In India the chief of a town might receive the king's supplies.
In the Indian society that was regulated in [pg 116] accordance with the Ordinances of Manu, the king appointed a chief of a town whose duty it was to report to the higher officials on any “evil arising in the town.” He likewise represented the king, and had the king's right to receive supplies from those under his oversight.
“What food, drink, (and) fuel are to be daily given by the inhabitants of a town to the king let the head of a town take,”[306]
the line always being drawn between legitimate demands and tyrannical extortion.
“For those servants appointed by the king for protection (are) mostly takers of the property of others (and) cheats; from them he (i.e. the king) should protect these people.”[307]
The maintenance of the Great King,
Under the rule of the Persians, all Asia was parcelled out in such a way as to supply maintenance (τροφή) for the Great King and his host throughout the whole year.[308] The satrap of Assyria kept at one time so great a number of Indian hounds, that four large villages of the plain were exempted from all other charges on condition of finding them food.[309]
and of Solomon.
Solomon's table was provided after the same method.
“And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel which provided victuals for the king and his household; each man his month in a year made provision.... And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the pastures and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer, and fatted fowl.... And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.... And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, every man according to his charge.”[310]