en sent to consult
the god at Delphi, and they eat with the kings at the public charge. And
if the kings do not come to the dinner, it is the rule that there shall
be sent out for them to their houses two quarts 41 of barley-groats for
each one and half a pint 42 of wine; but if they are present, double
shares of everything shall be given them, and moreover they shall be
honoured in this same manner when they have been invited to dinner by
private persons. The kings also, it is ordained, shall have charge of
the oracles which are given, but the Pythians also shall have knowledge
of them. It is the rule moreover that the kings alone give decision on
the following cases only, that is to say, about the maiden who inherits
her father's property, namely who ought to have her, if her father have
not betrothed her to any one, and about public ways; also if any man
desires to adopt a son, he must do it in presence of the kings: and it
is ordained that they shall sit in council with the Senators, who are in
number eight-and-twenty, and if they do not come, those of the Senators
who are most closely related to them shall have the privileges of the
kings and give two votes besides their own, making three in all. 4201.

58. These rights have been assigned to the kings for their lifetime by
the Spartan State; and after they are dead these which follow:--horsemen
go round and announce that which has happened throughout the whole of
the Laconian land, and in the city women go about and strike upon
a copper kettle. Whenever this happens so, two free persons of each
household must go into mourning, a man and a woman, and for those who
fail to do this great penalties are appointed. Now the custom of the
Lacedemonians about the deaths of their kings is the same as that of the
Barbarians who dwell in Asia, for most of the Barbarians practise the
same customs as regards the death of their kings. Whensoever a king of
the Lacedemonians is dead, then from the whole territory of Lacedemon,
not reckoning the Spartans, a certain fixed number of the "dwellers
round" 43 are compelled to go to the funeral ceremony:

59. and when there have been gathered together of these and of the
Helots and of the Spartans themselves many thousands in the same place,
with their women intermingled, they beat their foreheads with a good
will and make lamentation without stint, saying that this one who has
died last of their kings was the best of all: and whenever an