EISANGĔLĬA

( εἰσαγγελία ), signifies, in its primary and most general sense, a denunciation of any kind, but, much more usually, an information laid before the council or the a embly of the people, and the consequent impeachment and trial of state criminals at Athens under novel or extraordinary circumstances. Among these were the occasions upon which manifest crimes were alleged to have been committed, and yet of such a nature as the existing laws had failed to anticipate, or at least describe specifically ( ἄγραφα ἀδικήματα ), the result of which omi ion would have been, but for the enactment by which the accusations in question might be preferred ( νόμος εἰσαγγελτικός ), that a prosecutor would not have known to what magistrate to apply; that a magistrate, if applied to, could not with safety have accepted the indictment or brought it into court; and that, in short, there would have been a total failure of justice.