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Such are their privileges in war; in peace their rights are as
follows. When a citizen makes a public sacrifice the kings are given
the first seats at the banquet; they are served before any of the other
guests, and have a double portion of everything; they take the lead in
the libations; and the hides of the sacrificed beasts belong to them.
Every month, on the first day, and again on the seventh of the first
decade, each king receives a beast without blemish at the public cost,
which he offers up to Apollo; likewise a medimnus of meal, and of
wine a Laconian quart. In the contests of the Games they have always
the seat of honour; they appoint the citizens who have to entertain
foreigners; they also nominate, each of them, two of the Pythians,
officers whose business it is to consult the oracle at Delphi, who eat
with the kings, and, like them, live at the public charge. If the
kings do not come to the public supper, each of them must have two
choenixes of meal and a cotyle of wine sent home to him at his house;
if they come, they are given a double quantity of each, and the same
when any private man invites them to his table. They have the custody
of all the oracles which are pronounced; but the Pythians must
likewise have knowledge of them. They have the whole decision of
certain causes, which are these, and these only: When a maiden is
left the heiress of her father's estate, and has not been betrothed by
him to any one, they decide who is to marry her; in all matters
concerning the public highways they judge; and if a person wants to
adopt a child, he must do it before the kings. They likewise have the
right of sitting in council with the eight-and-twenty senators; and
if they are not present, then the senators nearest of kin to them have
their privileges, and give two votes as the royal proxies, besides a
third vote, which is their own.
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