Middias

or Mei'dias (Meidias).

1. An Athenian, of no very reputable character, to whom we find the nickname of "quail" applied in Aristophanes (Aristoph. Birds 1297), because,-so says the poet, --" he is like a quail with its head broken." No doubt there is also an allusion here, as we learn from the scholiast on the passage, to his propensity for the game of quail-striking (ὀρτυγοκοπία) and the gambling which accompanied it. We hear that he was satirized, too, by other comic poets (Phrynichus, Plato, and Metagenes) as a very great knave, beggarly at once and arrogant (κόβαλος καὶ πτωχαλαρών). By Plato, the philosopher (if indeed the dialogue in question be his), he is mentioned as a man who, though utterly uneducated both in mind and in character, presumed to take a part in public affairs, and made his way by dint of impudence and flattery of the people. In the Νῖκαι of Plato, the comic poet, peculation ot the public money was charged against him along with his other tricks of knavery. (Plat. Alc. Prim. p. 120; Schol. ad loc.; Athen. 11.506d; Dalechamp, ad loc.; Suid. s. v. ὀρτυγοκόπος ; Meineke. Fragm. Com. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 182, 644. 755; Dindorf and Brunck, ad Arist. l.c.)

2. An Athenian, of considerable wealth and influence, was a violent and bitter enemy of Demosthenes, the orator. His hostility he first displayed when he broke violently into the house of Demosthenes, with his brother Thrasylochus, to take possession of it,--Thrasylochus having offered, in the case of a trierarchy, to make an exchange of property with Demosthenes (ἀντίδοσις; see Dict. of Ant. s. v.), under a private understanding with the guardians of the latter that, if the exchange were effected, the suit then pending against them should be dropped. (Dem. c. Meid. p. 540, c. Aphob. p. 841; Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, bk. iv. ch. 16.) The opposition offered by Demosthenes, though to no purpose, to the proposal for sending aid against Callias and Taurosthenes of Chalcis to Plutarchus, the tyrant of Eretria, and the friend of Meidias, no doubt further exasperated the hatred of the latter, and lie not only assailed Demosthenes with a charge of neglect of military duty (λειποταξίου δίκη), but endeavoured also, with the grossest malice, to implicate him in the accusation of murdering one Nicodemus. (Aesch. c. Ctes. pp. 65, 66; Dem. De Pac. p. 58, c. Meid. pp. 547-554.) For the remainder of the transactions between Demosthenes and Meidias, see above, Vol. I. pp. 982, 983, and comp. Clint. F. H. vol. ii. sub annis 350, 348, App. ch. 20.

3. The son-in-law of Mania. [Meidias.] [E.E]