important point to remember is that the
orators do not specifically mention this: they certainly could have imagined a scenario in which
Demosthenes was plotting to endanger the polis from harm at Alexander’s hands, but they never do so.
The danger is consistently viewed as coming from within the city.
69 Cf. Din. 1.2, 1.31, 1.88, 1.99, 1.109, 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, 3.3; Hyp. 5.2, 5.34-5.
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