Καί σοι ὑπὸ σκήπτρῳ λιπαρὰς τελέουσι θέμιστας.
See Iliad, xii. 312; and the reproaches of Thersitês (ii. 226)—βασιλῆας δωροφάγους (Hesiod, Opp. Di. 38-264).
The Roman kings had a large τέμενος assigned to them,—“agri, arva, et arbusta et pascui læti atque uberes” (Cicero, De Republ. v. 2): the German kings received presents: “Mos est civitatibus (observes Tacitus, respecting the Germans whom he describes, M. G. 15) ultro ac viritim conferre principibus, vel armentorum vel frugum, quod pro honore acceptum etiam necessitatibus subvenit.”
The revenue of the Persian kings before Darius consisted only of what were called δῶρα, or presents (Herod. iii. 89): Darius first introduced both the name of tribute and the determinate assessment. King Polydektês, in Seriphos, invites his friends to a festival, the condition of which is that each guest shall contribute to an ἔρανος for his benefit (Pherekydês, Fragm. 26, ed. Didot); a case to which the Thracian banquet prepared by Seuthês affords an exact parallel (Xenophôn, Anab. vii. 3, 16-32: compare Thucyd. ii. 97, and Welcker, Æschyl. Trilogie, p. 381). Such Aids, or Benevolences, even if originally voluntary, became in the end compulsory. In the European monarchies of the Middle Ages, what were called free gifts were more ancient than public taxes: “The feudal Aids (observes Mr. Hallam) are the beginning of taxation, of which they for a long time answered the purpose.” (Middle Ages, ch. ii. part i. p. 189.) So about the Aides in the old French Monarchy, “La Cour des Aides avoit été instituée, et sa jurisdiction s’étoit formée, lorsque le domaine des Rois suffisoit à toutes les dépenses de l’Etat, les droits d’Aides étoient alors des supplémens peu considérables et toujours temporaires. Depuis, le domaine des Rois avoit été anéanti: les Aides, au contraire, étoient devenues permanentes et formoient presque la totalité des ressources du trésor.” (Histoire de la Fronde, par M. de St. Aulaire, ch. iii. p. 124.)
[87] Ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς γέρασι πατρικαὶ βασιλεῖαι, is the description which Thucydidês gives of these heroic governments (i. 13).
The language of Aristotle (Polit. iii. 10, 1) is much the same: Ἡ βασιλεία—ἡ περὶ τοὺς ἡρωικοὺς χρόνους—αὐτὴ δ᾽ ἦν ἑκόντων μὲν, ἐπί τισι δ᾽ ὡρισμένοις· στρατηγὸς δ᾽ ἦν καὶ δικαστὴς ὁ βασιλεὺς, καὶ τῶν πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς κύριος.
It can hardly be said correctly, however, that the king’s authority was defined: nothing can well be more indefinite.
Agamemnôn enjoyed or assumed the power of putting to death a disobedient soldier (Aristot. Polit. iii. 9, 2). The words which Aristotle read in the speech of Agamemnôn in the Iliad—Πὰρ γὰρ ἐμοὶ θάνατος—are not in our present copies: the Alexandrine critics effaced many traces of the old manners.
[88] Striking phrases on this head are put into the mouth of Sarpêdôn (Iliad, xii. 310-322).
Kings are named and commissioned by Zeus,—Ἐκ δὲ Διὸς βασιλῆες (Hesiod, Theogon. 96; Callimach. Hymn. ad Jov. 79): κρατέρω θεράποντε Διὸς is a sort of paraphrase for the kingly dignity in the case of Pelias and Nêleus (Odyss. xi. 255; compare Iliad, ii. 204).