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92 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP, vn.measure, the foundation of a system of national law, alOf this we havethough it was never brought to maturity.indisputable proof in the ancient oaths, which were takenby all the members of the assembly,and which have beenpreserved by jEscliines. 1 " I read," says the " orator, in theassembly the oaths, to which the heaviest imprecations wereattached ;and by which our ancestors * were obligedtopromise never to destroy any one of the Amphictyonic cities, 3nor to cut off their streams, 4 whether in war or in peace ;should any city dare, notwithstanding, to do so, to take uparms againstit and layit waste ;and ifany one should sinagainst the god, or form any scheme against the sanctuary,to oppose him with hand and foot, and word and deed/ 9This form of oath, it cannot be doubted, was vory ancient,and expresseswith sufficient clearness the original objectsof the confederation. But it shows equally distinctly,, thatthe attainment of these ends depended much more on thecircumstances and condition of the age,than on the members of the council themselves.To him who measures the value of this assembly only bythe influence which it had in preventing wars among thetribes that took partin it, its utility may seem very doubtful ;as history has preserved no proofs of such influence*But even if it had existed in the earliest it ages,,must haveceased of itself, when- individual states of Greece bccamo sopowerful, as to assume a supremacy over the rest Spartaand Athens referred the decision of their quarrels to Delphi,as little as Prussia and Austria to Ratisbon. But it wouldbe wrong to impute the blame of this to the members of thecouncil. /They had no strong arm, except when the godextended his to protect them ;or some other power tookarms in their behalf. But it is a high degree of merit topreserve principles in the memory of the nations, ovenwhen it is impossible to prevent their violation. And when,we observe that several ideas relatingto the law of nations,were indelibly imprinted on the character of the Greeks ;ifin the midst of all their civil wars, they never laid wasteany Grecian city, even when it was subdued; ought wo nots, 1. c. p. 234. 2 01 ,9 Avdcrrarov Troika*, to render uninhabitable, by removingits inhabitants.4By means of which they would have become uninhabitable,