BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thinking about corruption for an extended period of time does funny things to
one’s brain. It’s a disconcerting, frustratingly intricate topic, and prolonged exposure
slowly corrupts one’s thinking, causing significant distortions to one’s social life and
livelihood. In my case I fear writing this dissertation has made me a slight bit insane. It
is with great pleasure, then, that I acknowledge here those who had a hand in
precipitating my condition; it is hoped that others will take my words to heart, lest they
incur the same affliction.
The ideas in this dissertation have unsettled me for a long time. In my first
graduate seminar, the play of economic images and justice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia kept
me up for nights on end, and the interpretive problems I encountered at that time have
lingered in my mind, festering and causing many a sleepless night since. I give fond
thanks to David Rosenbloom, who encouraged me then to obsess over these images, and
to the custodial staff of East Pyne, whose bright smiles tricked me into correlating
positive feedback with my incipient insomnia. I doubt they knew the utter madness
towards which they were leading me, but they meant well.
A few other guides were not so innocent. I say ‘guides’ because they have, in
their own ways, been unwitting mentors to me over the years; ‘not so innocent’ because I
suspect they knew full well what they were doing in welcoming me into their fold. It is
in no small part to them that my affliction took the particular form of this dissertation.
Dirk Hartog introduced me to the Dark Side of law and legal history, and with that he
made my life inestimably more complicated. Kim Scheppele completely dismantled my
own understanding of law and its myriad roles in society; and it was her unfailing
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