Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/505

 AMPHIKTYOKIC 1IEETINS. 479 ilie public assembly passed a resolution peremptorily fbrtilding all interference on the part of Athens at that special meeting. "The Hieromnemon and the Pylagorse of Athens (so the decree prescribed) shall take no part either in word or deed or resolu- tion, with the persons assembled at that special meeting. They shall visit Delphi and Thermopylae at the regular times fixed by our forefathers." This important decree marks the change of opinion at Athens. JEschines indeed tells us, that it was only procured by crafty manoeuvre on the part of Demosthenes ; being hurried through in a thin assembly, at the close of business, when most citizens (and JEschines among them) had gone away But there is nothing to confirm such insinuations ; moreover JEschines, if he had still retained the public sentiment in his favor, could easily have baffled the tricks of his rival. 1 The special meeting of Amphiktyons at Thermopylae accord- ingly took place, at some time between the two regular periods of spring and autumn. No legates attended from Athens nor any from Thebes ; a fact made known to us by JEschines, and remarka- ble as evincing an incipient tendency towards concurrence, such as had never existed before, between these two important cities. The remaining legates met, determined to levy a joint force for the purpose of punishing the Amphissians, and chose the president Kottyphus general. According to JEschines, this force was brought together, marched against the Lokrians, and reduced them to submission, but granted to them indulgent terms ; requiring from them a fine to the Delphian god, payable at stated intervals sentencing some of the Lokrian leaders to banishment as hav- ing instigated the encroachment on the sacred domain and re- calling others who had opposed it. But the Lokrians (he says), after the force had retired, broke faith, paid nothing, and brought back all the guilty leaders. Demosthenes, on the contrary, states, that Kottyphus summoned contingents from the various Amphik- t} r onic states ; but some never camo at all, while those that did come were lukewarm and inefiicient; so that the purpose altogeth- er miscarried. 2 The account of Demosthenes is the more probable of the two : for we know from JEschines himself that neither 1 JEschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 71.
 * Deuiosthcn. DC CoronA, p. 277 ; JEschines adv. Ktesiph. p. 72.