318 THE REYOI.UTIOXS. BOOK IV. It is easy to judge by the duties of the ephors what those were that were left to the king. The ephors pronounced judgment in civil cases, while the senate tried criminal cases. The ephors, with the advice of the senate, declared war, or settled the articles of treaties of peace. In time of war two ephors accom- panied the king and watched over him ; they decided on the plan of the campaign, and superintended all the operations.' What remained, then, for the kings, if the law, the foreign relations, and military operations were taken from them ? They had the priesthood left. Herodotus describes their prerogatives: "If the city offers a sacrifice, they have the first place at the sa- cred repast ; they are served first, and have a double portion. They are the first also to make a libation, and the skins of the victims belong to them. Each one receives, twice a month, a victim, which he sacri- fices to Apollo." ' "The kings,*' says Xenophon, " offer the public sacrifices, and they have the best parts of the victims." If they did not act as judges either in civil or in criminal affairs, they still had reserved ta them the right of deciding in all affairs which con- cerned religion. In case of war, one of the kings always proceeded at the head of the troops, offering sacrifices and consulting the presages. In presence of the enemy
- Thucydides, V. G3. Ilellanicus, II. 4. Xenophon, Gov. of
Laced., 14 (13); Bell., VI. 4. Plutarch, Agesilaus, 10, 17, 23, 28; Lysander, 23. The king had so little, of his own ri<?Iit, the direction of military affairs, that a special act of the senate was. necessary to confirm the command of the army to Agesilaus^ who thus united exceptionally the functions of king and general. Plutarch, Agesilaus, 6; Lysander, 23. It had been the same previously, in the case of king Pi'.usanias. Thucydides, I. 128. ' Herodotus, VI. 66, 57.
