shall be made by those who are or have been of the
age for military service. And if one who is not
proposed is thought by somebody to be better than
one who is, let him name whom he prefers in the place
of whom, and make oath that he is better, and propose
him; and whichever of them is approved by vote shall
be admitted to the final selection; and the three
who have the greatest number of votes shall be appointed
generals, and superintendents of military affairs,
after previously undergoing a scrutiny, like the guardians
of the law. And let the generals thus elected
propose twelve brigadiers, one for each tribe; and
there shall be a right of counter-proposal as in the
case of the generals, and the voting and decision
shall take place in the same way. Until the prytanes
and council are elected, the guardians of the law shall
convene the assembly in some holy spot which is suitable
to the purpose, placing the hoplites by themselves,
and the cavalry by themselves, and in a third division
all the rest of the army. All are to vote for
the generals (and for the colonels of horse), but
the brigadiers are to be voted for only by those who
carry shields (i.e. the hoplites). Let the body
of cavalry choose phylarchs for the generals; but captains
of light troops, or archers, or any other division
of the army, shall be appointed by the generals for
themselves. There only remains the appointment
of officers of cavalry: these shall be proposed
by the same persons who proposed the generals, and
the election and the counter-proposal of other candidates
shall be arranged in the same way as in the case of
the generals, and let the cavalry vote and the infantry
look on at the election; the two who have the greatest
number of votes shall be the leaders of all the horse.
Disputes about the voting may be raised once or twice;
but if the dispute be raised a third time, the officers
who preside at the several elections shall decide.
The council shall consist of 30 x 12 members—360
will be a convenient number for sub-division.
If we divide the whole number into four parts of ninety
each, we get ninety counsellors for each class.
First, all the citizens shall select candidates from
the first class; they shall be compelled to vote,
and, if they do not, shall be duly fined. When
the candidates have been selected, some one shall
mark them down; this shall be the business of the
first day. And on the following day, candidates
shall be selected from the second class in the same
manner and under the same conditions as on the previous
day; and on the third day a selection shall be made
from the third class, at which every one may, if he
likes vote, and the three first classes shall be compelled
to vote; but the fourth and lowest class shall be
under no compulsion, and any member of this class
who does not vote shall not be punished. On the
fourth day candidates shall be selected from the fourth
and smallest class; they shall be selected by all,
but he who is of the fourth class shall suffer no