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.
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