Is applied to what is just. Thus Demosthenes [uses the word].[1]
Also [sc. attested is the phrase] a)/cion cu/lon ["fine timber"], [meaning timber] well and beautifully worked, good, beautiful. Aristophanes [writes]: "if you're caught out, at least it will be from fine timber [that you will hang]".[2] From the proverb: "to hang from fine timber." He wants to say, then, that it is better to employ noble and well-scrutinized generals than inferior ones. For if it is necessary to suffer, better to suffer at the hands of a good man than an inferior one.
But axion in Attic [writers] [means something] cheap. "[Do you know that] stem of a silphium, the axios [part]?" That is the cheap [part].[3]