espising the laws for the
sake of gain, be found to possess anything more which has not been
registered, let all that he has in excess be confiscated, and let him be
liable to a suit which shall be the reverse of honourable or fortunate.
And let any one who will, indict him on the charge of loving base gains,
and proceed against him before the guardians of the law. And if he be
cast, let him lose his share of the public possessions, and when there
is any public distribution, let him have nothing but his original lot;
and let him be written down a condemned man as long as he lives, in
some place in which any one who pleases can read about his offences. The
guardian of the law shall not hold office longer than twenty years, and
shall not be less than fifty years of age when he is elected; or if he
is elected when he is sixty years of age, he shall hold office for ten
years only; and upon the same principle, he must not imagine that he
will be permitted to hold such an important office as that of guardian
of the laws after he is seventy years of age, if he live so long.

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 counci