The trial of Demetrius: some observations on legal procedure against court misconduct under Philip V of Macedonia

Abstract

Abstract Despite extensive scholarship on trials regarding misconduct in the court of Philip V of Macedonia, the trial of his son Demetrius on the charge of assault on his brother and heir apparent Perseus, which is the only example of a trial of a Macedonian king’s son, seems to have escaped the attention of modern historians. Given that it is an event whose most detailed description appears in Livy’s history and that the Roman historian offers a very positive picture of the romanophile Demetrius, it is easy to understand why this trial has not been considered worthy of study. Nevertheless, Livy’s account reveals that the king observed specific procedural rules which are known from the other trials he dealt with, and which demonstrates Philip’s somewhat juridical attitude in legal processes against misconduct of the members of his court. The main purpose of this article is to highlight Philip’s juridical attitude by showing the similarity of the procedure applied in the trial of Demetrius as described by Livy to the legal processes followed by Philip in the trials of his courtiers during his early reign.