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

448 EISANGELIA. EISPHORA.
(DeIm. c. Timocr. p. 720.) The accused were in thenes (c. 1Meid. p. 542.14). This passage, how.
tile meanwhile put into prison for safe custody by ever, and an allusion to it in Harpocration, conthe authority of the council. When the offense stitutes the whole of our information upon the
was obviously beyond the reach of the senate's subject. (Hudtwalcker, iiber die Dziitet. p. 19;
competency, the trial was dispensed with, and a Meier, Att. Process, p. 270.) [J. S. M.]
decree immediately drawn up for submitting the EISITE'RIA (dEest'Ipla), scil. Ep&d, sacrifices
cause to a superior court. which were offered at Athens by the senate beWhen a cause of this kind was so referred, the fore the session began, in honour of the OEol Bovdecree of the senate, or vote of the people, asso- Aa&oi, i. e. Zeus and Athena. (Antiph. De Chor.
ciated other public advocates, generally ten in num- p. 789 Bickh, Cosp. Inscript. i. p. 671.) The
ber, with the informer, who received a drachma sacrifice was accompanied by libations, and a
each from the public treasury (uvui/yopoi). And common meal for all the senators. (Demosth. De
besides these, permission was given to any other Pals. Leg. p. 400. 24; compared with c. Mid.
citizen to volunteer his services on the side of the p. 552. 2, where eioeqrTpa are said to be offered
prosecution. If the information were laid before for the senate, d7ri'p srs BovuArs).
the assembly, either by the accuser himself, or the Suidas (s. v.) calls the eIetrr/pla a festive daysenate, the first proceedings in the cause had for the first of every year-on which all the Athenian
their object to establish the penalty of the offence, magistrates entered upon their office, and on which
or the apparent culpability of the accused; and this the senate offered up sacrifices for the purpose of
being decided by a vote of the people after a public obtaining the goodwill of the gods for the new
discussion, the mode of conducting the trial and magistrates. But this statement, as well as the
the penalty were next fixed. In the case of the further remarks he adds, seem to have arisen firon
ten generals, the assembly directed that the senate a gross misunderstanding of the passage of Demosshould propose the requisite arrangements. The thenes (De Fals. Leg. p. 400), to which he refers.
plan of the senate, however, was not necessarily Schimann (De Coszit. p. 291, transl.) adopts the
adopted, but might be combated by rival proposals account of Suidas, and rejects the other statement
of any private citizen. The assembly very often without giving any reason. [L. S.]
referred the matter to the Heliastic courts, but EI/SPHORA (eirpopd), literally a contribution
occasionally undertook the trial itself; and when or tribute, was an extraordinary tax on property,
the prisoner was accused of treason, we are told raised at Athens, whenever the means of the state
(Xen.. c.) that he made his defence to the assem- were not sufficient to carry on a war. The money
bly in chains, and with a keeper upon either side; thus raised was sometimes called &a ctaTagra5AmaTn.
and, according to another authority (Schol. ad (Demosth. c. Timmocr. p. 731.) We must carefully
Aristoph. Eccles. 1081), that the time for such de- distinguish between this tax and tIhe various
fence was limited. After this the tribes voted by liturgies which consisted in personal or direct serballot, two urns being assigned to each tribe for vices which citizens had to perform, whereas tihe
this purpose. The informer, in the event of the Eoqi(popd consisted in paying a certain contribution
prisoner being acquitted, Awas subjected to no towards defraying the expenses of a war. Some
penalty if he obtained the votes of as many as a ancient writers do not always clearly distinguish
fifth of the judges; otherwise, he was liable to a between the two, and Ulpian on Demosthenes
fine of a thousand drachmae. For a more ample (Olynt/i. ii. p. 33, e.) entirely confounds them; and
discussion of the trials in question the reader is re- it is partly owing to these inaccuracies that this
ferred to Schimann (De Cbomitiis, c. iii.). subject is involved in great difficulties. At the
Besides the class of causes hitherto described, time when armies consisted only of Athenian citithere were also two others which equally bore the zens, who equipped themselves and served without
name of eisangelia, though by no means of the pay, the military service was indeed nothing but a
same importance, nor indeed much resembling it species of extraordinary liturgy; but when melin the conduct of the proceedings. The first of cenaries were hired to perform the duties of the
these consists of cases of alleged KafcdczS, i. e. citizens, when wars became more expensive and
wrong done to aged or helpless parents, women, frequent, the state was obliged to levy contribuor orphans. Upon such occasions the informer tions on the citizens in order to be able to carry
laid his indictment before the archon, if the them on, and the citizens then paid money for
aggrieved persons were of a free Attic family; or services which previously they had performed in
before the polemarch, if they were resident aliens. person.
The peculiarities of this kind of cause were, that It is not quite certain when this property-tax
any Athenian citizen might undertake the accusa- was introduced; for, although it is commonly intion; that the informer was not limited as to time ferred, from a passage in Thucydides (iii. 19), that
in his address to the court, and incurred no penalty it was first instituted in 428 B. C. in order to dewhatever upon failing to obtain a verdict. With fray the expenses of the siege of Mytilene, yet we
respect to the accused it is obvious that the cause find -empopda mentioned at an earlier period. (See
must have been tn7Sr6dr, or, in other words, that Antiph. Tetral. i. 6. c. 12; Isaeus,De Dicaeog. c. 37;
the court would have the power of fixing the and Tittmann, iriecdl. Staatsv. p. 41, note 31);
amount of the penalty upon conviction.'lhe third and even the passage of Thucydides admits of an
kind of eisangelia was available against one of interpretation quite in accordance with this, for it
the public arbitrators (BLaMTe7r s), when any one is certainly not impossible that he merely meant to
complained of his having given an unjust verdict say, that so large an amount as 200 talents had
against him. The information was in this case never before been raised as dElinopd. But, howlaid before the senate; and that the magistrate ever this may be, after the year 428 B. C. this prowho had so offended, or did not appear to defend perty-tax seems to have frequently been raised, fe.r,
himself, might be punished by disfranchisement, a few years afterwards, Aristophanes (Equit. 9'22
rwe know frolm the instance mentioned by Demos- speaks of it as something of common occurence.