Laws
danger for the remainder of his days, but shall live for ever under the
stigma of cowardice. And let the law be in the following terms: When a
man is found guilty of disgracefully throwing away his arms in war, no
general or military officer shall allow him to serve as a soldier, or
give him any place at all in the ranks of soldiers; and the officer
who gives the coward any place, shall suffer a penalty which the public
examiner shall exact of him; and if he be of the highest class, he shall
pay a thousand drachmae; or if he be of the second class, five minae; or
if he be of the third, three minae; or if he be of the fourth class,
one mina. And he who is found guilty of cowardice, shall not only be
dismissed from manly dangers, which is a disgrace appropriate to his
nature, but he shall pay a thousand drachmae, if he be of the highest
class, and five minae if he be of the second class, and three if he
be of the third class, and a mina, like the preceding, if he be of the
fourth class.
What regulations will be proper about examiners, seeing that some of our
magistrates are elected by lot, and for a year, and some for a longer
time and from selected persons? Of such magistrates, who will be a
sufficient censor or examiner, if any of them, weighed down by the
pressure of office or his own inability to support the dignity of his
office, be guilty of any crooked practice? It is by no means easy to
find a magistrate who excels other magistrates in virtue, but still we
must endeavour to discover some censor or examiner who is more than
man. For the truth is, that there are many elements of dissolution in a
state, as there are also in a ship, or in an animal; they all have their
cords, and girders, and sinews--one nature diffused in many places, and
called by many names; and the office of examiner is a most important
element in the preservation and dissolution of states. For if the
examiners are better than the magistrates, and their duty is fulfilled
justly and without blame, then the whole state and country flourishes
and is happy; but if the examination of the magistrates is carried on
in a wrong way, then, by the relaxation of that justice which is the
uniting principle of all constitutions, every power in the state is rent
asunder from every other; they no longer incline in the same direction,
but fill the city with faction, and make many cities out of one, and
soon bring all to destruction. Wherefore the examiners ought to be
admirable in every sort of virtue. Let us invent a mode of creating
them, which shall be as follows: Every year, after the summer solstice,
the whole city shall meet in the common precincts of Helios and Apollo,
and shall present to the God three men out of their own number in the
manner following: Each citizen shall select, not himself, but some other
citizen whom he deems in every way the best, and who is not less
than fifty years of age. And out of the selected persons who have the
greatest number of votes, they shall make a further selection until they
reduce them to one-half, if they are an even number; but if they are not
an even number, they shall subtract the one who has the smallest number
of votes, and make them an even number, and then leave the half which
have the greater number of votes. And if two persons have an equal
number of votes, and thus increase the number beyond one-half, they
shall withdraw the younger of the two and do away the excess; and then
including all the rest they shall again vote, until there are left three
having an unequal number of votes. But if all the three, or two out of
the three, have equal votes, let them commit the election to good fate
and fortune, and separate off by lot the first, and the second, and the
third; these they shall crown with an olive wreath and give them the
prize of excellence, at the same time proclaiming to all the world
that the city of the Magnetes, by the providence of the Gods, is again
preserved, and presents to the Sun and to Apollo her three best men as
first-fruits, to be a common offering to them, according to the ancient
law, as long as their lives answer to the judgment formed of them. And
these shall appoint in their first year twelve examiners, to continue
until each has completed seventy-five years, to whom three shall
afterwards be added yearly; and let these divide all the magistracies
into twelve parts, and prove the holders of them by every sort of test
to which a freeman may be subjected; and let them live while they hold
office in the precinct of Helios and Apollo, in which they were chosen,
and let each one form a judgment of some things individually, and of
others in company with his colleagues; and let him place a writing in
the agora about each magistracy, and what the magistrate ought to suffer
or pay, according to the decision of the examiners. And if a magistrate
does not admit that he has been justly judged, let him bring the
examiners before the select judges, and if he be acquitted by their
decision, let him, if he will, accuse the examiners themselves; if,
however, he be convicted, and have been condemned to death by the
examiners, let him die (and of course he can only die once): but any
other penalties which admit of being doubled let him suffer twice over.
And now let us pass under review the examiners themselves; what will
their examination be, and how conducted? During the life of these men,
whom the whole state counts worthy of the rewards of virtue, they
shall have the first seat at all public assemblies, and at all Hellenic
sacrifices and sacred missions, and other public and holy ceremonies in
which they share. The chiefs of each sacred mission shall be selected
from them, and they only of all the citizens shall be adorned with a
crown of laurel; they shall all be priests of Apollo and Helios; and one
of them, who is judged first of the priests created in that year, shall
be high priest; and they shall write up his name in each year to be a
measure of time as long as the city lasts; and after their death they
shall be laid out and carried to the grave and entombed in a manner
different from the other citizens. They shall be decked in a robe all
of white, and there shall be no crying or lamentation over them; but a
chorus of fifteen maidens, and another of boys, shall stand around the
bier on either side, hymning the praises of the departed priests in
alternate responses, declaring their blessedness in song all day long;
and at dawn a hundred of the youths who practise gymnastic exercises,
and whom the relations of the departed shall choose, shall carry the
bier to the sepulchre, the young men marching first, dressed in the garb
of warriors--the cavalry with their horses, the heavy-armed with their
arms, and the others in like manner. And boys near the bier and in front
of it shall sing their national hymn, and maidens shall follow behind,
and with them the women who have passed the age of child-bearing;
next, although they are interdicted from other burials, let priests
and priestesses follow, unless the Pythian oracle forbid them; for this
burial is free from pollution. The place of burial shall be an oblong
vaulted chamber underground, constructed of tufa, which will last for
ever, having stone couches placed side by side. And here they will lay
the blessed person, and cover the sepulchre with a circular mound of
earth and plant a grove of trees around on every side but one; and on
that side the sepulchre shall be allowed to extend for ever, and a new
mound will not be required. Every year they shall have contests in music
and gymnastics, and in horsemanship, in honour of the dead. These are
the honours which shall be given to those who at the examination are
found blameless; but if any of them, trusting to the scrutiny being
over, should, after the judgment has been given, manifest the wickedness
of human nature, let the law ordain that he who pleases shall indict
him, and let the cause be tried in the following manner. In the first
place, the court shall be composed of the guardians of the law, and to
them the surviving examiners shall be added, as well as the court of
select judges; and let the pursuer lay his indictment in this form--he
shall say that so-and-so is unworthy of the prize of virtue and of his
office; and if the defendant be convicted let him be deprived of his
office, and of the burial, and of the other honours given him. But if
the prosecutor do not obtain the fifth part of the votes, let him, if
he be of the first-class, pay twelve minae, and eight if he be of the
second class, and six if he be of the third class, and two minae if he
be of the fourth class.
The so-called decision of Rhadamanthus is worthy of all admiration. He
knew that the men of his own time believed and had no doubt that there
were Gods, which was a reasonable belief in those days, because most men
were the sons of Gods, and according to tradition he was one himself. He
appears to have thought that he ought to commit judgment to no man, but
to the Gods only, and in this way suits were simply and speedily decided
by him. For he made the two parties take an oath respecting the points
in dispute, and so got rid of the matter speedily and safely. But now
that a certain portion of mankind do not believe at all in the existence
of the Gods, and others imagine that they have no care of us, and the
opinion of most men, and of the worst men, is that in return for a small
sacrifice and a few flattering words they will be their accomplices in
purloining large sums and save them from many terrible punishments, the
way of Rhadamanthus is no longer suited to the needs of justice; for as
the opinions of men about the Gods are changed, the laws should also
be changed--in the granting of suits a rational legislation ought to do
away with the oaths of the parties on either side--he who obtains leave
to bring an action should write down the charges, but should not add
an oath; and the defendant in like manner should give his denial to the
magistrates in writing, and not swear; for it is a dreadful thing to
know, when many lawsuits are going on in a state, that almost half the
people who meet one another quite unconcernedly at the public meals and
in other companies and relations of private life are perjured. Let the
law, then, be as follows: A judge who is about to give judgment shall
take an oath, and he who is choosing magistrates for the state shall
either vote on oath or with a voting tablet which he brings from
a temple; so too the judge of dances and of all music, and the
superintendents and umpires of gymnastic and equestrian contests, and
any matters in which, as far as men can judge, there is nothing to be
gained by a false oath; but all cases in which a denial confirmed by
an oath clearly results in a great advantage to the taker of the oath,
shall be decided without the oath of the parties to the suit, and the
presiding judges shall not permit either of them to use an oath for the
sake of persuading, nor to call down curses on himself and his race, nor
to use unseemly supplications or womanish laments. But they shall ever
be teaching and learning what is just in auspicious words; and he who
does otherwise shall be supposed to speak beside the point, and the
judges shall again bring him back to the question at issue. On the other
hand, strangers in their dealings with strangers shall as at present
have power to give and receive oaths, for they will not often grow old
in the city or leave a fry of young ones like themselves to be the sons
and heirs of the land.
As to the initiation of private suits, let the manner of deciding causes
between all citizens be the same as in cases in which any freeman is
disobedient to the state in minor matters, of which the penalty is not