These are the three first ordinances about the guardians of the law; as
the work of legislation progresses, each law in turn will assign to them
their further duties. And now we may proceed in order to speak of the
election of other officers; for generals have to be elected, and these
again must have their ministers, commanders, and colonels of horse,
and commanders of brigades of foot, who would be more rightly called by
their popular name of brigadiers. The guardians of the law shall propose
as generals men who are natives of the city, and a selection from the
candidates proposed 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.