AMPHI'CTYONS. 



AMPHFCTYONS. 



290 



managed principally, at least, by the Hieromnemons, who appear, from 

 a verse in Aristophanes, ' Nub." 613, to have been appointed by lot, 

 but we are not aa well informed respecting the limits which separated 

 their duties from those of the Pylagorse, nor respecting the relative 

 rank which they held in the council. (See ^Esch. ' Contr. Ctes.' p. 68 

 7'2 ; ' Fals. Leg.' p. 43.) The little that is told is to be found for the 

 most part in the ancient lexicographers and scholiasts, or commentators, 

 who knew perhaps nothing about the matter, and whose accounts are 

 sufficiently perplexing to give room for great variety of opinions among 

 modern writers. Some have seemed to themselves to discover that 

 the office of the Hieromnemons was of comparatively late creation, 

 that these new deputies were of higher rank than the Pylagonc, and 

 that one of them always presided in the council ; others again have 

 supposed, what, indeed, an ancient lexicographer has expressly asserted, 

 that they acted as secretaries or scribes. Two Amphictyonic decrees 

 are found at length in the oration of Demosthenes on the Crown, both 

 of which begin thus : " When Cleinagoras was priest, at the vernal 

 Pylsea, it was resolved by the Pylagorse and the Synedri (joint council- 

 lors) of the Amphictyons, and the common body of the Amphictyons." 

 Some have assumed that Cleinagoras the priest was the presiding 

 Hieromnemon, and others that the Hieromnemons are comprehended 

 under the general name of Pylagora. ^Eschines again has mentioned 

 a decree in which the Hieromnemons were ordered to repair at an 

 appointed time to a session at Pylse, carrying with them the copy of a 

 certain decree lately made by the council. Of the council, as it existed 

 before the time of ^Eschines, a few notices are to be found in the 

 ancient historians, some of which are not unimportant. According to 

 Herodotus, vii. 200, the council held its meetings near Thermo- 

 pylae, in a plain which surrounded the village of Anthela, and in 

 which was a temple dedicated to the Amphictyonic Ceres ; to whom, 

 as Strabo tells us, ix. 429, the Amphictyons sacrificed at every session. 

 This temple, according to Callimachus, 'Ep.' 41, was founded by 

 Acrisius ; and hence arose, as Muller supposes in his history of the 

 Dorians (vol. i. p. 289, English translation), the tradition mentioned 

 above. 



We are told by Strabo, ix. 418, that after the destruction of Crissa 

 by an Amphictyonic army, under the command of Eurylochus, a 

 Thessalian prince, the Amphictyons instituted the celebrated games, 

 which from that time were called the Pythian, in addition to the simple 

 musical contests already established by the Delphian*. Pausanias also, 

 x. 7., attributes to the Amphictyons, both the institution and subse- 

 quent regulation of the games ; and it is supposed by the most skilful 

 critics, that one occasion of the exercise of this authority, recorded by 

 Pausanias, can be identified with the victory of Eurylochus, mentioned 

 by Strabo. According to this supposition, the Crisssean, and the cele- 

 brated Cirrhiean war, are the same, and Eurylochus must have lived as 

 latu as B.C. 591. But the history of these matters is full of difficulty, 

 partly occasioned by the frequent confusion of the names of Crissa 

 and Cirrha. 



From the scanty materials left us by the ancient records, the 

 following sketch of the history of this famous council is offered to the 

 reader, as resting on some degree of probability : 



The council was originally formed by a confederacy of Greek nations 

 or tribes, which inhabited a part of the country afterwards called 

 Thessaly. In the lists which hove come down to us of the constituent 

 tribes, the names belong for the most part to those hordes of primitive 

 Greeks which are first heard of, and some of which continued to dwell 

 north of the Malian bay. The bond of union was the common worship 

 of Ceres, near whose temple at Anthela its meetings were held. With 

 the worship of the goddess was afterwards joined that of the Delphic 

 Apollo ; and thenceforth the council met alternately at Delphi and 

 Pylse. Its original seat and old connections were kept in remembrance 

 by the continued use of the term Pylica, to designate its sessions 

 wherever held ; though eventually the Delphic god enjoyed more than an 

 equal share of consideration in the confederacy. It may be remarked 

 that the Pythian Apollo, whose worship in its progress southwards can 

 be faintly traced from the confines of Macedonia, was the peculiar god 

 of the Dorians who were of the Hellenic race ; whilst the worship of 

 Ceres was probably of Pelasgic origin, and appears at one time to have 

 been placed in opposition to that of Apollo, and in great measure to 

 have retired before it. There is no direct authority for asserting that 

 the joint worship was not coeval with the establishment of the council ; 

 but it seems probable from facts, which it is not necessary to examine 

 here, that an Amphictyonic confederacy existed among the older 

 residents, the worshippers of Ceres, in the neighbourhood of the Malian 

 bay, before the hostile intruders with their rival deity were joined 

 with them in a friendly coalition. The council met for religious pur- 

 poses, the main object being to protect the temples and maintain the 

 worship of the two deities. With religion were joined, according to 

 the customs of the times, political objects ; and the jurisdiction of the 

 Amphictyons extended to matters which concerned the safety and 

 internal peace of the confederacy. Hence the Amphictyonic laws, the 

 provisions of which may be partly understood from the terms of the 

 Amphictyonic oath. Confederacies and councils, similar to those of 

 the Amphictyons, were common among the ancient Greeks. Such 

 were those which united in federal republics the Greek colonists of 

 Asia Minor, of the ^Eolian, Ionian, and Dorian nations. Such also was 

 the confederacy of seven states whose council met in the temple of 



ARTS AMD SCI. DIV. VOL. I. 



Neptune, in the island of Calauria, and which is even called by Strabo, 

 viii. 374, an Amphictyonic council. 



The greater celebrity of the northern Amphictyons is attributable 

 partly to the superior fame and authority of the Delphic Apollo ; still 

 more, perhaps, to their connection with powerful states which grew 

 into importance at a comparatively late period. The migrating hordes, 

 sent forth from the tribes of which originally or in very early times 

 the confederacy was composed, carried with them then- Amphictyonic 

 rights, and thus at every remove lengthened the arms of the council. 

 The great Dorian migration especially planted Amphictyonic cities in 

 the remotest parts of Southern Greece. But this diffusion, whilst it 

 extended its fame, was eventually fatal to its political authority. The 

 early members, nearly equal perhaps in rank and power, whilst they 

 remained in the neighbourhood of Mounts (Eta and Parnassus, might 

 be willing to submit their differences to the judgment of the Amphic- 

 tyonic body. But the case was altered when Athens and Sparta 

 became the leading powers in Greece. Sparta, for instance, would not 

 readily pay obedience to the decrees of a distant council, in which the 

 deputies of some inconsiderable towns in Doris sat on equal terms with 

 their own. Accordingly in a most important period of Grecian history, 

 during a long series of bloody contests between Amphictyonic states, 

 we are unable to discover a single mark of the council's interference. 

 On the other hand, we have from Thucydides i. 112, a strong negative 

 proof of the insignificance into which its authority had fallen. The 

 Phocians (B.C. 448) possessed themselves by force of the temple of 

 Apollo at Delphi ; were deprived of it by the Lacedaemonians, by 

 whom it was restored to the Delphians ; and were again replaced by 

 the Athenians. In this, which is expressly called by the historian a 

 sacred war, not even an allusion is made to the existence of an 

 Amphictyonic council. After the decay of its political power there 

 still remained its religious jurisdiction ; but it is not easy to determine 

 its limits, or the objects to which it was directed. In a treaty of 

 peace made (B.C. 421) between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians 

 (Thucyd. v. 1 7), it was provided that the temple of Apollo at Delphi, 

 and the Delphians, should be independent. This provision, however, 

 appears to have had reference especially to the claims of the Phocians 

 to include Delphi in the number of their towns, and not to have inter- 

 fered in any respect with the superintendence of the temple and oracle, 

 which the Amphictyons had long exercised in conjunction with the 

 Delphians. We have seen that the Amphictyons were charged in the 

 earliest times with the duty of protecting the temple and the worship 

 of the god. But the right of superintendence, of regulating the mode of 

 proceeding in consulting the oracle, in making the sacrifices, and in the 

 celebration of the games, was apparently of much later origin, and may, 

 with some probability, be dated from the victory gained by Eurylochus 

 and the Amphictyonic army. The exercise of this right had the effect 

 of preserving to the council permanently a considerable degree of 

 importance. In early times the Delphic god had enjoyed immense 

 authority. He sent out colonies, founded cities, and originated weighty 

 measures of various kinds. Before the times of which we have lately 

 been speaking, his influence had been somewhat diminished ; but the 

 oracle was still most anxiously consulted both on public and private 

 matters. The custody of the temple was also an object of jealous 

 interest on account of the vast treasures contained within its walls. 



The Greek writers, who notice the religious jurisdiction of the 

 council, point our attention almost exclusively to Delphi ; but it may 

 be inferred from a remarkable fact mentioned by Tacitus, ' Ann.' iv. 14, 

 that it was much more extensive. The Samians, when petitioning in 

 the time of the Emperor Tiberius for the confirmation of a certain 

 privilege to their temple of Juno, pleaded an ancient decree of the 

 Amphictyons in their favour. The words of the historian seem to 

 imply that the decree was made at an early period in the existence of 

 Greek colonies in Asia Minor, and he says that the decision of the 

 Amphictyons on all matters had at that time pre-eminent authority. 



The sacred wars, as they were called, which were originated by the 

 Amphictyons in the exercise of their judicial authority, can here be 

 noticed only so far as they help to illustrate the immediate subject of 

 inquiry. The Cirrhaean war, in the time of Solon, has already been 

 incidentally mentioned. The port of Cirrha, a town on the Crisssoan 

 bay, afforded the readiest access from the coast to Delphi. The Cirrhscans, 

 availing themselves of their situation, grievously oppressed by heavy 

 exactions the numerous pilgrims to the Delphic temple. The Amphic- 

 tyons, by direction of the oracle, proclaimed a sacred war to avenge 

 the cause of the god ; that is, to correct an abuse which was generally 

 offensive, and particularly injurious to the interests of the Delphians. 

 Cirrha was destroyed, the inhabitants reduced to slavery, their lands 

 consecrated to Apollo, and a curse was pronounced on all who should 

 hereafter cultivate them. We are told that Solon acted a prominent 

 part on this occasion, and that great deference was shown to his counsels. 

 Mr. Mitford, indeed, has discovered without help from history, which 

 is altogether silent on the subject, that he was the author of sundry 

 important innovations, and that he in fact remodelled the constitution 

 of the Amphictyonic body. He has even been able to catch a view of 

 the secret intentions of the legislator, and of the political principles 

 which guided him. But in further assigning to Solon the command of 

 the Amphictyonic army, he is opposed to the direct testimony of the 

 ancient historians. 



From the conclusion of the Cirrhtcan war to the time of Philip of 



u 



