BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Five
but even how the norms governing dōrodokia should be defined. Positing such a
legitimizing role for law helps explain the relationship between how dōrodokia was
defined in law and how this definition shaped the ways in which litigants framed the
offense.
We can test the value of the above framework by turning the rich yet tangled story
of what I argue is the first Athenian law concerning dōrodokia. As we will see,
uncovering the text of this law implicates a number of discrete legislative acts throughout
the democracy, including changes in the law’s substance, penalty and procedure. Only
by outlining this diachronic change will we be in a position to understand why the law
was drafted in the first place, and why it was drafted in the form that it was. After tracing
the history of this one law, we will then turn, in the next chapter, to the remaining formal
measures adopted during the democracy.
The Original Law against dōrodokia:
The first Athenian legislation on dōrodokia probably pre-dated the democracy by
nearly a century. Although we have no direct evidence that such a law existed—no
record of any sixth-century trials for dōrodokia, no ascription of any such law to an early
lawgiver—a few scattered clues alert us to the probability that in 594 the Athenian
lawgiver Solon drafted a law forbidding public officials, especially judges, from
committing dōrodokia. The text of the law comes down to us from a speech of
Demosthenes, who cites the law as evidence that his opponent had committed a grave
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