συμπάντων δ’ ἡγεῖτο βοὴν ἀγαθὸς Διομήδης.
Thus his higher rank is not obscured. Again, we know that, in the case of Achilles, there were five persons, each commanding ten of his fifty ships (Il. xvi. 171), of whom no notice is taken in the Catalogue (681-94), though it begins with a promise to enumerate all those who were in command of the fleet (493),
ἀρχοὺς αὖ νηῶν ἐρέω νῆάς τε προπάσας;
and in the case of the Elians he names four leaders who had exactly the same command, each over ten ships (618). It thus appears natural to refer his silence about the five to the rank held by Achilles as a king.
So much for the notes of this class in the Iliad.
Though we are not bound to suppose, that Homer had so rigid a definition of the class of kings before his mind as exists in the case of the more modern forms of title, it is clear in very nearly every individual case of a Greek chieftain of the Iliad, whether he was a βασιλεὺς or not.
The Nine Greek Kings of the Iliad.
The class clearly comprehends:
1. Agamemnon, Il. i. 9, and in many places.