A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

A Royal Funeral 119
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 Lacedaemonians
about the death of their kings is the same as
that of the barbarians who dwell in Asia, for most of the
barbarians practise the same custom as regards the death
of their kings. Whensoever a king of the Lacedaemonians
is dead, then from the whole territory of Lacedaemon,
not reckoning the Spartans, a certain fixed number of the
"dwellers round" 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 wdth 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.
VIII.
Constitution of the Peloponnesian League
In 418 B.C. Lacedaemon made an alliance with Argos, practically
admitting the latter to the Peloponnesian league. The terms of the
treaty throw a clear light on the relation between Sparta and her
alhes.
It seems good to the Lacedaemonians and to the Argives