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. 2. Menelaus } from Il. xix. 310, 311, where they remain 3. Nestor } with Achilles, while the other 4. Ulysses } βασιλῆες, ver. 309, are sent away. 5. Idomeneus } Also for Ulysses, see xiv. 379; and } various places in the Odyssey. 6. Achilles, Il. i. 331. xvi. 211. 7. Diomed, Il. xiv. 27, compared with 29 and 379. 8. Ajax Telamonius, Il. vii. 321 connected with 344. 9. Ajax, son of Oileus. Among the indications, by which the last-named chief is shown to have been a βασιλεὺς, are those which follow. He is summoned by Agamemnon (Il. ii. 404-6) among the γέροντες ἀριστῆες Παναχαιῶν: where all the abovenamed persons appear (except Achilles), and no others. Now the γέροντες or elders are summoned before in ver. 53 of the same book, and are called in ver. 86 the σκηπτοῦχοι βασιλῆες. Another proof of the rank of Oilean Ajax is the familiar manner in which his name is associated on terms of equality, throughout the poem, with that of Ajax Telamonius. But the part of the poem, which supplies the most pointed testimony as a whole with respect to the composition of the class of kings, is the Tenth Book. Here we begin with the meeting of Agamemnon and Menelaus (ver. 34). Next, Menelaus goes to call the greater Ajax and Idomeneus (53), and Agamemnon to call Nestor (54, 74). Nestor awakens Ulysses (137); and then Diomed (157), whom he sends to call Oilean Ajax, together with Meges (175). They then conjointly visit the φύλακες or watch, commanded by Thrasymedes, Meriones, and others (ix. 80. x. 57-9). Nestor gives the watch an exhortation to be on the alert, and then reenters within the trench, followed by the Argeian kings (194, 5); τοὶ δ’ ἅμ’ ἕποντο Ἀργείων βασιλῆες, ὅσοι κεκλήατο βουλήν.