DECASMUS
DECASMUS (
δεκασμός), bribery:
strictly meaning a systematic bribery by division into sets of ten (Bekk.
Anecd. p. 236, 5). There were two actions for bribery at
Athens: one, called
δεκασμοῦ γραφή, lay
against the person who gave the bribe; and the other, called
δώρων or
δωροδοκίας
γραφή, against the person who received it. (Pollux, 8.42.)
These actions applied to the bribery of citizens in the public assemblies of
the people (
συνδεκάζειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν,
Aesch.
c. Timarch. § 86), of the Heliaea or any of
the courts of justice, of the
βουλή, and of
the public advocates (
συνηγόροι, Lex ap.
Dem.
c. Steph. ii. p. 1137.26). Demosthenes (
F.
L. p. 343.7), indeed, says that orators were forbidden by the law,
not merely to abstain from receiving gifts for the injury of the state, but
even to receive any present at all.
Actions for bribery were under the jurisdiction of the thesmothetae (Dem.
c. Steph. 1. c.). The punishment on conviction was death
(Isocr.
de Pace, § 50; Aeschin.
c. Tim. § 87), or payment of ten times the value
of the gift received (Dinarch.
c. Demosth. § 60;
c. Aristog. § 17). An additional punishment
(
προστίμημα) might be inflicted by the
court; as in the case of Demosthenes, who was not only fined 50 talents, but
thrown into prison (
Plut. Dem. 26;
Vit. X. Oratt. p. 841 c; Boeckh,
P. E. p.
384). In this instance the amount of the penalty seems to have been
fivefold, not tenfold, the amount of
[p. 1.600]the bribe.
Atimia followed as a matter of course on conviction, and was not left, like
other punishments, to the discretion of the court (Dem.
c.
Mid. p. 551.113; Aeschin.
c. Ctes. § 232).
On the analogy of the Roman
decuriae, and the
phrase
Λύκου δεκὰς applied to bribery in
Harpocration, compare Sandys on Dem.
c Steph. l.c.; Meier,
Att. Process, p. 150.
[
W.S] [
W.W]
