5
For some are bold enough to assert that nobody can be chargeable with desertion or cowardice, since no battle has taken place; that the law merely provides for a court-martial on anyone who, from cowardice, has deserted the ranks and retreated while the rest were fighting. But the provisions of the law apply not only to such a case, but also to that of anyone who fails to appear in the infantry lines. Please read the law.
6
Law You hear, gentlemen, how it covers both alike,—those who retreat to the rear during battle, and those who do not appear in the infantry lines. And consider who they are that are bound to appear. Are they not all persons who have reached the proper age? Are they not those whom the generals have enrolled?
7
I believe, gentlemen, that he is the one citizen who is liable to the full scope of the law: for he would with justice be convicted of refusing duty, because after being enrolled as a foot-soldier he did not march out with you; of desertion, because he alone of the whole force did not present himself for the formation of the ranks; and of cowardice, because, when it was his duty to share the danger with the infantry, he chose to serve in the cavalry.
8
They say, indeed, that he will resort to the defence that, since he was in the cavalry, he was doing no wrong to the State. But in my opinion you would find just cause for indignation against him in the fact that, although the law provides that anyone who serves in the cavalry without having passed his scrutinyHeld by the Council in order to maintain a high class of manhood in the cavalry. shall be disfranchised, he had the audacity to serve in the cavalry without having passed his scrutiny. Now, please, read the law.
