is ordained that they shall sit in council with the Senators, who are
in number eight-and-twenty, and if they do not come, those of the
Senators 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.[42a] 58. These rights have been assigned to the kings
for their lifetime by the Spartan State; and after they are dead these
which follow:--horsemen go round and announce that which has happened
throughout the whole of the Laconian 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
appointed. Now the custom of the Lacedemonians about the deaths of
their kings is the same as that of the Barbarians who dwell in Asia,
for most of the Barbarians practise the same customs as regards the
death of their kings. Whensoever a king of the Lacedemonians is dead,
then from the whole territory of Lacedemon, not reckoning the
Spartans, a certain fixed number of the "dwellers round"[43] 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 has died last of
their kings was the best of all: and whenever any 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. Then 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. In another respect too these resemble the Persians;
that is to say, 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