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.
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 quartThe content of a “Laconian
teta/rth“ is uncertain; for the date,
see How and Wells ad loc. of wine are given to each from the
public store, and chief seats are set apart for them at the games.
It is their right to appoint whatever citizens they wish to be protectors of
foreigners;Usually, the pro/cenos is a citizen who out of friendship
for a particular state undertakes the protection of its nationals in his
city; e.g. Miltiades at Athens [23.7333,37.9667]
(Perseus)Athens is the pro/cenos of Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta. But
here he is apparently an official appointed to watch over the interests
of all foreign residents. 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.
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.
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.“Herodotus, though the expression is
obscure, probably means not that each king had two votes, but that two
votes were given for the two absent kings, and that the vote of the
relative who acted as proxy for both was the third.” How and Wells, p.
87.