Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ElSANGELIA. EISANGELIA. 447
bringing a cause (es'-dayese) into a proper court. to treason in the usual sense of the term, but re[DIARTETA.; DIKsE.] The cause itself was quired a special declaration by the senate to render
tried, as is explained under DII(E, by dicasts it cognizable as such by the Heliaea. Another
chosen by lot; but all the preliminary proceed- instance of treason by implication, prosecuted as
ings, such as receiving the accusation, drawing up an extraordinary and unspecified crime, appears in
the indictment, introducing the cause into court, the case of Leocrates, who is, in the speech already
&c., were conducted by the regular magistrate, cited, accused of having absented himself from his
who attended in his own department to all that country, and dropped the character of an Athewas understood in Athenian law by the 1r'yqeovia nian citizen at a time when the state was in immiToil &Lacaor7pLov. Thus we find the strategi, the nent danger. Offences, however, of this nature
logistae, the e7rLeTagT-L Ta' v sltoa[ov epypc.v, the were by no means the only ones, nor indeed the
i7r,/cEA70'al Troi puruopiov, &c., possessing this most numerous class of those to which extraordii/yeowvia; but it was not the chief business of any nary denunciations were applicable. They might
of the public magistrates, except of the archons be adopted when the charge embraced a combinaand perhaps of the eleven. The chief part of the tion of crimes, as that of treason anld impiety in
duties of the former, and especially of the thes- the famous case of Alcibiades, for each of which a
mothetae, consisted in receiving accusations and common indictment (ypaqS) was admissible, when
bringing causes to trial (e1ad'yeLv) in the proper the accused were persons of great influence in the
courts. [ARCHON.] state, when the imputed crime, though punishable
EISANGE'LIA (eia?-yyeXia), signifies, in its by the ordinary laws, was peculiarly heinous, or
primary and most general sense, a denunciation of when a more speedy trial than was permitted by
any kind (Schhmann, De Ciomitiis, p. 181), but, the usual course of business was requisite to acrmuch more usually, an information laid before the complish the ends of justice. (Schlimann, De Cons.
council or the assembly of the people, and the p. ]90,; Harpocrat.) Circumstances such as these
consequent impeachment and trial of state crimi- would, of course, be very often pretended by an innals at Athens under novel or extraordinary cir- former to excite the greater odium against the
cumstances. Among these were the occasions accused, and the adoption of the process in quesupon which manifest crimles were alleged to have tion must have been much more frequent than
been committed, and yet of such a nature as the was absolutely necessary.
existing laws had failed to anticipate or at least The first step taken by the informer was to redescribe specifically (&ypapa aitucKtaTra), the result duce his denunciation to writing, and submit it
of which omission would have been, but for the immediately to the cognizance of the council,
enactment by which the accusations in question which had a discretionary power to accept or remight be preferred (YdJtos eiaayyeATKc's), that a ject it. (Lys. c. Nicom. p. 185.) Schbmann mainprosecutor would not have known to what magis- tains that a reference to this body was also necestrate to apply; that a magistrate, if applied to, sary when it was intended to bring the matter
could not with safety have accepted the indictment before the assembly of the people, but that its
or brought it into court; and that, in short, there agency was in such cases limited to permitting
would have been a total failure of justice. (Har- the impeachment to be announced for discussion,
pocrat. s. v.) The process in question was pecu- and directing the proedri to obtain a hearing for
liarly adapted to supply these deficiencies; it the informer. The thesmothetae are also menpointed out, as the authority competent to deter- tioned by Pollux (viii. 87) as taking part in bringmine the criminality of the alleged act, the as- ing the matter before the assembly, but upon what
sembly of the people, to which applications for occasion they were so employed we can only conthis purpose might be made on the first business- jecture.
day of each prytany (cutpia EKcuc;flea, Harpocrat.), In causes intended for the cognizance of the
or the council, which was at all times capable of council only, after the reception of the denunciaundertaking such investigations; and occasionally tion, three courses with respect to it might be
the accusation was submitted to the cognizance of adopted by that body. If the alleged offence were
both these bodies. After the offence had been punishable by a fine of no greater amount than
declared penal, the forms of the trial and amount five hundred drachmae, the council itself formed a
of the punishment were prescribed by the same court competent forli'trial; if it was of a graver
authority; and, as upon -the conviction of the character they might pass a decree, such as that in
ofifenders a precedent would be established.for the the case of Antiphon already mentioned, directing
future, the whole of the proceedings, although ex- the proper officers to introduce the cause to a Hetraordinary, and not originating in any specific liastic court, and prescribing the time and forms
law, may be considered as virtually establishing a of the trial, and the penalty to be inflicted upon
penal statute, retrospective in its first application. the conviction of the criminals; lastly, if the mat(Lycurg. c. Leocrtt. p. 149, ed Steph.) ter were highly important, and from doubts or
The speech of Euryptolemus (Xen. tell. i. 7. other reasons they required the sanction of the
sub fin.) clearly shows that the crime charged assembly, they might submit the cause as it stood
against the ten generals who fought at Arginusae to the consideration of that body. In the first
was one of these unspecified offences. The decree case, the trial was conducted before the council
of the senate against Antiphon and his colleagues with all the forms of an ordinary court, and if,
(Plut. Vit. Dec. Orcdor. p. 833, e), directing upon the assessment of penalties, the offence seemthat they should be tried, and, if found guilty, ed to deserve a heavier punishment than fell with.
punished as traitors, seems to warrant the infer- in its competency, the trial was transferred to a
ence, that their delinquency (viz. having under- Heliastic court, by the clelivery of the sentence of
taken an embassy to Sparta by order of the Four the council (Ka7vriyowts) to the thesmothetae by
Hundred, a government declared illegal upon the the scribe of the prytanes; and upon these officers
reinstatement of the democracy), did not amount it then devolved to bring the criminals to justice.