Amphictyonic

The most famous of these associations was the Delphian The Delphic amphictyony which came to be denoted by the general amphictyony. name of the Amphictyonic Council. Like the Calaurian The association, it was an intertribal or international union, Council. inasmuch as it was composed of twelve kindred tribes or nationalities (vn). There appears to be a lack of unanimity as to the names of these tribes, but, in all probability, they were the following: Thessalians, Dorians, Phocians, Locrians, Boeotians, Ionians, Perrhaebi, Magnetes, Oetaeans, Phthiotian Achaeans, Dolopes, and Malians. The very names point to the great antiquity of the Council. The names of several of these tribes scarcely ever appear in the historical period, and the fact that the Dorians assumed an equal position with the Malians and the Dolopes shows that the Council was in existence before the Dorian conquest of Peloponnesus. The association comprised also the colonies of these tribes. Although it is sometimes described as the common assemblage of the Greeks, τὸ κοινὸν τῶν ̔Ελλήνων συνέδριον, or, in Cicero's phrase, commune Graeciae concilium,' it was not a fully representative body, as some of the peoples of Hellas, such as the Arcadians, the Aetolians, the Dryopians, and probably the Achaeans of the Peloponnese were excluded, though they had the right to make use of the temple of Delphi.

sentatives.

The Council assembled twice annually, at Ther- Repre mopylae in the spring, and at Delphi in the autumn. Each of the tribes possessed two votes, so that the maximum number of votes was twenty-four, and all were of equal force. The various towns belonging to each tribe must in some way have arranged amongst themselves as to what individuals were to be chosen

1 In regard to the list of the members, there are several discrepancies in the statements of Aeschines, Pausanias, and Harpocration.-Cf. Tittmann, op. cit. ss. 3-5.

2 Demosth. De coron. 155. 4 Aeschin. De fals. leg. 116: ἰσόψηφον γινόμενον.

3 Cic. De invent. ii. 23.

kaì ToúTwv ëdei§a EKAσTOV OVOS

Objects and functions of the Delphic

delegates. In some cases, it may be, a leading city may
have been appointed either permanently or for a definite
period to despatch deputies as representing the entire
tribe; in other cases, the towns may have fulfilled this
function in rotation. In any event, there is no clear
information on the point, which therefore remains purely
conjectural. There were two kinds of representatives.
The hieromnemones (iepoμvýμoves),—sometimes de-
scribed also as ̓Αμφικτιόνων οἱ σύνεδροι—and
oi
the
pylagorae (πλαγόραι), who were also called ἀγορατροί.
It is not definitely known what their respective functions
and positions were. From a passage of Aeschines
it would appear that the hieromnemones constituted
the official, authoritative assembly, and were alone
empowered to transact the business and draw up the
resolutions. And it was they also who determined the
limits of the sacred territory (designated in an inscrip-
tion iepà xúpa) relating to the common temples.
Demosthenes, however, mentions a decree and speaks of
the resolution relating thereto as having been passed
by the pylagorae. Again, Harpocration regards both
classes of officials as the deputies of the cities. There
were also a secretary, or secretaries, and a herald,
iepokýρu, who seems to have been a permanent official of
the association. In addition to these, in cases of special
emergency a general assembly of the votaries was held.

2

The objects and functions of the Delphic amphictyony were, like those of all other amphictyonies, partly amphictyony. religious and partly political; but, on the whole, the

1 Aeschin. c. Ctesiph. 113.

2 Aeschin. c. Ctesiph. 124: τέλος δὲ ψηφίζονται ἥκειν τοὺς ἱερομνή μονας ἔχοντας δόγμα. . . .

3 Corp. inscrip. Graec. 1171.

4 Demosth. De coron. 197.

5 ς.ν. ἱερομνήμονες: οἱ πεμπόμενοι εἰς τὸ τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων συνέδριον ἐξ ἑκάστης πόλεως τῶν τοῦ συνεδρίου μετεχουσῶν οὕτω καλοῦνται. (Ed. G. Dindorf, Oxonii, 1853, vol. i. p. 159.)Cf. s.v. móda, ibid. p. 266.

* Aeschin. c. Ctesiph. 124: ἐκκλησίαν γὰρ ὀνομάζουσιν, ὅταν μὴ μόνον τοὺς πυλαγόρους καὶ τοὺς ἱερομνήμονας συγκαλέσωσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς συνθύοντας καὶ χρωμένους τῷ θεῷ,

In the first place, the

former kind predominated.
temples concerned and their worship, together with the
relative games and festivals, were to be preserved by it,1
and the sacred territory defended against aggression or
pollution; and secondly, it was to adjudge on disputed
matters of international conduct, which could be readily
decided by reference to the dictates of a common
religion, and, more especially, to mitigate the extreme
terrors and hardships of war when waged between any
of the communities represented. As an example of its
purely religious guardianship may be mentioned the
case of Peloponnesian delegates (theoroi) who, proceeding
to Delphi to consult the oracle, were maltreated by the
inhabitants of Megara. The aggrieved parties having
laid their complaints before it, the Council held, on the
ground that a mission of theoroi was of a sacred
character, ἱερᾶς τῆς θεωρίας οὔσης, and their persons
inviolable, that the accused were guilty of sacrilege; and
consequently some of the offenders were condemned to
death, and others to banishment.

the Council.

Frequently the main principles which the Council Oath and undertook to enforce were explicitly formulated and imprecation of ratified by a formal oath. The use of the oath and of the imprecation in connection with the entering into alliances, and the establishment of other contractual obligations has already been considered. In the case of the Delphic amphictyony the formula adopted by the confederates has been preserved by Aeschines, and is one of the very earliest documents relating to alliances between western peoples. The members swore they would not destroy any town belonging to the Amphictyonic association, nor cut it off from running water, whether in time of war or of peace; that they

1 Strabo, ix. 3. 7 (p. 643 A) : . . . περί τε τῶν κοινῶν βουλευσόμενον καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν ἕξον κοινοτέραν. . . .

2 Dion. Hal. iv. 25: νόμους καταστησάμενος ἔξω τῶν ἰδίων, ὧν ἑκάστη πόλις εἶχε, τοὺς κοινοὺς ἅπασιν.

4

3 Plut. Quaest. Graec. 59. See vol. i. pp. 118 seq., 386, 388 seq., 394, 406.

would declare war against people violating this law, and would destroy their cities; that they would punish by every means in their power all who plundered the property of the god or those who were a party thereto.1 Jurisdiction. In another oration Aeschines gives the formula of imprecation pronounced by the Amphictyons in the time of Solon. It served as a conclusion to the oath, and reinforced the religious sanction. In actual practice the jurisdiction of the Council was often exercised to a wider extent than was ostensibly prescribed by the content of the oath. Thus the first sacred war (596586 B.C.) was waged apparently for the narrower object of defending the rights and dignity of the temple of Delphi, but in reality it was undertaken on account of wider issues. The Phocian town of Crissa, situated on the heights of Mount Parnassus near the Delphic sanctuary, possessed a strip of territory extending to the Corinthian Gulf, where it had the port of Cirrha. Here most of the inhabitants of foreign States landed who came to consult the oracle; and the Cirrhaeans took advantage of their position to impose exorbitant tolls upon the pilgrims, and to maltreat them in other ways. The Council of the Amphictyons therefore made war on the offenders, captured their city, razed it to the ground, consecrated its territory to the god, and ordained that it should lie waste for ever. Similarly the second sacred war (357-346 B.C.) involved larger matters than the mere protection of the privileges of the Delphian temple. On account of certain differences between Phocis and Thebes, the refusal of the Phocians to aid Epaminondas in his campaign in

1 Aeschin. De fals. leg. 115 : ...μηδεμίαν πόλιν τῶν ̓Αμφικ τυονίδων ἀνάστατον ποιήσειν μηδ' ὑδάτων ναματιαίων εἴρξειν μήτ' ἐν πολέμῳ μήτ' ἐν εἰρήνῃ, ἐὰν δέ τις ταῦτα παραβῇ, στρατεύσειν ἐπὶ τοῦτον καὶ τὰς πόλεις ἀναστήσειν, καὶ ἐάν τις ἢ συλᾷ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἢ συνειδῇ τι ἢ βουλεύσῃ τι κατὰ τῶν ἱερῶν, τιμωρήσειν καὶ χειρὶ καὶ Todì kai pwvý kaì ñáσy duvápet.-Cf. Barbeyrac, Hist. des anciens traités, no. I.

2 Aeschin. c. Ctesiph. 109-113. For this see vol. i. p. 388.

the Peloponnese, and hostilities against Boeotia after that general's death, the Thebans prevailed upon the Amphictyonic Council to inflict a heavy fine on the Phocians, because they had cultivated a part of the Cirrhaean plain, contrary to the ordinance. The Phocians remonstrating, the fine was doubled by the Amphictyons, who also threatened to reduce them to slavery if they still refused to pay it. Driven to

desperation, the Phocians seized the Delphic temple, defeated the Locrians who came to its rescue, destroyed the records containing the sentence of the Council, enlisted the sympathy of Athens and Sparta, defeated the Thebans and Thessalians, and were themselves afterwards vanquished. Philip then intervened, posing as the champion of the Delphic god, and became master of Thessaly. Demosthenes' appeal for the establishment of a confederacy to expel the invader failed. Subsequently Philip compelled the Phocians to surrender, took Delphi, and convoked the Amphictyons to pronounce sentence on those who had been concerned in the sacrilege committed there. The Council decreed that the Phocian cities should be destroyed, and their inhabitants dispersed into villages, each containing not more than fifty houses, and that they should restore the treasures of the temple by annual payments. Sparta's privileges in the Amphictyonic proceedings were revoked, and the two votes of the Phocians were transferred to Philip, who was also to share with the Thebans and the Thessalians the honour of presiding at the Pythian games,-so that Macedon thus became at this time the leading power in Greece.

Hence we see how various political matters were Not exclusively necessarily interwoven with the seemingly exclusive religions. religious jurisdiction of the Amphictyonic Council. Beginning with the practice of pronouncing on charges as to infractions of interstatal or international rights of a sacred description, the Council gradually assumed competence in regard to divers non-religious questions, and occasionally exercised control in political matters of