members of the peers[2] share the royal quarters, mess, etc. The duty
of these is to attend to all matters of commisariat,[3] in order that
the king and the rest may have unbroken leisure to attend to affairs
of actual warfare.

[1] I.e. "the Thirty." See "Ages." i. 7; "Hell." III. iv. 2; Plut.
"Ages." 6 (Clough, iv. 6); Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 29.

[2] For these {oi omoioi}, see "Cyrop." I. v. 5; "Hell." III. iii. 5.

[3] Lit. "supplies and necessaries."

But I will resume at a somewhat higher point and describe the manner
in which the king sets out on an expedition. As a preliminary step,
before leaving home he offers sacrifice (in company with[4] his staff)
to Zeus Agetor (the Leader), and if the victims prove favourable then
and there the priest,[5] who bears the sacred fire, takes thereof from
off the altar and leads the way to the boundaries of the land. Here
for the second time the king does sacrifice[6] to Zeus and Athena; and
as soon as the offerings are accepted by those two divinities he steps
across the boundaries of the land. And all the while the fire from
those sacrifices leads the way, and is never suffered to go out.
Behind follow beasts for sacrifice of every sort.

[4] Lit. reading {kai oi sun auto}, after L. Dindorf, "he and those
with him."

[5] Lit. "the Purphuros." See Nic. Damasc. ap. Stob. "Fl." 44, 41;
Hesych. ap. Schneider, n. ad loc.