AMPHi-cm 



AMPHITHK'ATRE. 



ii, an interval exceeding two centuries, we hemr little more of 

 the Amphictjooi, th*n that they rebuilt the temple t Delphi, which 

 had been destroyed by fire B.C. 548 ; that they set a price on the head 

 <>f Ephialtea, who betrayed the cause of the Greek* at ThennopyUo, 

 and conferred public honour* on the patriot* who died there ; and that 

 they erected a monument to the famous direr Scylliai, aa a reward for 

 the information which, ai the atory goe*, he conveyed under water 

 from the Theaaalian count to the commanders of the Grecian fleet at 

 Arteniuium. If Plutarch may be trusted, the power of the Amphictyi >n- 

 had not at thia time fallen into contempt. When a proposition was 

 made by the Lacedemonians to expel from the council all the states 

 which had not taken part in the war against the Persians, it was 

 rnaistdd successfully by Themistocles, on the ground that the exclusion 

 of three considerable states, Argos, Thebes, and the Theasaliaus, would 

 giro to the more powerful of the remaining members a preponderating 

 influence in the council dangerous to the rest of Greece, 



After baring, for a long period, nearly lost sight of the Amphictyons 

 in history, we find them venturing, in the fallen fortunes of Sparta, to 

 impose a heavy fine on that state as a punishment for an old oflence, 

 the seizure of the Theban Cadineia, the payment of which, howe>vr, 

 they made no attempt to enforce. In thia case, as well as in the 

 celebrated Phociaii war, the Amphictyonic council can be considered 

 only as an instrument in the hands of the Thebans, who after their 

 successful resistance to Sparta, appear to have acquired a preponderating 

 influence in it, and who found it convenient to use its name and 

 authority, whilst prosecuting their own schemes of vengeance or am- 

 bition. Though the charge brought against the Phocians was that of 

 impiety in cultivating a part of the accursed Cirrhuwn plain, there is no 

 reason to think that any religious feeling was excited, at least in the 

 earlier part of the contest; and Amphictyonic states were eagerly 

 engaged as combatants on both sides. For an account of this war, the 

 reader is referred to a general history of Greece. The council was so 

 far affected by the result, that it was compelled to receive a new 

 member, and in fact a master, in the person of Philip of Macedon, who 

 was thus rewarded for his important services at the expense of the 

 Phocians, who were expelled from the confederacy. They were, 

 however, at a subsequent period restored, in consequence of their noble 

 exertions in the cause of Greece and the Delphic god against the Gauls. 

 It may be remarked, that the testimony of the Phocian general Philomelas, 

 whatever may be its value, is rather in favour of the supposition that 

 the council was not always connected with Delphi. He justifies his 

 opposition to ita decrees, on the ground that the right which the 

 Amphictyons claimed was comparatively a modern usurpation. In the 

 case of the Amphusians, whose crime was similar to that of the 

 Phocians, the name of the Amphictyons was again readily employed ; 

 but JSschines, who seems to have been the principal instigator of the 

 war, had doubtless a higher object in view than that of punishing the 

 Amphissians for impiety. 



The Amphictyonic council long survired the independence of Greece, 

 and was, probably, in the constant exercise of its religious functions. 

 So late as the battle of Actium, it retained enough of its former dignity 

 at least, to induce Augustus to claim a place in it for his new city of 

 Nicopolis. Strabo says that in his time it had ceased to exist. If his 

 words are to be understood literally, it must have been revived; for we 

 know from Pausanias (x. 8.), that it wag in existence in the second 

 century after Christ. It reckoned at that time twelve constituent 

 states, who furnished in all thirty deputies ; but a preponderance was 

 given to the new town of Kicopolis, which sent six deputies to each 

 nvwting. Delphi sent two to each meeting, and Athens, one deputy ; 

 the other states sent their deputies according to a certain cycle, and not 

 to every meeting. For the time of its final dissolution, we have no 

 authonty on which we can rely. 



It is not easy to estimate with much certainty the effects produced 

 on the Greek nation generally, by the institution of this council. It is, 

 however, something more than conjecture, that the country which was 

 the teat of the original members of the Amphictyonic confederacy, was 

 also the cradle of the Greek nation, such as it is known to us in the 

 historical ages. This country was subject to incursions from barbarous 

 tribes, especially on its western frontier, probably of a very different 

 character from the occupants of whom we have been speaking. In the 

 pressure of then incursions, the Amphictyonic confederacy may have 

 been a powerful instrument of preservation, and must bare tended to 

 maintain at least the separation of its members from their foreign 

 neighbours, and so to preserve the peculiar character of that gifted 

 people, from which knowledge and civilisation have flowed over the 

 whole western world. It may also have aided the cause of humanity ; 

 for it is reasonable to suppose that in earlier times, differences between 

 iU own members were occasionally composed by interference of the 

 council ; and thus it may hare been a partial check on the butchery of 

 war, and may at least hare diminished the miseries resulting from the 

 cruel liwt of military renown. In one respect, its influence was greatly 

 and permanently beneficial. In common with the great public festivals, 

 it helped to give a national unity to numerous independent states, of 

 which the Greek nation was composed. But it had a merit which aid 

 not belong to those festivals in an equal degree. It cannot be doubted 

 that the Amphictyonic laws, which regulated the originally small con- 

 federacy, were the foundation of that international law which was 

 recognised throughout Greece ; and which, imperfect as it was, had 



tome effect in regulating beneficially national intercourse among the 

 Greeks in peace and war, and, so far as it went, was opposed to that 

 brute force and lawless aggression, which uo Greek felt himself re- 

 strained by any law from exercising towards those who were not of the 

 Greek name. To the investigator of that dark but interesting period 

 in the existence of the Greek nation, which precedes its authentic 

 records, the hints which have been left us on the earlier days of thin 

 council, faint and scanty as they are, hare still their value. They con- 

 tribute something to those fragments of evidence with which the 

 learning and still more the ingenuity of the present generation are 

 converting mythical legends into a body of ancient history. 



AMPHIPROSTYLE. This is an architectural term, compounded 

 of three Greek words. It is used to designate structures having the 

 form of an ancient Greek or Roman parallelogramic temple, with a 

 prostyle or portico on each of ite ends or front*, but with no columns 

 on its sides or flanks. [TEMPLit.] 



AMPHI'SCII, literally double tkadomd, a Greek term applied by 

 ancient astronomers to the inhabitants of the torrid zone, with whom 

 the sun passes the meridian at noon, sometimes on the north, some- 

 times on the south, of the zenith, and whose shadows at noon are 

 therefore turned to the south during onu part of the year, and to the 

 north during the remainder. 



AMPHITHK'ATUE, the name by which a species of structure much 

 used by the Romans, and combining the forms and some of the uses 



Amphitheatre of Verona. 



of the ancient theatre and circus, is generally distinguished ; indeed 

 most of the Roman classical writers apply to it the name of circus 

 also. A distinction, however, is now always made ; the term amphi- 

 theatre being applied to the species of structure here referred to, 

 and circus being restricted to the Roman stadium or hippodrome. 



[ClRCCS.] 



The name amphitheatre seems intended to convey the idea of a 

 double theatre ; but what is termed a theatre is, with reference to its 

 original uses, more strictly an odeum, and what we call an amphi- 

 theatre was truly a theatre. The one was for hearing music and 

 recitations, and the other for seeing sights, as the words import. 

 [THEATRE.] 



The form of the amphitheatre IB, on the plan, that of an elliiwis, 

 with a series of arcaded concentric walls, separating corridors which 

 hare constructions with staircases and radiating passages between tlu-m. 

 It encloses an open space called the arena, either on, or a very little 

 above or below the level of the surface of the ground on which the 

 structure is raised. From the innermost concentric wall, which 

 bounds the arena, and which will be from ten to fifteen feet above its 

 level, on inclined plane runs upwards and outwards over the inter- 

 mediate wall, staircases, and corridors, to a gallery or galleries over tin: 

 outermost corridors. The inner and upper part of the inclined plane 

 is covered with a graduated series of benches following the general 

 form of the plan; these are intercepted at intervals by radial pas- 

 sages leading by a more easy gradation to and from the staircases 

 which pass through the substructions of the benches to the corridors. 

 These corridors, in the principal stories, continue uninterruptedly all 

 round the edifice, and afford easy access to, and egress from, every 

 part. In cases where the radiating passages through the bank of 

 benches were few, concentric platforms or preciuctions went round to 

 make the communications complete. The external elevation of an 

 amphitheatre is almost dictated by its internal arrangement an<l 

 Ktniction, and it generally falls into two or more stories of "\u 

 arches, which are necessary to give light and air to the corridors and 

 . t.iii' M -. 



The Amphitheatre seems to have been contrive<l for the more con- 

 venient exhibition of such shows as were confined throughout to the 

 same place, such as combats, which could not be seen advantageously 

 along the length of the circus ; and moreover the circus had not the 

 lofty stereobate, podium, or cincture, to protect the spectators from 

 the savage and powerful brute animals which were frequently ued in 

 the public shows of the Romans. Indeed, it is reported that thin 

 defect was a cause of the abandonment of the circus for such exhi- 

 bitions as required the use of wild beasts. The great length also of 

 the circus would bo a sufficient reason for adopting the more com- 

 pressed and lofty form given to the amphitheatre, whose arrangement 

 admits of a far greater number of persons being brought within a 



