Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/268

 2o2 HISTORY OF GREECE. pletely misinterpret Grecian history if we regarded it as a fed- eral council, habitually directing or habitually obeyed. Had there existed any such " commune concilium" of tolerable wisdom and patriotism, and had the tendencies of the Hellenic mind been capable of adapting themselves to it, the whole course of later Grecian history would probably have been altered ; the Mace- donian kings would have remained only as respectable neighbors, borrowing civilization from Greece, and expending their military energies upon Thracians and Illyrians ; while united Hellas might even have maintained her own territory against the conquering legions of Rome. The twelve constituent Amphiktyonic races remained unchanged until the Sacred War against the Phokians (B. c. 355), after which, though the number twelve was continued, the Phokians were disfranchised, and their votes transferred to Philip of Mace- don. It has been already mentioned that these twelve did not exhaust the whole of Hellas. Arcadians, Eleans, Pisans, Minyoe, Dryopes, ^Etolians, all genuine Hellens, are not comprehended in it ; but all of them had a right to make use of the temple of Delphi, and to contend in the Pythian and Olympic games. The Pythian games, celebrated near Delphi, were under the superin- tendence of the Amphiktyons, 1 or of some acting magistrate chosen by and presumed to represent them : like the Olympic games, they came round every four years (the interval between one celebration and another being four complete years, which the Greeks called a Pentaeteris) : the Isthmian and Nemean games recurred every two years. In its first humble form, of a compe- tition among bards to sing a hymn in praise of Apollo, this festi- val was doubtless of immemorial antiquity ; 2 but the first extea- 1 Plutarch, Sympos. vii. 5, 1. brated every eight years, marking what we should call an Octacteris, and what the early Greeks called an Ennaeteris (Censorinus, De Die Natali, c. 18). This period is one of considerable importance in reference to the prin- ciple of the Grecian calendar, for ninety-nine lunar months coincide very nearly with eight solar years. The discovery of this coincidence is ascribed by Censorinus to Kleostratus of Tenedos, whose age is not directly known : he must be anterior to Melon, who discovered tho cycle of nineteen sola) years, but (I imagine) not much anterior. In spite of the authority of Idelei it seems to me not proved, nor can I believe, that this octennisil period with it*
 * In this early phase of the Pythian festival, it is said to have been cele-