Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/athenianclubsinpOOcalh ^S Zbc IHntversit^ of dbtcaao FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER NIAN CLUBS IN POLITICS AND LITIGATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE y FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (department of greek) BY GEORGE MILLER CALHOUN REPRINTF^ THE UN]* i]RSITY P .ETIN ^-, Ubc IHntverstti^ ot Cbicago FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER ATHENIAN CLUBS IN POLITICS AND LITIGATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (department of creek) BY GEORGE MILLER CALHOUN MICROFILMED BY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTC LIBRARY M/'vSTER NEGATIVE NO.: i (?^^c^/2-<r. REPRINTED FROM ~ - THE FNIVERSITY OF TEXAS BULLETIN AUSTIN, 1913 ^\ PREFATORY NOTE The subject of this study was first suggested by Associate Professor Robert J. Bonner, of the University of Chicago, when I was attending his research course in Greek history. At every stage of the investigation, Professor Bonner's suggestion, criti- cism, and assistance have been generously given and gratefully received, and my indebtedness to his sound scholarship and inspiring teaching cannot be overstated. I wish also to express my gratitude to Professor Paul Shorey, of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Hazel Louise Brown, of Chicago, for their active interest and helpful suggestions; to Professor W.J. Battle, Dr. F. B. Marsh, and Adjunct Professor D. A. Penick, of the University of Texas, for assistance with the proofs, and to Mr. S. G. Sanders, fellow in Greek in the University of Texas, for help in compiling the register of passages and in proof-reading. And lastly, acknowledgment may here be made of the constant encouragement and inspiration which I have received in the course of my work from my parents and from my good friend Dr. J. H. Mills, of Tulane University. The Committee on Publications of the University of Texas has very kindly permitted me to reprint from The University of Texas Bulletin No. 262. George Miller Calhoun. The University of Texas, January, 1913. — TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. Introductory Chapter II. The Origin and Condition of the Clubs . 10 Origin and Development—Political Tendencies—Social Features—Basis of Membership—Size—Names—Oaths and Pledges—Initiations—Secrecy—The Bond of Club Membership. Chapter III. The Clubs in Litigation 40 Introductory—Money Contributions—Friendly Prosecu- tions—Counter Suits—Antidosis—Creating Sentiment Dissuasion of Accusers—Assassination and Violence Pleading at the Probole—Influence upon the Jury—Evi- dence—The Suppression of Evidence—The Pleading of Advocates—The Dissuasion of Advocates—Interest with Ofiicials—Information Regarding Opponent's Case—Mis- cellaneous Expedients—Types of Clubs Represented. Chapter IV, The Clubs in the Political Field .... 97 Introductory—Litigation as a Political Weapon—Assas- sination—Deliberative Assemblies—Elections—Ostracism —Foreign Intervention and Prodosia. Bibliography 149 Index 153 Register of Passages 161 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Thucydides, describing the extension to Athens of the oUgarchic movement which had its inception in Samos in 411, states that Pisander visited the "sworn associations which already existed in the state for the management of lawsuits and elections," rds re ^vvufxocrLas, aiicep ervyx^^^^ irporepoVj kv rfi -KoKti ovcraL kirl Skats /cat dpxats,! and persuaded them to unite for the purpose of overthrow- ing the democracy. This was no slight and insignificant faction which was thus arrayed against the democracy. The formidable political strength comprised in the membership of these clubs is attested by the two occasions on which they were able completely to dominate the state. We know further that individual clubs were at all times factors of the utmost importance in the political and litigious activities of the Athenians. Themistocles, for example, the shrewd and successful politician par excellence, was quick to perceive the tremendous advantage of club aj0&liations, and his first step toward the accomplishment of his ambitions was enrollment in a hetaery.^ Aristides, in whom the opposite type of statesman found its consummate expression according to ancient ideals, is cited as the great exception to the common practice of the age, as the one man who attained to political eminence solely by personal worth and integrity, unsupported by club affihations. For he, according to Plutarch, kept aloof from clubs, believing that the power derived from such associations was an incentive to unjust action.^ Socrates also was an excep- tion to the general custom. In the Platonic Apology, he affirms that it would have been possible for him to have escaped convic- tion had he been willing to devote himself to those matters which engage the attention of the majority at Athens—finance, the attainment of office, political parties, and clubs. ^ This strongly suggests that membership in clubs was not confined to a few, iThuc. 8. 54. 4. 2piut. Arist. 2. 'Plut. Arist. 2. *36B; cf. infra p. 23. n. 1. Z ATHENIAN CLUBS but was for the average citizen the necessary and usual means of defense against the attacks of enemies. That it was a prere- quisite of success in the political field may be inferred from the number of great names in Athenian history which are associated with clubs. ^ That the hetaeries wielded so powerful an influence in the state and that membership in them was so usual bespeak a tremendous efficiency in the prosecution of the ends for which they existed. To what was this efficiency due? What were the details of their organization? What were the exact methods by which they promoted the interests of their members in politics and aided them in litigation? These are the questions which the words of Thucydides suggest. The answers, if satisfactory answers can be made, should constitute a valuable commentary upon the practical politics and the legal dexterity of the Athenians. Several monographs have dealt with the clubs. In 1814 Hiillmann discussed them briefly in his essay De Atheniensium (rwco/xocrtats eirl diKaLs Kal apxals (Konigsberg: 1814), in which he attempted to maintain the thesis that they were a sort of "Bestechungsgesellschaften," and accomplished their ends chiefly by bribery.^ Some years later, Wilhelm Vischer published Die oligarchische Partei und die Hetairien in Athen^ (Basel: 1836), which has remained the standard work of reference on the subject. No serious attempt is made to deal with details or methods. This topic is dismissed with a perfunctory page of suggestions, mainly a priori in character, and a cursory allusion to jury bribing and the treasonable tendencies of Greek political clubs in general.^ The study is primarily concerned with general political movements and situations, and is, as was doubtless intended, little more than an enumeration of clubs and a discussion of their relations to the oligarchic party. That this viewpoint should lead to some mis- conceptions in regard to the origin and status of the clubs is but iFor a partial enumeration of prominent men who belonged to clubs, cf infra pp. 18-19. The tremendous power and importance of the clubs can only be realized at the conclusion of a detailed study; to cite in this introduction all of the instances which lead to this view is of course impracticable. 2Cf. infra p. 69. I have been unable to procure Hiillmann's work, and have been obliged to depend on the reports of his conclusions made by other scholars who have discussed the clubs. Vischer was not able to secure the monograph when he wrote his study in 1836 at Basel. 'Republished in Kleine Schriften (Leipzig: 1877) I. pp. 153-204. ^Pp. 171-72. INTRODUCTORY 6 natural. But, even were Vischer's conclusions to be accepted in toto, there would still remain much to be done.^ Biittner's Geschichte der politischen Hetdrieen in Athen (Leipzig: 1840), while on certain points it corrects and supplements Vischer's work, makes but a slight advance. Biittner also is concerned chiefly with general tendencies, and his work could more properly be termed a history of political parties than of political clubs. ^ The question of the methods employed by clubs he frankly pro- fesses himself unable to answer.^ In addition to these more pretentious studies, the clubs have been made the subject of numerous brief and somewhat perfun:(;tory discussions by com- mentators upon the Thucydides passage and by historians of the Four Hundred.'' But few of these raise the question of details or methods; none of them affords a treatment which is at all adequate, and the great majority give bare recapitulations of Vischer's more obvious conclusions. Thus a discussion of his treatment is for all practical purposes a sufficient discussion of all that has been written upon the subject. Although nearly a century has elapsed since Hiillmann published his study, we are still without a satisfactory account of the ways in which the clubs worked, and Goodhart, commenting upon the Thucydides pass- ^Vischer completed in a satisfactory manner the work which he pro- posed, a history of the oligarchic party and its clubs; the fault, if fault there be, lies not with him but with those who cite his article for detailed information which it does not profess to give. The present study is not a criticism of, but is intended rather to supplement the work of Vischer. Reservations, and criticisms of his conclusions, will be indicated from time to time in the course of the work. The information contained in the Aristotelian Constitution of Athens would doubtless have affected some of Vischer's views. ^The gravest fault in Biittner's treatment is the failure to distinguish between the clubs and the larger parties or factions which they made up, a distinction which is almost entirely lost sight of.