[34]
You will ask me if I mean pay for military
service. Not only that, men of Athens, but also the immediate adoption of a uniform system, so
that each citizen, receiving his quota from the public funds, may fill his
proper place in the service of the state. If peace can be preserved, he is
better off at home, safe from temptations into which want might lead him. If
some such contingency as the present arises, then it is better for him to serve
his country in person, as indeed he ought, supported by these same
contributions. If anyone is too old to fight, then as overseer or manager of
some indispensable work, let him be paid on an equitable system the wages that
he now receives without benefit to the state.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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