FURTHER READING
John Baines and Jaromír Malék, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (New York:
Facts On File, 1980).
Stanley Mayer Burstein, ed., Ancient African Civilizations: Kush
and Axum (Princeton, N.J.: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 1998).
China’s Buried Kingdoms (New York: Time-Life Books, 1993).
Nigel Davies, Th e Ancient Kingdoms of Peru (New York: Penguin
Group, 1998).
Simon Goodenough, Citizens of Rome (New York: Crown, 1979).
Julian Granberry, Th e Americas Th at Might Have Been: Native
American Social Systems through Time (Tuscaloosa: University
of Alabama Press, 2005).
Gene Gurney, Kingdoms of Europe: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Ruling Monarchs from Ancient Times to the Present (New York:
Crown, 1982).
Gene Gurney, Kingdoms of Asia, the Middle East and Africa: An Il-
lustrated Encyclopedia of Ruling Monarchs from Ancient Times
to the Present (New York: Crown Publishers, 1986).
Joyce L., Haynes, Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa (Boston: Mu-
seum of Fine Arts, 1994).
John Haywood, Th e Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civiliza-
tions (New York: Penguin Group, 2005).
Stephen Howe, Empire: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 2002).Th ese are the royal rights which have been given by the
Spartans to their kings, namely, two priesthood—of
Zeos Sparta and Zeos Uranios—and the right of making
war against whatsoever land they please, and that no
man of the Spartans shall hinder this right, or if he do,
he shall be subject to the curse; and that when they go
on expeditions the kings shall go out fi rst and return
last; that a hundred picked men shall be their guard
upon expeditions; and that they shall use in their goings
forth to war as many cattle as they desire, and take
both the hides and the backs of all that are sacrifi ced.
Th ese are their privileges in war, and in peace, moreover,
things have been assigned to them as follows: if any
sacrifi ce is performed at the public charge, it is the
privilege of the kings to sit down to the feast before all
other, and that the attendants shall begin with them
fi rst, and serve to each of them a portion of everything
double of that which is given to the other guests, and
that they shall have the fi rst pouring of libations and
the hides of the animals slain in sacrifi ce; that on every
new moon and seventh day of the month there shall be
delivered at the public charge to each one of these a full-
grown victim in the temple of Apollo, and a measure of
barley-groats and a Spartan “quarter” of wine; and at all
the games they shall have seats of honor specially set
apart for them....
Th e 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 anyone, 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 elders, who are in
number twenty-eight, and if they do not come, thoseof the elders 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.
Th ese rights have been assigned to the kings for their
lifetime by the Spartan state; and after they are dead
horsemen go round and announce that which has
happened throughout the whole of the Spartan 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 prescribed.... A certain number of the perioiki are
compelled to go to the funeral ceremony: 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
had died last of their kings has been killed in war, they
prepare an image to represent him, laid upon a couch
with fair coverings, and carry it out to be buried. Th en
after they have buried him, no assembly is held among
them for ten days, nor is there any meeting for choice of
magistrates, but they have mourning during these days.
When the king is dead and another is appointed king,
this king who is newly coming in sets free any man of
the Spartans who was a debtor to the king or to the
state; while among the Persians the king who comes to
the throne remits to all the cities the arrears of tribute
which are due.From: Fred Fling, ed., A Source Book
of Greek History (Boston: D. C. Heath,
1907), pp. 63–66. Herodotus: “On the Kings of Sparta,” ca. 430 b.c.e.
(Th e History of the Persian Wars, Book 6, 56–60), extract Greece424 empires and dynasties: further reading