Probolê

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probole, plural probolai • Lit. “a throwing forward.” A preliminary accusation, which an intending plaintiff could bring before the ekklesia (Assembly) rather than directly to a dikasterion (court). This vote of the ekklesia had no formal effect: it did not bind a successful plaintiff to continue his action in court, nor apparently did it prevent him from doing so if unsuccessful; it imposed no penalty either on plaintiff or on defendant. It did however strengthen the hand of the successful plaintiff: after the manner of a straw poll, it showed which way the wind was blowing. We hear of probole being used in disputes which arise at festivals, and also against sycophants and against political leaders (presumably) who have allegedly deceived the people with false promises.

Resource of this article:

S.C. Todd, selections by Michael de Brauw, “A Glossary of Athenian Legal Terms,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context” (Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 16, 2003. Contact: cwb@stoa.org.