CHAPTER II—Priestly Kings

[157] J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii.² 321 _sqq._ Kings of the Sacred Rites are known from inscriptions to have existed at Lanuvium, Bovillae, and Tusculum. See _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiv., Nos. 2089, 2413, 2634. At Rome the Sacrificial King held office for life (Dionysius Halicarn. _Antiquit. Rom._ iv. 74. 4).

[158] Plato, _Politicus_, p. 290 E; Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 57; Lysias, _Or._ vi. 4; G. Gilbert, _Handbuch der griechischen Staatsalterthümer_,² i. 281 _sqq._

[159] Aristotle, _Politics_, viii. (vi.) 8. 20, p. 1322 b 26 _sqq._; G. Gilbert, _op. cit._ ii. 323 _sq._; G. F. Schömann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,⁴ i. 145 _sq._, ii. 423 sq.

[160] Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,² No. 616; Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions grecques_, No. 716.

[161] P. Cauer, _Delectus Inscriptionum Graecarum_,² No. 431, lines 46 _sqq._ Another inscription in the same collection (No. 428) also refers to the kings of Mytilene. Both inscriptions are printed in Ch. Michel’s _Recueil_, Nos. 356, 357.

[162] Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,² No. 570; Ch. Michel, _Recueil_, No. 707.

[163] P. Cauer, _Delectus Inscriptionum Graecarum_,² No. 496; Ch. Michel, _Recueil_, No. 1383.

[164] G. F. Schömann, _Handbuch der griech. Alterthümer_,⁴ ii. 270 _sqq._; E. Ziebarth, “Der Fluch im griechischen Recht,” _Hermes_, xxx. (1895) pp. 57–70; Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_² (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 138–145; and my note on Pausanias, iii. 2. 7. For example, the people of Teos cursed poisoners and all persons who hindered the importation of corn (Cauer, _op. cit._ No. 480; Ch. Michel, _op. cit._ No. 1318). On the other hand, at Athens in the time of Solon public curses were levelled at all who exported anything but olive oil (Plutarch, _Solon_, 24). These particular curses may interest students of the history of free trade.

[165] Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 12. Aug. Mommsen (_Delphika_, pp. 250 _sq._) is probably right in comparing this ceremony with the swinging-festival (_Aiora_) at Athens, as to which see _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition, ii. 453 _sqq._

[166] _Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum Graeciae Septentrionalis_, i. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 188, 223; G. F. Schömann, _op. cit._ i. 146; G. Gilbert, _op. cit._ ii. 323 _sq._

[167] Strabo, viii. 7. 2, p. 384. In this passage the word βασιλέα is omitted in some editions, but has the authority of several MSS. (Strabo ed. C. Müller, p. 998), and is probably right.

[168] This was the case at Elis (H. Roehl, _Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae_, No. 112; P. Cauer, _op. cit._ No. 253; E. S. Roberts, _Introduction to Greek Epigraphy_, i. No. 292), in Cos (Dittenberger, _op. cit._ No. 616), in Chios (_ib._ No. 570), at Mytilene (Cauer, _op. cit._ Nos. 428, 431), at Cyme (Plutarch, _Quaest. Graec._ 2), and perhaps in Siphnos (Isocrates, _Or._ xix. 36). The Kings of Elis may have been the officials called _Basilai_ who sacrificed on the top of Mount Cronius at Olympia at the spring equinox (Pausanias, vi. 20. 1).

[169] Livy, ii. 2. 1; Dionysius Halicarn., _Antiquit. Rom._ iv. 74. 4.

[170] Aristotle, _Politics_, iii. 14. 13, p. 1285 b 14 _sqq._; Demosthenes, _Contra Neaer._ § 74 _sqq._ p. 1370; Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 63.

[171] Xenophon, _Repub. Lacedaem._ 15, compare _id._ 13; Aristotle, _Politics_, iii. 14. 3, p. 1285 a 3 _sqq._ Argos was governed, at least nominally, by a king as late as the time of the great Persian war (Herodotus, vii. 149); and at Orchomenus, in the secluded highlands of Northern Arcadia, the kingly form of government persisted till towards the end of the fifth century B.C. (Plutarch, _Parallela_, 32). As to the kings of Thessaly in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., see F. Hiller von Gaertringen in _Aus der Anomia_ (Berlin, 1890), pp. 1–16.

[172] Herodotus, vi. 56.

[173] Strabo, xiv. 1. 3, pp. 632 _sq._ These Ephesian kings, who probably held office for life, are not to be confounded with the purely priestly functionaries called Essenes or King Bees, whose tenure of office was annual. See below, vol. ii. p. 135.

[174] Herodotus, iv. 162.

[175] Strabo, xii. 3. 37, 5. 3; compare xi. 4. 7, xii. 2. 3, 2. 6, 3. 31 _sq._, 3. 34, 8. 9, 8. 14. But see _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 9th ed. art. “Priest,” xix. 729.

[176] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 243.

[177] See the _Lî-Kî_ (Legge’s translation), _passim_ (_Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xxvii., xxviii.).

[178] W. Ellis, _History of Madagascar_ (London, N.D.), i. 359 _sq._

[179] Ph. Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas: die geistige Cultur der Danâkil, Galla und Somâl_ (Berlin, 1896), p. 129.

[180] Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique-Centrale_, i. 94. As to the ruins of Palenque, see H. H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iv. 288 _sqq._; T. Maler, “Mémoire sur l’état de Chiapa (Mexique),” _Revue d’Ethnographie_, iii. (1885) pp. 327 _sqq._

[181] Father Croonenberghs, “La Mission du Zambèze,” _Missions Catholiques_, xiv. (1882) p. 453.

[182] Herodotus, v. 75.

[183] Pausanias, iii. 1. 5.

[184] J. Rendel Harris, _The Dioscuri in the Christian Legends_ (London, 1903); _id._, _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_ (Cambridge, 1906). See also below, pp. 262 _sqq._ With the Spartan custom we may compare the use which the Zulus made of twins in war. See Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood, a Study of Kafir Children_ (London, 1906), p. 47 _sq._: “In war time a twin used to be hunted out and made to go right in front of the attacking army, some few paces in front of the others. He was supposed to be fearless and wild. His twin, if a sister, and if surviving, was compelled to tie a cord very tightly round her loins during the fight, and had to starve herself; she was also expected to place the twin brother’s sleeping-mat in that part of the hut which the _itongo_ [ancestral spirits] loved to haunt. This brought success in war. But the great chief Tshaka stopped this practice, for he said that the wild twin did foolhardy things and brought the army into needless danger.”

[185] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 101; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 43; Seneca, _Natur. Quaest._ i. 1. 13; Lucian, _Dial. deorum_, xxvi. 2; Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 720; Plutarch, _De defect. oraculorum_, 30; Lactantius Placidus, _Comment. in Statii Theb._ viii. 792; Th. Henri Martin, in _Revue Archéologique_, N.S. xiii. (1866) pp. 168–174; P. Sébillot, _Légendes, Croyances et Superstitions de la Mer_ (Paris, 1886), ii. 87–109. Seafaring men in different parts of the world still see and draw omens from these weird lights on the masts. See Edward FitzGerald, quoted in _County Folk-lore, Suffolk_ (London, 1893), pp. 121 _sq._; W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), p. 279.

[186] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ ii. 101. Compare Seneca, _Natur. Quaest._ i. 1. 14.

[187] Potocki, _Voyages dans les Steps d’Astrakhan et du Caucase_, i. 143.

[188] Dionysius Halicarn. _Antiquit. Roman._ vi. 13; Cicero, _De natura deorum_, ii. 2. 6.