risoned. The Council has full power by the laws to
exact these payments and to inflict this imprisonment. They receive all
the instalments, therefore, on one day, and portion the money out among
the magistrates; and on the next day they bring up the report of the
apportionment, written on a wooden notice-board, and read it out in the
Council-chamber, after which they ask publicly in the Council whether
any one knows of any malpractice in reference to the apportionment, on
the part of either a magistrate or a private individual, and if any one
is charged with malpractice they take a vote on it.
The Council also elects ten Auditors (Logistae) by lot from its own
members, to audit the accounts of the magistrates for each prytany.
They also elect one Examiner of Accounts (Euthunus) by lot from each
tribe, with two assessors (Paredri) for each examiner, whose duty it is
to sit at the ordinary market hours, each opposite the statue of the
eponymous hero of his tribe; and if any one wishes to prefer a charge,
on either public or private grounds, against any magistrate who has
passed his audit before the law-courts, within three days of his having
so passed, he enters on a whitened tablet his own name and that of the
magistrate prosecuted, together with the malpractice that is alleged
against him. He also appends his claim for a penalty of such amount as
seems to him fitting, and gives in the record to the Examiner. The
latter takes it, and if after reading it he considers it proved he
hands it over, if a private case, to the local justices who introduce
cases for the tribe concerned, while if it is a public case he enters
it on the register of the Thesmothetae. Then, if the Thesmothetae
accept it, they bring the accounts of this magistrate once more before
the law-court, and the decision of the jury stands as the final
judgement.
Part 49
The Council also inspects the horses belonging to the state. If a man
who has a good horse is found to keep it in bad condition, he is
mulcted in his allowance of corn; while those which cannot keep up or
which shy and will not stand steady, it brands with a wheel on the jaw,
and the horse so marked is disqualified for service. It also inspects
those who appear to be fit for service as scouts, and any one whom it
rejects is deprived of his horse. It also examines the infantry who
serve among the cavalry, and any one whom it rejects ceases to receive
his pay. The roll of the cavalry i
|