BRIBERY IN CLASSICAL ATHENS Kellam ... - Historia Antigua

Conover Bribery in Classical Athens Chapter Two
historian’s focus on Thasos does underscore a crucial aspect of Athenian foreign policy
throughout this period, one that Cimon brings out in proudly reporting that he enriched
Athens from her enemies (plouti/zwn a)po\ tw=n polemi/wn th\n po/lin, Plut. Cim. 14.4).
Athens’ archē, her power over her allies, was thus intimately bound up with the
economic rewards of exerting that power. Yet so long as other allies were contributing
men and ships to the cause, they, too, might expect economic rewards from the League. 13
Once those allies began providing monetary payments, though, the nature of the
payments effectively changed into a contract for protection by Athenian forces. 14
Precisely because Athens continued to provide an increasingly greater share of the
League’s navy, she deserved a greater share of the rewards from the League’s
expeditions. This explains in part why Athenians assessed, collected, and administered
the tribute; Athenian citizens colonized conquered territories; and Athens so frequently
assumed control over local resources in subjecting a particular ally. 15 As Thucydides’
account of the 50 years after the Persian Wars suggests, money equaled power and
Athens’ power directly translated into more money.
Lisa Kallet has persuasively illuminated the striking extent to which this equation
of money and power infused Athenian political debates and policies throughout the fifth
century; with more power, Athenian stratēgoi like Cimon could directly and indirectly
13 At the League’s inception, the allies, too, would have anticipated tangible rewards from ravaging Persian
territory. It was only after they stopped providing men and ships that the nature of the alliance shifted.
Sealey (1966: 233-55). Cf. Kallet-Marx (1993: 53-4).
14 Cf. Thuc. 1.99. Kallet-Marx (1993: 65-7) is essential on this point, but it should be noted that cause and
effect here are still somewhat murky. Doubtless some of the allies, disillusioned by the League’s
expeditions—which, in benefiting Athens predominantly, already reflected her near hegemonic position—
shifted to monetary payments as a pragmatic matter. In a sense, therefore, the switch to monetary
payments could have both anticipated and responded to Athens’ changing relationship to the League.
15 Like Thasos, Aegina was also forced to surrender her warships and mainland possessions in 458 (Thuc.
1.108.4).
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