BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Conclusion
Rethinking Political Bribery:
The View from Athens
The previous seven chapters have tried to understand the world through the eyes
of the dōrodokos. We have viewed the democracy through its various monies—gifts, pay,
honors, bribes, and tribute—and seen how the Athenians used these monies to define the
relationships, legitimate and not, ‘democratic’ and other, that made up their polity. And
we have followed the figure of the dōrodokos out of the shadows of the democracy as he
was etched indelibly into Athenian law and political institutions. Having borrowed the
eyes of the dōrodokos for so long, if we think back to Timagoras’ ill-fated embassy to the
Persian King, it is perhaps difficult now to grasp just how inscrutable Timagoras’ dōra
first appeared to be. We were perplexed then by how dōrodokia was defined, why
Timagoras took the dōra, and why the Athenians killed him. Now, however, those
questions are seen to have ready, even irrelevant, answers.
But if assuming the perspective of the dōrodokos has laid to rest certain questions,
it has uncovered still others. As we look back from Timagoras’ world to our own, we
find that the view from Athens reveals a paradox to modern observers. Bribery, a form of
corruption, has long been considered a hindrance to political and economic development,
as it is thought to raise transaction costs while short-circuiting or distorting political
process. In Klitgaard’s (1988: 75) influential definition:
Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion – Accountability.
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