Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

APICTYONES. AMPHICTYONES. AMPHICTYONES. 81
of representatives were not strictly defined, and Clinton, F. II. vol. ii. p.196; Aeschin. c. Ces.~ 109.)
varied at different times, if indeed they are always The Second, or Phocian War (B. c. 356), was the
correctly distinguished by the authors who allude most important in which the Amphictyons were
to them. The EicXcAo'a, or general assembly, in- concerned (Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, vol. v. p. 263
cluded not only the classes mentioned, but also — 372); and in this the Thebans availed themthose who had joined in the sacrifices and were selves of the sanction of the council to take venconsulting the god, and as there was a large mul- geance on their enemies, the Phocians. To do
titude annually collected at the Amphictyonic ses- this, however, it was necessary to call in Philip of
sion at Thermopylae, it was probably numerously Macedon, who readily proclaimed himself the
attended. (Hesychius, ad SophA. Traec. v. 639.) champion of Apollo, as it opened a pathway to his
It was convened on extraordinary occasions by own ambition. The Phocians were subdued (B. c.
the chairman of the council ('0 r'as 7Ys'ssas 346), and the council decreed that all their cities,
iE7riLnpipws, Aesch. 1. c.). except Abae, should be rased, and the inhabitants
Of the duties of this latter body nothing will dispersed in villages not containing more than fifty
give us a clearer view than the oaths taken and inhabitants. Their two votes were given to Philip,
the decrees made by it. The oath was as follows who thereby gained a pretext for interfering with
(Aesch. De F. L. ~ 121): "' They would destroy the affairs of Greece; and also obtained the recogno city of the Amphictyons, nor cut off their nition of his subjects as Hellenes. To the causes
streams in war or peace; and if any should do so, of the Third Sacred War allusion has been made
they would march against him and destroy his in the decrees quoted by Demosthenes. The Amcities; and should any pillage the property of the phissians tilled the devoted Cirrhaean plain, and
god, or be privy to or plan any thing against what behaved, as Strabo (ix. p. 41 9) says, worse than the
was in his temple at Delphi, they would take Crissaeans of old (XEipovs ioa-v 7rep? Tobs ~S'vovs).
vengeance on him with hand and foot, and voice, Their submission to Philip was immediately foland all their might." There are two decrees given. lowed by the battle of Chaeroneia (B. c. 338), and
by Demosthenes, both commencing thus (Dem. de the extinction of the independence of Greece. Tu
Cor. ~ 197): - " When Cleinagoras was priest the following year, a congress of the Amphictyonic
(iepeis), at the spring meeting, it was resolved by states was held; in which war was declared as if
the pylagorae and the assessors of the Amphictyons, by united Greece against Persia, and Philip elected
and the general body of them," &c. The resolution commander-in-chief. On this occasion the Amin the second case was, that as the Amphissians con- phictyons assumed the character of national repretinued to cultivate " the sacred district," Philip of sentatives as of old, when they set a price upon the
Macedon should be requested to help Apollo and the head of Ephialtes, for his treason to Greece at
Amphictyons, and that he was thereby constituted Thermopylae, and erected monuments in honour of
absolute general of the Amphictyons. Ie an- the Greeks who fell there. ierodotus indeed
cepted the office, and soon reduced the offending (vii. 214, 228), speaking of them in reference to
city to subjection. From the oath and the decrees, Ephialtes, calls them ohf T-d'EXAAXrvv Inuvay6pol.
we see that the main duty of the deputies was the We have sufficiently shown that the Amphicpreservation of the rights and dignity of the temple tyons themselves did not observe the oaths they
at Delphi. We know, too, that after it was burnt took; and that they did not much alleviate the
down (B. C. 548), they contracted with the Alcmae- horrors of war, or enforce what they had sworn to
onidae for the rebuilding (Herod. ii. 180,v. 62); and do, is proved by many instances. Thus, for inAthenaeus (B. c. 160) informs us (iv. p. 173, b) that stance, Mycenae was destroyed by Argos (B.c. 468),
in other matters connected with the worship of the Thespiae and Plataeae by Thebes, and Thebes herDelphian god they condescended to the regula- self swept from the face of the earth by Alexander
tion of the minutest trifles. History, moreover, (ec teA-'ls Trs'EXAdXos avqlp7rraOrl,Aeschin.' c. Ctes.
teaches that if the council produced any palpable ~ 133). Indeed, we may infer from Thucydides
effects, it was from their interest in Delphi; and (i. 112), that a few years before the Peloponlesian'
though it kept up a standing record of what ought war, the council was a passive spectator of what
to have been the international law of Greece, it he calls o lepbs 7rndhAos, when the Lacedaemonians
sometimes acquiesced in, and at other times was a made an expedition to Delphi, and put the temple
party to, the most iniquitous and cruel acts. Of into the hands of the Delphians, the Athenians,
this the case of Crissa is an instance. This town after their departure, restoring it to the Phocians;
lay on the Gulf of Corinth, near Delphi, and was and yet the council is not mentioned as interfering.
much frequented by pilgrims from the West. Itwill not be profitable to pursue its history further;
The Crissaeans were charged by the Delphians with it need only be remarked, that Augustus wished
undue exactions from these strangers, and with his new city, Nicopolis (A. D. 31), to be enrolled
other crimes. The council declared war against among its members; and that Pausanias, in the
them, as guilty of a wsrong against the god. The second century of -our era, mentions it as still exwar lasted ten years, till, at the suggestion of isting, but deprived of all power and influence.
Solon, the waters of the Pleistus were turned off, In fact, even Demosthenes (De Pace, p. 63), spolke
then poisoned, and turned again into the city. of it as the shadow at Delphi (4/ e vAeXqAo-s acld).
The besieged drank their fill, and Crissa was soon In the time of Pausanias, the number of Amphicrazed to the ground; and thus, if it were an Am- tyonic deputies was thirty.
phictyonic city, was a solemn oath doubly violated. There are two points of some interest, which
Its territory-the rich Crissaean or Cirrhaean plain still remain to be considered; and first, the ety-was consecrated to the god, and curses impre- mology of the word Amphictyon. We are told
cated upon any one who should till or dwell in it. (Harpocrat. s. v.) that Theopompus thought it deThus ended the First Sacred War (B. c. 586), in rived from the name of Amphictyon, a prince of.
which the Athenians and Amphictyons were the in- Thessaly, and the supposed author of the institution.
struments of Delphian vengeance. (Paus. x. 37. ~ 4; Others, as Anaximenes of Lampsacus, connected it
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