The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

the
various departments; these are called Receivers or Treasurers.
Another officer registers all private contracts, and decisions of
the courts, all public indictments, and also all preliminary
proceedings. This office again is sometimes subdivided, in which
case one officer is appointed over all the rest. These officers are
called Recorders or Sacred Recorders, Presidents, and the like.
    Next to these comes an office of which the duties are the most
necessary and also the most difficult, viz., that to which is
committed the execution of punishments, or the exaction of fines
from those who are posted up according to the registers; and also
the custody of prisoners. The difficulty of this office arises out
of the odium which is attached to it; no one will undertake it
unless great profits are to be made, and any one who does is loath
to execute the law. Still the office is necessary; for judicial
decisions are useless if they take no effect; and if society cannot
exist without them, neither can it exist without the execution of
them. It is an office which, being so unpopular, should not be
entrusted to one person, but divided among several taken from
different courts. In like manner an effort should be made to
distribute among different persons the writing up of those who are
on the register of public debtors. Some sentences should be
executed by the magistrates also, and in particular penalties due
to the outgoing magistrates should be exacted by the incoming ones;
and as regards those due to magistrates already in office, when one
court has given judgement, another should exact the penalty; for
example, the wardens of the city should exact the fines imposed by
the wardens of the agora, and others again should exact the fines
imposed by them. For penalties are more likely to be exacted when
less odium attaches to the exaction of them; but a double odium is
incurred when the judges who have passed also execute the sentence,
and if they are always the executioners, they will be the enemies
of all.
    In many places, while one magistracy executes the sentence,
another has the custody of the prisoners, as, for example, ‘the
Eleven’ at Athens. It is well to separate off the jailorship also,
and try by some device to render the office less unpopular. For it
is quite as necessary as that of the executioners; but good men do
all they can to avoid it, and worthless persons cannot safely be
trusted with it; for they themselves require a guard, and are not
fit to guard others. There ought not therefore to be a single or
permanent officer set apart for this duty; but it should be
entrusted to the young, wherever they are organized into a band or
guard, and different magistrates acting in turn should take charge
of it.
    These are the indispensable officers, and should be ranked
first; next in order follow others, equally necessary, but of
higher rank, and requiring great experience and fidelity. Such are
the officers to which are committed the guard of the city, and
other military functions. Not only in time of war but of peace
their duty will be to defend the walls and gates, and to muster and
marshal the citizens. In some states there are many such offices;
in others there are a few only, while small states are content with
one; these officers are called generals or commanders. Again, if a
state has cavalry or light-armed troops or archers or a naval
force, it will sometimes happen that each of these departments has
separate officers, who are called admirals, or generals of cavalry
or of light-armed troops. And there are subordinate officers called
naval captains, and captains of light-armed troops and of horse;
having others under them: all these are included in the department
of war. Thus much of military command.
    But since many, not to say all, of these offices handle the
public money, there must of necessity be another office which
examines and audits them, and has no other functions. Such officers
are called by various names—Scrutineers, Auditors, Accountants,
Controllers. Besides all these offices there is another which is
supreme over them, and to this is often entrusted both the
introduction and the ratification of measures, or at all events it
presides, in a democracy, over the assembly. For there must be a
body which convenes the supreme authority in the state. In some
places they are called ‘probuli,’ because they hold previous
deliberations, but in a democracy more commonly ‘councillors.’
These are the