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[1]
Such are their rights in war; in peace the powers given them are as follows: at all public sacrifices the kings first sit down to the banquet and are first served, each of them receiving a portion double of what is given to the rest of the company; they make the first libations, and the hides of the sacrificed beasts are theirs.
Such are their rights in war; in peace the powers given them are as follows: at all public sacrifices the kings first sit down to the banquet and are first served, each of them receiving a portion double of what is given to the rest of the company; they make the first libations, and the hides of the sacrificed beasts are theirs.
[2] At each new moon and each seventh day of the first part of the month, a full-grown victim for
Apollo's temple, a bushel of barley-meal, and a
Laconian quart
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of wine are given to each from the public store, and chief seats are set apart for them at the games.
[3] It is their right to appoint whatever citizens they wish to be protectors of foreigners;
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and they each choose two
Pythians. (The
Pythians are the ambassadors to
Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi and eat with the kings at the public expense.) If the kings do not come to the public dinner, two choenixes of barley-meal and half a pint of wine are sent to their houses, but when they come, they receive a double share of everything; and the same honor shall be theirs when they are invited by private citizens to dinner.
[4] They keep all oracles that are given, though the
Pythians also know them. The kings alone judge cases concerning the rightful possessor of an unwedded heiress, if her father has not betrothed her, and cases concerning public roads.
[5] If a man desires to adopt a son, it is done in the presence of the kings. They sit with the twenty-eight elders in council; if they do not come, the elders most closely related to them hold the king's privilege, giving two votes over and above the third which is their own.
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Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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