PRŎBŎLĒ (προβολή), an accusation of a criminal nature, preferred
before the people of Athens in assembly, with a view to obtain their
sanction for bringing the charge before a judicial tribunal. The
_probolé_ was reserved for those cases where the public had sustained
an injury, or where, from the station, power, or influence of the
delinquent, the prosecutor might deem it hazardous to proceed in the
ordinary way without being authorised by a vote of the sovereign
assembly. In this point it differed from the _eisangelia_, that in
the latter the people were called upon either to pronounce final
judgment, or to direct some peculiar method of trial; whereas, in the
_probolé_ after the judgment of the assembly, the parties proceeded
to trial in the usual manner. The cases to which the _probolé_ was
applied were, complaints against magistrates for official misconduct
of oppression; against those public informers and mischief-makers who
were called _sycophantae_ (συκοφάνται); against those who outraged
public decency at the religious festivals; and against all such as by
evil practices exhibited disaffection to the state.