BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Introduction
(spondai/), whether between friends or between a citizen and his country. 22 By not
rooming with Leon, Timagoras was thought to be signaling his alignment with a different
set of political friends—here, Pelopidas, whose policy recommendations he endorsed
even when they proved detrimental to Athens’ interests (Xen. Hell. 1.35-6). Similarly,
when the King followed Pelopidas’ recommendations and demanded that Athens beach
her warships, Leon warned that the King was no longer behaving like Athens’ friend (cf.
fi/lon, Xen. Hell. 1.37). Just as the King’s policy suggested a rupture of the friendship
he enjoyed with Athens, Timagoras’ actions towards Leon and his counsel to the King
suggested that he was betraying friend and city, alike. 23
In Timagoras’ case, the dōrodokos was, specifically, a traitor to the city. So the
end of Plutarch’s story hints that it was Timagoras’ implicit treason that explains his
punishment, for the Athenians had a hard time accepting that everything had gone to the
Thebans’ advantage. This explanation also underpins the more contemporary treatments
given by Xenophon and Demosthenes. In both of these accounts, there is considerably
more at stake than an unfavorable peace settlement. Instead, these versions underscore
that what was Thebes’ gain was explicitly Athens’ loss: in this light Timagoras’ actions
reflected a reprehensible readiness to join with Athens’ enemies; he was a traitor. 24 From
this we can begin to see that the way in which Athenians conceptualized dōrodokia might
22
Note here the parallel structure of Demosthenes’ thought, which syntactically balances public and private
compacts: oi9 a)dikou~ntej dhlono&ti ta_j ta_j o3 o3lhj o3 lhj ge th~j patri/doj sponda&j sponda&j...ou) sponda&j
mo&non ta_j ta_j i0di/aj i0di/aj (Dem.
19.191). Moreover, the orator underscores how such private bonds emphatically connoted public bonds, as
well, for he fronts the word o3lhj (“entire”), which is itself already intensified by , within the articleadjective-noun-noun
sequence.
23
In the same vein, Xenophon contrasts Timagoras’ actions in being a bad friend to Leon with those of
Antiochus the Arcadian, who refuses the King’s gifts precisely because the Arcadian League was
“slighted” by the King (h)lattou=to, Xen. Hell. 7.1.38.).
24
Dem 19.137, 191; Xen. Hell. 7.1.37. Plutarch is even more explicit on this point in calling the King’s
gifts a “reproach unto treason more than a token of friendly charis” (o)neidismo\j e)j prodosi/an ma=llon h) \
xa/ritoj u(po/mnhsij, Plut. Art. 22.6).
16