The AMPHICTTONZS. 157 



ther fitted for that purpofe. The Hellenic Prefects of the tem- 

 ple, fuperior to the Barbarians in political fkill and fagacity, 

 would (train every nerve to promote a fcheme calculated to ad- 

 vance both their honour and their intereft. 



In all ages, and in all countries, to partake of the fame com- 

 mon facrifices has been deemed an infallible fign of amity and 

 concord, Firft of all. then, the confederates affembled at Del- 

 phi, at certain Mated feafons, to offer facrifices, and perform o- 

 ther religious rites in name of all the affociated tribes *. This 

 was the moft indiftbluble bond of their foederal union. Upon 

 thefe public and folemn occafions, magnificent donations were 

 offered to the Pythian god, and his rninifters no doubt lhared 

 largely in thefe munificent effufions of devout liberality. As 

 in confequence of thefe public donations, and the bountiful 

 largefTes of private individuals, who crowded from all quarters 

 to confult the oracle, the treafury of the temple became ex- 

 ceedingly rich, the confederates imagined, that it concerned 

 their honour, and perhaps their intereft, to appoint officers to 

 fuperintend that treafure. Strabo tells us exprefsly, that this 

 was one of the ends of the inftitutions of the Amphiclyones f . 

 Kc« th Ugx, x. r. X. " And they were to have the fuperintendency 

 " of the temple in a more public capacity, which, as there was a 

 " prodigious mafs of treafure and donations depofited in it, 

 " needed to be carefully watched and hallowed with purity." 

 Thus it appears, the the original Amphiclyones were a kind of 

 wardens of the temple of Delphi, elected by the fuffrages of 

 the confederated tribes. 



In 



* See Herod, lib. i. Ephefus, and the temple of Diana there, was the cen- 

 tre of union among the people of Leffer Afia, and we find that Tarquinius 

 Priscus projected a like centre of union among all the petty ftates of Latium. 

 Cjesar informs us, that the Gauls had a like centre of refort in the territory 

 of the Carnutes, where the Druids affembled once a-jear to offer facrifices in 

 name of all the communities of Gaul. 



f Lib. ix. p. 420, 



