BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Six
case of citizenship trials, too, the Athenians expelled from their community those
elements which were corrupting the political process.
Both the extraordinary diapsēphisis of 346/5 and the graphē dōroxenias represent
attempts to reassert the authority of proper, uncorrupted political domains through
repeating a formal process. Yet if an entire body had been thoroughly corrupted, it was
conceivable that repeating the process would only result in the same, unjust outcome. In
such instances, the Athenians may have had little choice but to change the process
entirely, hence switching a process from one domain to another. One is reminded, for
instance, of Ephialtes’ reforms and the suspected corruption of the Areopagus at the time.
There is a similar explanation in the AP about judging patterns for the robe used in the
quadrennial Great Panathenaia procession: originally the Council had judged these
matters, but because they had shown favoritism (kataxari/zesqai), jurisdiction was
transferred to a jury court selected by lot (AP 49.3). 77 In the 350’s all eisangeliai before
the Assembly began to be held in front of a jury court instead. 78 While this last change
was due most likely to economic considerations—particularly amid the Social Wars, it
was cheaper for the Athenians to fund a day’s worth of court cases rather than an
identical penalty for both the dōroxenia and xenia procedures would have effectively created an incentive
for non-Athenians to try to bribe the jury! With the same penalty for losing a xenia trial as for being
convicted of bribing the jury in a xenia trial, nothing would have been lost, and everything could have been
gained, by at least attempting to bribe the jury. On the other hand, the punishment probably could not have
been death, for what then would have distinguished the graphē dōroxenias from the graphē dekasmou,
which already had the death penalty? Indeed, positing a different penalty is a good reason for the creation
of the graphē dōroxenias in the first place. Given the gravity of the offense, atimia in the sense of
outlawry, is our most sensible option.
77 What the AP intends here is a matter of debate. The phrase ta\ paradei/gmata kai\ to\n pe/plon
(“public works and the robe”) was emended by Blass to refer to just the peplos (ta\ paradei/gmata ei)j
to\n pe/plon); Rhodes (1981: 568-9 ad loc) follows Blass, albeit with caution. Wilamowitz (1893: 1.212-
13), on the other hand, follows the manuscripts in positing that these decisions involved public works in
general. What is important for our purposes is simply that some change was made in the fourth century,
and that the AP, at least, attributed this change to dōrodokia.
78 Hansen (1975: esp. 53-5), Rhodes (1979: 108); cf. Thalheim (1902: 351-2), Lipsius (1905-15: 1.191-
2).
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