The Legal Charge in Demosthenes’ Against Meidias

This chapter shows that the charge for which Demosthenes wrote his speech Against Meidias was a graphē hybreōs. The charge cannot have been part of a probolē for offenses concerning the festival of Dionysus because Demosthenes states three times that the probolē was already over when he delivered his speech Against Meidias. In another passage Demosthenes makes it clear that he could have brought a private action against Meidias after the probolē but chose to bring a public action. The second part of the chapter shows that all parts of the speech are relevant to proving a charge of hybris and that the sections about Meidias’ character in the speech show that he had the kind of disposition that drove him to commit hybris. This is the reason why Demosthenes discusses the wealth of Meidias at length to show that he had a hybristic character.