Last updated 09/07/24: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
The purpose of this article is to examine the belief that Cleon, the fifth-century Athenian demagogue, was not only violent and relentless but also venal and dishonest, and made money out of politics by taking bribes and misappropriating public funds. This view of his character had by the second-century a.d. become almost a commonplace of literature. To give only two examples, Aelian mentions the story (citing Critias as his authority) that Cleon was in debt when he entered politics but died worth 50 to 100 talents, and the scholiast on Lucian described Cleon as being ‘venal to excess’. The interesting point about this second comment, however, is its inappropriateness to the context, which calls for a reference to Cleon's rapacity rather than to his venality; this indicates to what an extent Cleon's reputation for bribe-taking had come to predominate over all his other qualities.
page 132 note 1 Var. Hist. x. 17.
page 132 note 2 Schol. Luc. Tim. 30, δωροδόκος είς ὑττερβολήν.
page 132 note 3 Plut. Nic. 2. 2, βδελυρίαν καì τόλμαν.
page 132 note 4 Ibid. 3. 2, εὐχερεíᾳ.
page 132 note 5 Ibid. 8. 3.
page 132 note 6 Ibid. 9. 2, 
ν ὁ πόλεμος τοῦ μὲν ἀπεκρύπτετο τὴν κακίαν, τοῦ δὲ τὴν ἀρέτην ἐκόσμει.
page 132 note 7 Ibid. ἀδικημάτων μεγάλων ἀφορμὰς παρεῖχε.
page 133 note 1 Ath. Pol. 28.
page 133 note 2 Ibid. 28. 3, ὃς δοκεῑ μάλιστα διαφθεῑραι τὸν δῆμον ταῑς ὁρμαῖς, καὶ πρῶτοςἐπ;ὶ τοῦ βήματος ἀνέκραγε καὶ ἐλοιδορήσατο καὶ περι
ωσάμενος ἐδημηγόρησε.
page 133 note 3 Ibid 27. 5, ἢρξατο … καὶ τὸ δεκά
ειν, πρώτου καταδείξαντος' Ανύτου.
page 133 note 4 iii. 36. 6, βιαιότατος τῶν πολιτῶν τῷ τε δήμῳ … πιθανώτατος.
page 133 note 5 v. 16. 1, καταφανέστερος νομίων ἂν εναι κακουργῶν καὶ ἀπιοτότερος διαβάλλων.
page 134 note 1 ii. 65. 10.
page 134 note 2 Dittenberger, W., Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 3 (Leipzig, 1920), no. 1078, XIV.Google Scholar
page 134 note 3 Ar. Eq. 870.
page 135 note 1 Eq. 932, γνώμην ἐρεῑν μέλλοντα περὶ Μιλησίων καὶ κερδανεῑν τάλαντον.
page 135 note 2 Ibid. 835, δωροδοκήσαντ' ἐκ Μιτυλήνης πλεῑν ἢ μνᾶ τετταράκοντα.
page 135 note 3 Ach. 6, τοῑς πέντε ταλάντοις ος Κλέων ἐξήεσεν.
page 135 note 4 Meritt, B. D., Wade-Gery, H. T., and McGregor, M. F., The Athenian Tribute Lists (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), i. 141, 152.Google Scholar
page 135 note 5 παρὰ τῶν νησιωτῶν ἒλαβε πέντε τάλαντα ὁ Κλέων, ἵνα πείσῃ τοὺς' Αθηνα ίους κουφίσαι αὐτοὺς τῆς εἰσφορᾶς. αἰσθανόμενοι δὲ οἱ ἱππεῑς ἀντὲλεγον καὶ ὰπῄτησαν αὐτόν. μέμνηται
Θεόπομττος.
page 137 note 1 vv. 509–56.
page 137 note 2 vv. 603–14.
page 138 note 1 Eq. 65–70, Vesp. 972.
page 138 note 2 vv 703–18.
