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80 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP, vn.body. But this Amphictyonic assembly contributed muchto the preservingof national feeling and national unity, andas such deserves to be considered bytention.us with more atStrabo concedes, 1 that even in his time it was impossibleto ascertain the originof the Amphictyonic assembly this;however was certain, that itbelonged to remote antiquity.We must here remark, that Homer does not make any men; stion of it; and yet Homer speaks of the wealthy Delphi^and althoughhis silence affords no proofthat it did notexist, we may at least infer, that the council was not them BOimportant as at a later clay.The causes which nuiclo thisAmphictyonia so much superior to all the rest, arc not expressly given ; but should we err, if we were to look forthem in the ever-increasing dignity and influence of theDelphic, oracle? When we call to mind the great importance attached to the liberty of consulting this oracle,scarcely a doubt on the subject can remain. The stateswhich were members of this Amphictyonia, had no exclusive rightto that privilege but;had the care of the temple, and therefore of the 3oracle, in their hands, No ancientwriter has preservedfor us so accurate an account of theregulations of that institution, that allimportant questionsrespecting them can be answered and;those who speak ofthem do not agreewith each other. But from a comparisonof their statements, we may infer, that though thus Amphictyonia did not by any means embrace the whole of theHellenes, yet the most considerable states of the mothercountry and of Asia Minor took part in it, According tojEschines, 4there were twelve of them (although he enumerates but eleven) ; Thessalians, Boeotians, (not the Thobansonly, he expressly remarks,) Dorians, lonians, Perrhdbians,1Strabo, 1. c. The special inquiries on this subject may be found diHCtwsedin the prize Essay qfTittman, on the Amphictyonic Leajme, Bcrlm, IHll2 II. ix. 404, 405. Homer calls itPytho.8 Individual states obtained the right of being the first to consult the oracle, TTpojuaireia, and this right was valued very highly.4JEschines de Falsd, Legationc, Hi. p. 285, ed. Heisk. Thia is the most important passage. St. Croix, p. 27, has compared the discrepant accounts ofPausanias, x. p. 815, and Harpocration, v, Aji0iicr6owc. The authority oflEschines respecting his own times, seems to me of more weight; than all theothers, and therefore I follow him alone. No man had better means of information than he. But many changes in the regulations were subsequentlymade by the Macedonians and the Romans.