BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Four
the people be disgraced for contradicting themselves by honoring someone who later was
shown to be corrupt (Aesch. 3.9). Clearly, this purported network of corruption, like
Demosthenes himself, both threatened the city’s laws and devalued its symbolic economy
of honors. 78
On the other hand, as was noted above, Demosthenes’ activity signaled more than
just a devaluing of the city’s economy of honors; it was a wholesale rejection of that
economy, as well. In this light, it is helpful to return to Demosthenes’ prosecution of
Aeschines to see how this exact same accusation—that Aeschines preferred Philip’s
bribes to the dēmos’ honors—casts Aeschines as a traitor. Pointing out that Aeschines’
bribe-taking achieved nothing for Athens, whereas the Thebans’ own refusal to take
bribes gained them Philip’s favor, Demosthenes explicitly weighs the symbolic rewards
of civic honors against Philip’s bribes:
And what have the [Theban] ambassadors gained? Nothing at all except the satisfaction
of having achieved these results for their city. Ah, but that is worth having, men of
Athens; a glorious reward, if you set any store by that virtue (a)reth/) and good repute
(do/ca) which Aeschines and his friends bartered for money (xrhma/twn a)pe/donto,
Dem. 19.142).
By taking Philip’s dōra, Aeschines manifestly did not pursue the ‘honor and good repute’
offered by the polis. By contrast, Demosthenes juxtaposes his own actions with
Aeschines’ to show how he, himself, acted honorably, pursuing philotimia rather than
Philip’s money (Dem. 19.223). His point is an apt one, for he underscores that a
conscious calculus of values led him to follow a course of truth and justice (tou= dikai/ou
kai\ th=j a)lhqei/aj, Dem. 19.223, cf. 19.28); although each could certainly be pursued for
its own sake, he explicitly calculated that public honor, timē (cf. timhqh/sesqai, Dem.
78 In a similar blending of these two narratives, Demosthenes considered Philip, too, a threat to Athens’
laws and the democracy: Dem. 6.25, 8.41-2.
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