BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
Cimon’s trial was no exception. Though we have but few sources on the trial, it
seems clear that it was in some sense ‘about’ his relationship to the community. After all,
the dēmos had initiated the suit by appointing ten public prosecutors—a rarity in
Athens—and at least part of the trial was held before the Assembly (Plut. Per. 10.5-6,
Cim. 14.5). More telling is Cimon’s defense, a brief portion of which Plutarch records, in
which the stratēgos defended his relationship to the community. The excerpt is worth
quoting in full here, for it raises a couple of points to which we will return frequently:
[Cimon] said that he was the representative (procenei=n) not of wealthy Ionians
and Thessalians, unlike others who were their representative in order to be
fawned over and to receive [dōra] (i3na qerapeu/wntai kai\ lamba/nwsin), but
of Spartans, whose thrift and moderation (eu)te/leian kai\ swfrosu/nhn) he loved
and imitated. These were more valuable to him than any amount of wealth (h{j
ou)de/na protima=n plou=ton). Instead, he delighted in enriching the polis from
her enemies (plouti/zwn a)po\ tw=n polemi/wn th\n po/lin). Plutarch, Life of
Cimon 14.4
Cimon does not directly address the charge of dōrodokia here, and it is impossible to
assess how, if at all, he did so elsewhere in his defense speech. Nevertheless, we are
fortunate to possess this one record of the trial, for it juxtaposes Cimon’s actions against
those of other purported dōrodokoi, namely proxenoi of Ionia and Thessaly. In that light,
it helps orient us around what Cimon, at least, thought was problematic about dōrodokia
and, by contrast, how he thought an upstanding citizen should act. 5
Cimon frames the dōrodokos both positively and negatively. On the one hand, he
suggests that proxenoi of Ionia and Thessaly were themselves dōrodokoi precisely
5 Given Plutarch’s use of Ion elsewhere in the Life of Cimon (e.g. Plut. Cim. 5.3, 9.1, 16.10), Cimon’s
speech probably comes from Ion, who admired Cimon and disliked Pericles (cf. Plut. Per. 5.3, 28.7) and
was likely in Athens at the time of the trial: Blamire (1989: 15). Theopompus may also have been a
source for the trial, but it is unlikely that he would have reported the details of Cimon’s defense: cf. Sandys
(1912: 113 ad AP 27.1).
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