[47]
How then is all this to be stopped? As soon as you, men of
Athens, definitely appoint the
same men as soldiers and as eye-witnesses of the campaign, and, on their return,
as jurymen at the audit of your generals. In this way you will not merely learn
about your affairs by hearsay, but you will be witnesses on the spot. So
scandalous is our present system that every general is tried two or three times
for his life in your courts, but not one of them dares to risk death in battle
against the enemy; no, not once. They prefer the doom of a kidnapper or a
pickpocket to a fitting death; for malefactors are condemned to the gallows,
generals should die on the field of honor.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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