PHOCIS, an ancient district of central Greece (now a de partment, pop. c. 65,000, area, 625 sq.m.), bounded on the W. by Ozolian Locris and Doris, on the N. by Opuntian Locris, on the E. by Boeotia, and on the S. by the Corinthian Gulf. The mas sive ridge of Parnassus (8,o68 ft.), traverses the heart of the country. Between this and the northern frontier range of Cnemis (3,00o ft.) is the narrow fertile valley of the Cephissus, along which lie most of the Phocian townships. South of Parnassus the two small plains of Crisa and Anticyra are separated by Mt. Cirphis. Phocis was mainly pastoral.
Its early history is obscure. Its population was reckoned Aeolic, but the dialects are of the West-Greek group, more akin to Doric. There was a tradition that the Phocians once owned land round Daphnus opposite Euboea, and had their frontier at Thermopylae. Later restriction of territory was due to the hos tility of Boeotia and Thessaly. The latter in the 6th century even raided the Cephissus valley. In early days Phocians controlled the sanctuary of Delphi. But Delphi constantly strove for independence and about 590 B.C. induced a coalition of Greek states to proclaim a "Sacred Wai" and free the oracle from Pho cian supervision. Thus Phocian influence at Delphi was restricted to the possession of two votes in the Amphictyonic Council.
During the Persian invasion of 48o the Phocians at first joined in the national defence, but their irresolute conduct lost Ther mopylae for the Greeks; and at Plataea they were on the Persian side. In 457 an attempt to control the head waters of the Ce phissus in the territory of Doris brought a Spartan army into Phocis in defence of the "metropolis of the Dorians." A similar attack on Delphi in 448 was again frustrated by Sparta, but not long afterwards the Phocians recaptured the sanctuary with the help of the Athenians, with whom they became allied in 454. When Athenian land-power declined, Phocian friendship waned, and in the Peloponnesian War Phocis was nominally an ally of Sparta, and had lost control of Delphi.
In the 4th century Phocis was constantly endangered by Boeo tian oppression. After helping Sparta to invade Boeotia during the Corinthian War the Phocians received assistance from Sparta in 38o, but afterwards submitted to the growing power of Thebes. Phocians took part in Epameinondas' earlier inroads into the Peloponnesus, but abstained from the campaign of Mantineia (37o-362). In return for this negligence the Thebans secured a penal decree against them for religious offences from the Amphictyonic synod (356). The Phocians, led by two capable generals, Philomelus and Onomarchus, replied by seizing Delphi and using its riches to hire mercenaries with whose help they in vaded Boeotia and Thessaly, and though driven out of Thessaly by Philip of Macedon, maintained themselves for ten years, until the exhaustion of the temple treasures and the treachery of their leaders placed them at Philip's mercy. In 339 the Phocians began to rebuild their cities; in 338 they fought against Philip at Chae roneia; in 323 they took part in the Lamian War against Antipater, and in 279 helped to defend Thermopylae against the Gauls.
During the 3rd century Phocis passed into the power of Mace donia and of the Aetolian League, to which in 196 it was an nexed. Under Roman rule its league was dissolved, but was revived by Augustus, who also restored to Phocis the votes in the Delphic Amphictyony which it had lost in 346 and enrolled it in the new Achaean synod. The Phocian League is last heard of under Trajan.
See Strabo, pp. 401, 418, Pausanias x. 1-4; E. Freeman, History of Federal Government (ed. 1893), pp. G. Kazarow, De foederis Phocensium institutis (Leipzig, 1899) ; B. Head, Historza numorum (1887), pp. 287-288. Pauly-Wissowa s.v.