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Political Pay Outside Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

G. E. M. de Ste Croix
G. E. M. de Ste Croix
Affiliation:
New College, Oxford
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Extract

According to two recent books, there is no evidence that political pay was given by any Greek city other than Athens; and one of them goes further and asserts positively that, ‘lacking imperial resources, no other city imitated the Athenian pattern.’ Since the book from which the quotation has been made is likely to become a ‘standard work’, it is desirable to make two points clear. First, there is explicit evidence for political pay elsewhere than at Athens: at Rhodes, in the fourth century B.C. and perhaps for some centuries thereafter, and at Iasus in Caria in at any rate the third century B.C. And secondly, no careful reader of Aristotle's Politics can doubt that by at least the 330s B.C. political pay, for attending the courts or the Assembly or both, had been introduced in quite a number of Greek democracies, even if Aristotle mentions specifically only Athens and Rhodes.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , May 1975 , pp. 48 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1975

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References

page 48 note 1 Finley, M. I., The Ancient Economy (London, 1973), 173 (from which the quotation comes); Democracy Ancient and Modern (London, 5973), 48.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 It is not possible to date the Politics in its present form more precisely than around the late 330s. (I intend to discuss this question elsewhere.)

page 48 note 3 With in 1317b35, Aristotle returns to what he has been saying in lines 18–30.

page 48 note 4 This is so, even if in the late fourth century 1½dr. were being paid for attending a and only I dr. for other assemblies: Arist. Ath. Pol. 62. 2.

page 49 note 1 In 1320a22–6 Aristotle contemplates the giving of dicastic pay to the poor but not the rich; but this is a hypothetical situation.

page 50 note 1 The most likely date of this overthrow of democracy at Rhodes is perhaps 391/o, but 358/7 is an obvious alternative (see Newman, W. L., The Politics of Arist., iv [Oxford, 1902], 299–300),Google Scholar and there are other possibilities. For a useful epitome of Rhodian political history in the fourth century, see Fraser, P. M., ‘Notes on Two Rhodian Institutions’, in B.S.A. lxvii (1972), 113–24, at 122–3.Google Scholar

page 50 note 2 The evidence has recently been reviewed by Fraser, op. cit., 119–24. The only detailed account of the Rhodian constitution is still that of van Gelder, H., Gesch. der alien Rhodier (The Hague, 1900), 178–288: see esp. 242–5 on theand 245–9 on theGoogle Scholar

page 51 note 1 Op. cit., 123n. 72.

page 51 note 2 I am grateful to Professor R. G. M. Nisbet for pointing out to me that the structure of the sentence (otherwise rambling) is improved if these four words are taken with what precedes rather than with what follows, and that editors are consequently mistaken in putting a semicolon after ‘senatorio’.

page 51 note 3 The Rhodian Assembly met in the theatre: see e.g. Polyb. 15. 23. 2.

page 51 note 4 We know almost nothing of the Rhodian judicial system: see van Gelder, op. cit., 244.

page 51 note 5 It will be sufficient to refer to Fraser, op. cit. (p. 50 n. I above), 123 n. 71.

page 51 note 6 Cf. Momigliano, A., in J.R.S xli (1951),49–53Google Scholar

page 51 note 7 Dio could conceivably be referring to daily sessions of the Rhodian recruited from the whole body of citizens, at least for certain periods.

page 51 note 8 See Fraser, loc. cit.; Kroll, J. H., Athenian Bronze Allotment Plates (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), 268–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 51 note 9 See Kroll, op. cit., 51–68 (esp. 55–6), 101–4.

page 51 note 10 See Fraser, op. cit. (p. 50 n.I, above), 121–2 and n. 59.

page 52 note 1 Iasus paid only 1 talent per year to Athens during the Empire, until the amount was raised to 3 talents (A T.L. ii. 34, List 34 [421/0], Col. i, line 91; and perhaps ii. 36, List 39 [416/15], line 35), doubtless by the reassessment decree of 425. Although in 412, it was then sacked by the Peloponnesians (Thuc. 8. 28. 3). Strabo (14. 2. 21, p. 658) speaks of it as having poor soil and of the inhabitants as gaining theirlivelihood mainly ‘from the sea’.

page 52 note 2 The inscription was originally published by B. Haussoullier in B.C.H. viii (1884), 218–22; cf. E. L. Hicks in J.H.S. viii (1887), 103–11; and see O. Schulthess in R.E. xv. 2 (1932), 2088.

page 52 note 3 See Michel, R.I.G. 466; also C.I.G. ii. 2673b, 2674, 2675b, 2677b.

page 52 note 4 I wish to thank Professor P. A. Brunt for his observations on a draft of this paper.