Book 5
7.27
You, the general body, will not have it in your power either to undertake war upon whom you please or to bring war to an end, but any individual who wishes will be leading an army to gain any end he may desire. And if people come to you as ambassadors, desiring peace or anything else, any who choose will kill them and prevent you from hearing the words of those who come to confer with you.
7.28
Furthermore, the men whom you as a body may choose for commanders will be of no account, but whoever may choose himself general and will raise the cry `Pelt, pelt, that man will have the power to slay either commander or private, any one of you he pleases, without a trial, provided—as indeed it came about in the present case—there are people who will obey him.
7.29
Consider the sort of things these self-chosen generals have actually accomplished for you. Take Zelarchus, the market-clerk: supposing he has done you wrong, he has sailed off without paying you the penalty; supposing he is not guilty, he has fled from the army out of fear that he might be slain unjustly and without a trial.
