The wardens and the overseers of the country, while on their twoyears service, shall have common meals at their several stations,and shall all live together; and he who is absent from the commonmeal, or sleeps out, if only for one day or night, unless by orderof his commanders, or by reason of absolute necessity, if the fivedenounce him and inscribe his name the agora as not having kept hisguard, let him be deemed to have betrayed the city, as far as lay inhis power, and let him be disgraced and beaten with impunity by anyone who meets him and is willing to punish him. If any of thecommanders is guilty of such an irregularity, the whole company ofsixty shall see to it, and he who is cognizant of the offence, anddoes not bring the offender to trial, shall be amenable to the samelaws as the younger offender himself, and shall pay a heavier fine,and be incapable of ever commanding the young. The guardians of thelaw are to be careful inspectors of these matters, and shall eitherprevent or punish offenders. Every man should remember the universalrule, that he who is not a good servant will not be a good master; aman should pride himself more upon serving well than upon commandingwell: first upon serving the laws, which is also the service of theGods; in the second place, upon having. served ancient andhonourable men in the days of his youth. Furthermore, during the twoyears in which any one is a warden of the country, his daily foodought to be of a simple and humble kind. When the twelve have beenchosen, let them and the five meet together, and determine that theywill be their own servants, and, like servants, will not have otherslaves and servants for their own use, neither will they use thoseof the villagers and husbandmen for their private advantage, but forthe public service only; and in general they should make up theirminds to live independently by themselves, servants of each otherand of themselves. Further, at all seasons of the year, summer andwinter alike, let them be under arms and survey minutely the wholecountry; thus they will at once keep guard, and at the same timeacquire a perfect knowledge of every locality. There can be no moreimportant kind of information than the exact knowledge of a man"sown country; and for this as well as for more general reasons ofpleasure and advantage, hunting with dogs and other kinds of sportsshould be pursued by the young. The service to whom this iscommitted may be called the secret police, or wardens of thecountry; the name does not much signify, but every one who has thesafety of the state at heart will use his utmost diligence in thisservice.
After the wardens of the country, we have to speak of the electionof wardens of the agora and of the city. The wardens of the countrywere sixty in number, and the wardens of the city will be three, andwill divide the twelve parts of the city into three; like theformer, they shall have care of the ways, and of the different highroads which lead out of the country into the city, and of thebuildings, that they may be all made according to law;-also of thewaters, which the guardians of the supply preserve and convey to them,care being taken that they may reach the fountains pure andabundant, and be both an ornament and a benefit to the city. Thesealso should be men of influence, and at leisure to take care of thepublic interest. Let every man propose as warden of the city any onewhom he likes out of the highest class, and when the vote has beengiven on them, and the number is reduced to the six who have thegreatest number of votes, let the electing officers choose by lotthree out of the six, and when they have undergone a scrutiny let themhold office according to the laws laid down for them. Next, let thewardens of the agora be elected in like manner, out of the first andsecond class, five in number: ten are to be first elected, and outof the ten five are to be chosen by lot, as in the election of thewardens of the city:-these when they have undergone a scrutiny areto be declared magistrates. Every one shall vote for every one, and hewho will not vote, if he be informed against before the magistrates,shall be fined fifty drachmae, and shall also be deemed a bad citizen.
Let any one who likes go to the assembly and to the general council;it shall be compulsory to go on citizens of the first and secondclass, and they shall pay a fine of ten drachmae if they be foundnot answering to their names at the assembly. the third and fourthclass shall be under no compulsion, and shall be let off without afine, unless the magistrates have commanded all to be present, inconsequence of some urgent necessity. The wardens of the agora shallobserve the order appointed by law for the agora, and shall have thecharge of the temples and fountains which are in the agora; and theyshall see that no one injures anything, and punish him who does,with stripes and bonds, if he be a slave or stranger; but if he be acitizen who misbehaves in this way, they shall have the powerthemselves of inflicting a fine upon him to the amount of a hundreddrachmae, or with the consent of the wardens of the city up todouble that amount. And let the wardens of the city have a similarpower of imposing punishments and fines in their own department; andlet them impose fines by their own department; and let them imposefines by their own authority, up to a mina, or up to two minae withthe consent of the wardens of the agora.