Now it is not easy to determine to whom we ought properly to give the
name of magistrate, for a government requires many persons in office;
but every one of those who is either chosen by vote or lot is not to be
reckoned a magistrate. The priests, for instance, in the first place;
for these are to be considered as very different from civil magistrates:
to these we may add the choregi and heralds; nay, even ambassadors are
elected: there are some civil employments which belong to the citizens;
and these are either when they are all engaged in one thing, as when as
soldiers they obey their general, or when part of them only are, as in
governing the women or educating the youth; and also some economic, for
they often elect corn-meters: others are servile, and in which, if they
are rich, they employ slaves. But indeed they are most properly called
magistrates, who are members of the deliberative council, or decide
causes, or are in some command, the last more especially, for to command
is peculiar to magistrates. But to speak truth, this question is of
no great consequence, nor is it the province of the judges to decide
between those who dispute about words; it may indeed be an object of
speculative inquiry; but to inquire what officers are necessary in a
state, and how many, and what, though not most necessary, may yet be
advantageous in a well-established government, is a much more useful
employment, and this with respect to all states in general, as well as
to small cities.
In extensive governments it is proper to allot one employment to one
person, as there are many to serve the public in so numerous a society,
where some may be passed over for a long time, and others never be in
office but once; and indeed everything is better done which has the
whole attention of one person, than when that [1299b] attention is
divided amongst many; but in small states it is necessary that a few of
the citizens should execute many employments; for their numbers are so
small it will not be convenient to have many of them in office at the
same time; for where shall we find others to succeed them in turn? Small
states will sometimes want the same magistrates and the same laws as
large ones; but the one will not want to employ them so often as the
other; so that different charges may be intrusted to the same person
without any inconvenience, for they will not interfere with each
other, and for want of sufficient members in the community it will be
necessary. If we could tell how many magistrates are necessary in every
city, and how many, though not necessary, it is yet proper to have, we
could then the better know how many different offices one might assign
to one magistrate. It is also necessary to know what tribunals in
different places should have different things under their jurisdiction,
and also what things should always come under the cognisance of the same
magistrate; as, for instance, decency of manners, shall the clerk of the