Economics

Nevertheless I guide the servants into the path of justice with the aid of maxims drawn from the laws of Draco and Solon. For it seems to me that these famous men enacted many of their laws with an eye on this particular kind of justice.

For it is written: thieves shall be fined for their thefts, and anyone guilty of attempt shall be imprisoned if taken in the act, and put to death.[*](This is neither a clear nor an exact statement of the law attributed to Solon in Dem. 24.113; and some suspect a corruption in the text.) The object of these enactments was clearly to make covetousness unprofitable to the offender.

By applying some of these clauses and other enactments found in the Persian king’s code, I try to make my servants upright in the matters that pass through their hands.

For while those laws only penalise the wrongdoer,[*](Mem. III. iv. 8.) the king’s code not only punishes the guilty, but also benefits the upright. Thus, seeing that the honest grow richer than the dishonest, many, despite their love of lucre, are careful to remain free from dishonesty.

And if I find any attempting to persist in dishonesty, although they are well treated, I regard them as incorrigibly greedy, and have nothing more to do with them.