Like puppet-makers, you elect your infantry and cavalry officers for the market-place, not for war.
Demosthenes: “Like puppet-makers, you elect your infantry and cavalry officers for the market-place, not for war.”
Editor's note · Context
Demosthenes uses a vivid metaphor to criticize the Athenians for choosing military officers based on their suitability for civic life rather than their competence in warfare.
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And methinks, men of Athens, any man fairly estimating what the gods have done for us, notwithstanding many untoward circumstances, might with reason be grateful to them.
And surely we must suppose, that Paeonians and Illyrians, and all such people, would rather be free and independent than under subjection; for they are unused to obedience, and the man is a tyrant.
To call him perjured and treacherous, without showing what he has done, might justly be termed idle abuse.
If a man keep what he gets, he is thankful to fortune; if he lose it by imprudence, he loses withal his memory of the obligation.





