The Greek writers, who notice the re ligions jurisdiction of the council, point our attention almost exclusively to Del phi ; but it may be inferred from a re markable fact mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 14), that it was much more ex tensive. The Samians, when petitioning in the time of the Emperor Tiberius for the confirmation of a certain privilege to their temple of Juno, pleaded an ancient decree of the Amphictyons in their favour. The words of the historian seem to imply that the decree was made at an early period in the existence of Greek colonies In Asia Minor, and he says that the de cision of the Amphictyons on all matters had at that time pre-eminent authority.
The sacred wars, as they were called, which were originated by the Amphic tyons in the exercise of their judicial authority, can here be noticed only so far as they help to illustrate the immediate subject of inquiry. The Cirrhman war, in the time of Solon, has already been incidentally mentioned. The port of Cirrha, a town on the Crisman bay, af forded the readiest access from the coast to Delphi. The Cirrhteaus, availing them selves of their situation, grievously op pressed by heavy exactions the numerous pilgrims to the Delphic temple. The Amphictyons, by direction of the oracle, proclaimed a sacred war to avenge the cause of the god ; that is, to correct an abuse which was generally offensive, and particularly injurious to the interests of the Delphian. Cirrha was destroyed, the inhabitants were reduced to slavery, their lands consecrated to Apollo, and a curse was pronounced on all who should hereafter cultivate them. We are told that Solon acted a prominent part on this occasion, and that great deference was shown to his counsels. Mr. Mitford, in deed, has discovered without help from history, which is altogether silent on the subject, that he was the author of sundry important innovations, and that he in fact remodelled the constitution of the Am phictyonic body. He has even been able to catch a view of the secret intentions of the legislator, and of the political prin ciples which guided him. But in further assigning to Solon the command of the Amphictyonic army, he is opposed to the direct testimony of the ancient historians.
From the conclusion of the Cirrhnan war to the time of Philip of Macedon, an interval exceeding two centuries, we hear little more of the Amphictyons, than that they rebuilt the temple at Delphi, which had been destroyed by fire n.c. M8 ; that they set a price on the head of Ephialtes, who betrayed the cause of the Greeks at Thermopylae, and conferred public hon ours on the patriots who died there ; and that they erected a monument to the famous diver Scyllias as a reward for the information which, as the story goes, he conveyed under water from the Thessa lien coast to the commanders of the Grecian fleet at Artemisium. If Plutarch
may be trusted, the power of the Amphic tyons had not at this time fallen into con tempt. When a proposition was made by the Lacechemontans to expel from the council all the states which had not taken part in the war against the Persians, it was resisted successfully by Themistocles, on the ground that the exclusion of three considerable states, Argos, Thebes, and the Thessalians, would give to the more powerful of the remaining members a preponderating influence in the council, dangerous to the rest of Greece.
After having, for a long period, nearly lost sight of the Amphictyons in history, we find them venturing, in the fallen fortunes of Sparta, to impose a heavy fine on that state as a punishment for an old offence, the seizure of the Theban Cadmeia, the payment of which, how ever, they made no attempt to enforce. In this case, as well as in the celebrated Phocian war, the Amphictyonic council can be considered only as an instrument in the hands of the Ihebans, who, after their successful resistance to Sparta, ap pear to have acquired a preponderating udiueme in it, and who found it con venient to use its name and authority, whilst prosecuting their own schemes of vengeance or ambition. Though the charge brought against the Phocians was that of impiety in cultivating a part of the accursed Cirrhtean plain, there is no reason to think that any religious feeling was excited, at least in the earlier part of the contest; and Amphictyonic states were eagerly engaged as combatants on both sides. For an account of this war the reader is referred to a general his tory of Greece. The council was so far affected by the result, that it was com pelled to receive a new member, and in fact a master, in the person of Philip of Macedon, who was thus rewarded for his important services at the expense of the Phocians, who were expelled from the confederacy. They were, however, at a subsequent period restored, in conse quence of their noble exertions in the cause of Greece and the Delphic god against the Gauls. It may be remarked, that the testimony of the Phocian general Philomelus, whatever may be its value, is rather in favour of the supposition that the council was not always connected with Delphi. He justifies his opposition to its decrees, on the Found that the right which the Amphictyons claimed was comparatively a modern usurpation. In the case of the Amphissians, whose crime was similar to that of the Phocians, the name of the Amphictyons was again readily employed ; but Eschines, who seems to have been the principal instiga tor of the war, had doubtless a higher object in view than that of punishing the Amphissians for impiety.