AMPHICTYONY, in Greek Antiquity, was an association of several tribes for the purpose of protecting some temple common to them all, and for maintaining worship within it. The members were called ἀμφικτίονες or ἀμφικτύονες, a word which means “the dwellers around.” The second form of the word Benfey supposes to have arisen from a digammated ἀμφικτίϝονες. Out of the name the Athenians, according to their habit, easily discovered the founder of the Delphic Amphictyony, with which they were connected; and hence in later times, by an inverse process, the name was derived from Amphictyon, one of the fabulous kings of Attica.
Similar religious confederations existed in Greece at a very early period, and there is reason to believe that at their stated assemblies they discussed questions of international law and matters affecting their political union as well as religious subjects. Gradually, however, the political influence of the Amphictyonies died away. As states of great power stood on an equality with insignificant tribes in the number of votes, they naturally prevented the settlement of important political matters in such an assembly. Accordingly, during the flourishing period of Greek history the Amphictyonies almost disappear. They are not mentioned in Thucydides and Xenophon. But they appear again in vigour in the time of Philip, and become engines by which political parties, under pretence of religious zeal for the interests of the gods, wreak their vengeance on their rivals and antagonists.
This is especially true of the Amphictyony of Delphi, the most important of all these associations. Though we know better about this confederation than about any other, yet many particulars are hidden in obscurity, and considerable doubts gather around others of which we know something. The Amphictyony existed in very early times, and Æschines states that it arose when the temple at Delphi was first built. It is more likely, however, that it was originally connected with Thermopylæ and the temple of Demeter Amphictyonis which was there. The Amphictyony consisted of a union of twelve tribes, each of which had a right to two votes. These tribes were for the most part Thessalian or bordering on Thessaly; and it is probable that the others, as the Dorians and lonians, gained admission in consequence of colonies that came to them from Thessaly.
There are nine lists of the tribes that constituted the Delphic Amphictyony in the classical writers and in inscriptions. Of these only one is complete, and the rest differ from each other in some particulars. The one that is complete was found on a Delphic stone containing a decree of the Amphictyonic council in regard to money due to the Delphic treasury. On this stone are given the votes of each tribe, and the final decision of the council in harmony with the majority of votes for one of the opinions held. The list is as follows:—The Delphians, two votes; Thessalians, two votes; Phocians, two votes; Dorians from Metropolis, one vote; the Dorians from Peloponnesus, one vote; the Athenians, one vote; the Eubœans, one vote; the Bœotians, two votes; the Achæan Phthiots, two votes; the Malians, one vote; the Œteans, one vote; the Dolopians, one vote; the Perrhæbians, one vote; the Magnetes, two votes; the Ænianes, two votes; the Locri Hypocnemidii, one vote; the Locri Hesperii, one vote. The exact date of the decree recorded on the Delphic stone is matter of dispute, but the most probable conjecture places it about the year 130 B.C. We have therefore clear testimony as to the constitution of the Amphictyonic council at this date; and, starting from this, we can form some idea of the changes which took place in the members of the council. It is generally believed that no change took place in the tribes forming the league till the time of the second sacred war, 345 B.C. Of these tribes Æschines gives us a list, with the omission of one. They are the Thessalians, Bœotians, Dorians, lonians, Perrhæbians, Magnetes, Locri, Œteans, Phthiots, Malians, Phocians; and there can be little doubt that it is the Dolopians who have been by some mistake omitted. The confusions in some of the other lists have arisen probably from the ignorance of transcribers, who did not know that the Ænianes and Œteans lived close to each other, and were often comprehended under the same name, and who made two tribes of the Achæan Phthiots, Achæans and Phthiots. Æschines says that all these tribes had equal right of voting; but the inscription on the Delphic stone shows that the two votes of one tribe might be divided among two different portions of it. At the conclusion of the Phocian war the Phocians were excluded, and the Macedonians received their votes; and the vote of the Lacedæmonians was given to the other Doric tribes of Peloponnesus. The Delphians also obtained votes, either at this time or after the third sacred war, 338 B.C., by some of the smaller tribes that had two votes being restricted to one. In the same way, and also by the exclusion of the Locri Ozolæ, the Ætolians secured a place in the council in 338 B.C., and gradually took possession of a great number of votes. The Phocians were restored to their place in 279 B.C., on account of their gallant resistance to the Gauls. Finally, the Ætolians and Macedonians were excluded from the council, and the constitution of the council as given in the Delphic stone was formed. The last change mentioned in classical writers is detailed by Pausanias, but the passage is evidently corrupt. Augustus wished to give votes to Nicopolis, and for this purpose so altered the constitution of the council as to make the votes thirty in number.
The objects of the league are distinctly expressed in the oath which the Amphictyons had to take, and which is preserved in Æschines's oration “De Falsa Legatione.” This oath bound the Amphictyons not to destroy any of the Amphictyonic towns, not to turn away its running waters either in time of war or in time of peace; and if any one should attempt to rob the temple of Delphi (the common centre of the confederacy), to employ their hands, feet, tongue, and their whole power to bring him to punishment. The humanising influence which this and other enactments of the confederacy were intended to exercise, is perceptible in the part relating to war. The framer of the law evidently regarded war only as an unavoidable means of settling disputes between two states; but it was to be carried on only for the purpose of bringing the dispute to a decision, and not for destruction and devastation. Another enactment probably was that the inhabitants of a conquered city should not be sold as slaves. But the chief care of the Amphictyons appears to have been to watch over the temple, to punish those who were guilty of a crime against it, and to reward those who did anything to increase its splendour and glory.
