"Contra Leocratem" and "de Corona": Political Collaboration?

Abstract

LEOCRATES FLED ATHENS as soon as news of Chaeronea reached the city. Some eight years later, subsequent to his return, he was indicted for treason by the orator Lycurgus. The political implications of this indictment have evoked little scholarly commentary. Generally, the oration is viewed as the single extant example of Lycurgus' uncompromising denunciation of the unpatriotic elements within Athens.' Yet this traditional interpretation of the oration, and by inference of Lycurgus' political demeanour, is oversimplified and perhaps misleading. From 338 to 336 B.C. Lycurgus either controlled personally or managed indirectly nearly all of Athens' financial affairs.2 This extraordinary accomplishment made Lycurgus one of the most successful, indeed one of the most important, politicians in the city for over a decade. Now there is evidence to suggest that the orator's political success derived at least in part from the people's belief in his incorruptibility and fairness, and that it was as well these very qualities that helped make him a most formidable, if not an unbeatable, force in the courts ([Plut.] X orat. 841 f). Moreover, we are able to deduce from the extant titles of Lycurgus' orations that his political and forensic success was not won at the expense of the insignificant, since among those whom he indicted and convicted were Lysicles, a general at Chaeronea, Autolycus, an Areopagite, and Lycophron, a wealthy breeder of horses and cavalry commander in Lemnos.