[Meaning] covenants, speeches, agreements. But the Tarentines [sc. apply this word to] laws and in effect decrees. Among Spartans a 'rhetra' [is] a law of Lycurgus, suggesting that its authority is an oracle.[1] But others [sc. call] agreements rhetras, others documents. Also [sc. attested is the term] rhetra-guardians,[2] [meaning] document-guardians.
"The soldiers through whom the rhetra had been promulgated: whichever of them turned tail and went [sc. back] to camp would die a miserable death at the hands of his friends, struck down as if an enemy."[3]
"The oracle says, '[?hear?]' a rhetra of a clear and manifest oracle'".[4]