Generals

After hearing these words the generals thought that while the idea was a clever one, the execution of it was impossible.

When they had come to their quarters, the troops were busy about provisions, but the generals and captains gathered in council.

The opinion of the generals however, was that they must make their way through the mountains into the country of the Carduchians;

And you ought to let no man rob you of this right of yours, whether through the intercession of the generals, who by their cooperation with certain public men have this long time been outraging the constitution, or through petitions of foreigners, whom some bring in here, and so escape the courts, when their whole political career has been in defiance of the laws.

for they will say, forsooth, that whatever a man is called on to do under special enactment, this is not an office, but a sort of commission and public service and they will say that offices are those to which the Thesmothetae appoint men by lot in the Theseum, and those which are filled by popular election (the offices of general, cavalry commander, and associated offices);

or the story of the generalship of Cephisodotus, and the naval expedition to the Hellespont, when Demosthenes as one of the trierarchs carried the general on his ship, and shared his table, his sacrifices, and his libations and how after he had been thus honored because the general was an old friend of his father’s, he did not hesitate, when the general was impeached, and was on trial for his life …

Then they summoned the Generals and bade them proclaim that citizens resident in Athens proper were to proceed under arms to the Agora;

The Assembly had met to give audience to Nicias, Lamachus, and Alcibiades, the generals about to leave with the Sicilian expedition—in fact, Lamachus’ flag-ship was already lying offshore—when suddenly Pythonicus rose before the people and cried:

ten generals, formerly one from each tribe, but now from all;

There is a confirmation-vote on them in each presidency, whether they seem to govern well;

and because the generals, to whom you have entrusted the most important interests, refused to give him money, he said that they did not deserve to be appointed inspectors of latrines.

This affront did not touch the generals—no, for they could have silenced his abuse by paying him a trifling sum, but it was a gross insult to your action as electors and a proof of his own depravity.

When we saw this, we were annoyed and at first expostulated with them, but they mocked at us, and would not desist, and so our whole mess in a body—not I alone apart from the rest—went to the general and told him what was going on.

yet so far from desisting, or being ashamed of their acts, they burst in upon us that very evening as soon as it grew dark, and, beginning with abusive language, they proceeded to beat me, and they made such a clamor and tumult about the tent, that both the general and the taxiarchs came and some of the other soldiers, by whose coming we were prevented from suffering, or ourselves doing, some dama …

Well then, the Generals are left.

Having, then, been thus treated by Phaenippus, men of the jury, I reported to the generals the following inventory of my property.

On the second day of the month Metageitnion, men of the jury, the generals appointed a court for the Three Hundred for the tendering of exchanges.

but I, when I saw that he was paying no heed to me or to the laws, gave in my inventory at the office of the generals, whereas Phaenippus, as I said a moment ago, gave me a paper only the other day with no other purpose than that he might appear to have given me his inventory, but that I should be unable to make any use of its contents.

They saw also that my resources were by now exhausted, that the state was neglectful of them, that our allies were in need, and the generals not to be depended on, and that they had been deceived by the words of many of them;

also the record of the pay which I gave out every month to the rowers and the marines, receiving from the generals subsistence-money alone, except pay for two months only in a period of a year and five months also a list of the sailors who were hired, and how much money each of them received;

For I received no pay from the general for the space of eight months, and I sailed home to Peiraeus with the ambassadors because my ship was the fastest sailer, and again, when I was ordered by the people to take Menon the general to the Hellespont to replace Autocles, who had been removed from his command, I set sail on short notice from Athens.

each one’s ambition is to join the sacred ranks of the generals, not to do a man’s work.

For you seem to waive your own right to these successes by the extravagant honors which you have bestowed on each of these officers.

next, that our generals may not lead mercenaries to the plunder of our allies without even coming in sight of the enemy, so that the profit is all their own, while the State at large incurs the hatred and the abuse, but that they may have their own citizens at their back, and may so deal with our enemies as they now deal with our friends.

Teledemus, son of Cleon, Hypereides, son of Callaeschrus, Nicomachus, son of Diophantus, bear witness for Demosthenes, and have taken oath before the Generals that to their knowledge Aeschines, son of Atrometus, of Cothocidae, comes by night to the house of Thraso and holds communication with Anaxinus, who has been proved to be a spy from Philip.

I suggest that the generals should divide the dockyards into ten areas, so arranging it that there may be dock-room in each for thirty ships, as close together as possible, and that when they have done this, they should apportion two boards and thirty galleys to each area, and then assign the tribes by lot to the areas.

So far are we different from our ancestors that whereas they chose the same men to preside over the city and to be generals in the field, since they believed that one who could give the best counsel on this platform would best take counsel with himself when alone, we ourselves do the very opposite;

We pass a multitude of laws, but we care so little about them (for if I give you a single instance you will be able to judge of the others as well) that, although we have prescribed the penalty of death for anyone who is convicted of bribery, we elect men who are most flagrantly guilty of this crime as our generals and we pick out the man who has been able to deprave the greatest number of our cit …

for the men whose counsels we follow in matters of the greatest importance—these we do not see fit to elect as our generals, as if distrusting their intelligence, but men whose counsel no one would seek either on his own business or on that of the state—these we send into the field with unlimited authority, as if expecting that they will be wiser abroad than at home and will find it easier to take …

We shall, then, not call the art of the generals statesmanship, since it is subservient.

How could we think it is not a science, when generalship and all military activity practise it?

and moreover, in the meetings of the legislative assembly all the people of Athens, without question, follow the advice of those whose words are wisest rather than that of their own relatives.

Besides, if generals should be needed where he himself could not be, he knew that they would have to be commissioned from among that same number.

and when the commander-in-chief wishes to do anything with his army, it is sufficient for him to issue his commands only to his brigadier-generals.