S upright determinations they acquired so great a reputation, that their posterity called them gods; thus Apollodorus says, that Mars was acquitted by the twelve gods. The number of these judges varied according to the different circumstances of the Athenian government; sometimes they were but nine, at other times thirty-one; and fifty-one. When Socrates was condemned, they were two hundred and eightyone; and when Rufus Festus the proconsul of Greece was honoured with a pillar erected at Athens, it was hinted on that pillar, that the senate of Areopagus consisted of three hundred. From hence it is very probable, that the first constitution of the city directed them to appoint twelve judges of this court; perhaps Cecrops divided his people into twelve wards or districts, appointing a president over each ward, and these governors of the several districts of the city were the first judges of the court of Areopagus. That Cecrops divided his people into twelve districts seems very probable; from its being said of him, that he built twelve cities." For they say also, that all the twelve united at last into one; so that it seems most probable, that Cecrops only divided the people, in order to manage them the more easily; appointing some to live under the direction of one person, whom he appointed to rule for him, and some under another, taking the largest number under his own immediate care, and himself inspecting the management of the rest. And these deputy-governors, together with the king, were by Cranaus formed into a court for the X joint government of the whole people. When the government came into more hands, or was put into fewer, the number of the Areopagite judges lessened or increased. This court had the cognizance of all causes, which more particularly concerned, the welfare of the state; and under this head all innovations in religion were in time brought before these judges. Socrates was condemned by them, for holding opinions contrary to the religion of his country; and St. Paul seems to have been questioned before them about his doctrines, being thought by them to be a seller forth of strange gods. Many learned writers have given large accounts of the constitution and proceedings of this court; which obtained the highest reputation in all countries where the Athenians were known, Cicero says, that the world may as well be said to be governed without the providence of the gods; as the Athenian republic without the decisions of the court of Areopagus. And their determinations were reputed to be so upright, that Pausanias informs us, that even foreign states voluntarily submitted their controversies to these judges. Demosthenes likewise says of this court, that, to his time, no one had ever complained of any unjust sentence given by the judges in it. But it belongs to my design, only to endeavour to fix the time of its first rise; and not to pursue at large the accounts which are given of its proceedings. a The council of the Amphictyones was first instituted by Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, about A. M. 2483. Deucalion was king of Thessaly, and his son Amphictyon succeeded him in his kingdom. Amphictyon, when he came to reign, summoned all the people together, who lived round about him, in order to consult with them for the public welfare. They met at the Pylæ or Thermopyla, (for by either of these names they called the streights of mount Oeta in Thessaly) because through this narrow passage was the only entrance into this country from Greece. Therefore they were called Пuλ, Pylæ, or the gates or doors, that being the signification of the word;" and Thermopyla, because there were many springs of hot waters in these passages, the Greek word Oeguos signifying hot. Here Amphictyon met his people twice a year, to consult with them, to redress any grievances under which they might labour, and to form schemes for the public good. This seems to have been the first design of the council of the Amphictyones, so called from Amphictyon, the person who first appointed it; or some writers imagine, that the coassessors in this council were called 'Auqixlvovis, because they came out of several parts of the circumjacent countries. This was the opinion of Androtion in Pausanias; but the best writers generally embrace the former account, concerning the name of this council, which seems to be the most natural. Though Amphictyon first formed this council out of the people who lived under his government, and for the public good of his own kingdom; yet in time it was composed of the members of different nations, who met with larger and more extensive views, than to settle the affairs of one kingdom. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that the design of it was to cultivate an alliance of the Grecian states with one another; in order to render them more able to engage with any foreign enemy. When the design was thus enlarged, the deputies of several cities were appointed to meet twice a year, in spring, and in autumn. Strabo agrees with schines and Suidas, and computes the cities which sent deputies to this meeting to be twelve; but Pausanias enumerates only ten. It is most probable, that the states which agreed to meet in this council were at first but few, and these lived near Thermopyla. In time more nations joined in alliance with them, and sent their agents to this meeting; who might be but ten when the accounts were taken from which Pausanias wrote; and they might be twelve, when the hints were given from which Strabo, Suidas, and the writers who agree with them wrote. Acrisius king of Argos, who reigned above two hundred years later than Amphictyon, composed some laws or orders for the better regulating this council, and for the dispatch of the affairs which were laid before its members. Now what he did of this sort, occasioned some writers Dionys. Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. lib. 4. c. 25. h Eschinis Orat. p. пaça#gobias Suidas in voc. Αμφικτύονες. i In Phocicis, c. s. to suppose, that he might possibly be the first institutor of this council; but Strabo justly hints that he was thought so, only for want of sufficient memoirs of what had been appointed before his time.' Acrisius 'did indeed in many respects new regulate this meeting; he settled a number of written laws for the calling and management of it; he determined what cities should send deputies to it, and how many each city, and what affairs should be laid before the council;" and it is easy to conceive, that his having made these regulations, might occasion him to be thought in after-ages the first institutor of the assembly. The regulations made by Acrisius were punctually observed; and the several cities, which had votes according to his constitutions, continued to meet without any obstruction, until the time of Philip king of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great; each city having two votes in the council and no more." But in Philip's reign the Phocians and Dorians were excluded the 'council for plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphos; and the two votes belonging to the Dorians were given to the Macedonians, who were then taken into the number of the Amphictyones. About sixty-seven years after this, the Phocians defended the temple at Delphos with so much bravery against the Gauls; * Strabo lib. 9. 'Id. bid. Tα Tadaι MEY BY MYROBITH. m Prideaux not. Histor. ad Chron Marm. |