BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter One
Remarkably, what is distinct about the dōrodokos as a social type is that there
were never any generic features that uniquely identified him. 103 Theophrastus’
Characters provides short character sketches of 30 different social types that could be
found in Athens just after the democracy: the flatterer, the garrulous man, the oligarch,
the miser, the greedy man, the coward, the busy-body—all of these types had defining
features by which each character could be picked out in a crowd. The dōrodokos is
nowhere to be found. 104 Aside from perhaps being a ‘bad friend’, the dōrodokos was
essentially an empty set, an open sign that could be filled in as needed. Sometimes he
was assumed to be poor, other times rich. 105 Sometimes he was assumed to have a bad
character through and through; other times his transgression was considered an isolated
affair. 106 He could be working alone or part of a vast network of dōrodokoi. 107 When I
speak of the dōrodokos, then, I intend it as a heuristic that signals the ideal type with
which a bribe-giver or bribe-taker was identified. When someone was suspected of
dōrodokia, he was identified with a social type—a kind of person in the democracy—but
the exact contents of this type shifted over time.
103
Ober (1989: 237) notes in passing the reverse of this claim, that the Athenians never had a topos of the
adōrodokētos or unbribable man. Wankel (1982) and Kulesza (1995: 48-83) examine the generic
construction of bribery accusations, but are unable to identify any unique characteristics beyond lack of
loyalty to the polis. Again, we might call the dōrodokos, simply, a ‘bad friend’. Cf. Kulesza (1995: 81).
Accordingly, the dōrodokos, though idealized, never claimed the status of a range of other ‘bad citizen’
anti-types in the democracy, like the military shirker or avoider of liturgies—on which see Christ (2006,
2008)—or the whore, the flatterer, and the sykophant, helpfully discussed by Fisher (2008). For the
affinities between bribery and prostitution, again in terms of character types, see von Reden (1995a: 117-
20).
104
Bribery appears but once in the Oligarch’s complaint about how the courts are corrupt: Theoph. Char.
26.5.
105
Poor: Xen. Hell. 2.3.48, Aeschin. 1.88, Dem. 18.131, Arist. Pol. 1270b6-13, Din. 3.18. Rich: Aeschin.
3.94, Hyp. 3.35, Din. 1.40, Dem. 21.112, 23.201.
106
Character: Ar. Pl. 569-70, Lys. 28.10-11, Dem. 23.146 and see Chapter Three. Isolated incident:
Aristides, nicknamed ‘the just’ for his apparent refusal to seek personal gain in his public service, was
reportedly convicted of dōrodokia for once taking money from the Ionians when assessing their tribute
(Plut. Arist. 26.2-5=Craterus FGrH 324 F12).
107
Working alone: Timagoras (Plut. Pelop. 30.6-7) and Arthmius (e.g. Din. 2.24) were isolated incidents
of bribery. Network: Euxenippus (Hyp. 4.39), those involved in the Harpalus Affair (Ath. 8.341f-342),
Ant. 6.49-50, and see generally Chapter Four below.
74