Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/266

 250 HISTORY OF GREECE. an energetic imprecation attached to it. 1 And there are some examples in which the council 9 construes its functions so largely as to receive and adjudicate upon complaints against entire cities, for offences against the religious and patriotic sentiment of the Greeks generally. But for the most part its interference relates directly to the Delphian temple. The earliest case in which it is brought to our view, is the Saci'ed War against Kirrha, in the 46th Olympiad, or 595 B. c., conducted by Eurylochus, the Thes- salian, and Kleisthenes of Sikyon, and proposed by Solon of Athens : 3 we find the Amphiktyons also, about half a century afterwards, undertaking the duty of collecting subscriptions throughout the Hellenic world, and making the contract with the Alkmasonids for rebuilding the temple after a conflagration. 4 But the influence of this council is essentially of a fluctuating and intermittent character. Sometimes it appears forward to decide, and its decisions command respect ; but such occasions are rare, taking the general course of known Grecian history ; while there are other occasions, and those too especially affecting the Delphian temple, on which we are surprised to find nothing said about it. In the long and perturbed period which Thucydi- des describes, he never once mentioned the Amphiktyons, though the temple and the safety of its treasures form the repeated sub- 1 JEschin. De Fals. Legal, c. 35, p. 279 : compare adv. Ktcsiphont. c. 36, p. 406. 2 See the charge which jEschincs alleges to have been brought by the Lokrians of Amphissa against Athens in the Amphiktyonic Council (adv. Ktesiphont. c. 38, p. 409). Demosthenes contradicts his rival as to the fact of the charge having been brought, saying that the Amphisseans had not given the notice, customary and required, of their intention to bring it : a reply which admits that the charge migl.t be brought (Demosth. dc Corona, c. 43, p. 277). The Amphiktyons offer a reward for the life of Ephialtes, the betrayer of the Greeks at Thermopylae ; they also erect columns to the memory of the fallen Greeks in that memorable strait, the place of their half-yearly meeting (Herod, vii. 213-228). 3 JEschin. adv. Ktesiph. 1, c. Plutarch, Solon, c. xi, who refers to Aris- totle tv ry TLJV tlvdiovintiv avaypafyij Pausan. x. 37, 4; Schol. ad Pindar, Nem. ix. 2. Tdf 'A/z0:rvov</cuf (Jt'/cof, oaat TTO^COI Trpof Tro/letf eloiv (Strabo, ix. p. 420). These Amphiktyonic arbitrations, however are of raie occur rence in history, and very common' 7 abused. IIerodot ii. 180 v. 62.