But there was one among these many Amphictyonies, which, though starting from the smallest beginnings, gradually expanded into so comprehensive a character, had acquired so marked a predominance over the rest, as to be called the “Amphictyonic assembly,” and even to have been mistaken by some authors for a sort of federal Hellenic diet.  Twelve sub-races, out of the number which made up entire Hellas, belonged to this ancient Amphictyony, the meetings of which were held twice in every year:  in spring at the temple of Apollo at Delphi; in autumn at Thermopylae, in the sacred precinct of Demeter Amphictyonis.  Sacred deputies, including a chief called the Hieromnemon and subordinates called the Pylagorae, attended at these meetings from each of the twelve races:  a crowd of volunteers seem to have accompanied them, for purposes of sacrifice, trade, or enjoyment.  Their special, and most important, function consisted in watching over the Delphian temple, in which all the twelve sub-races had a joint interest, and it was the immense wealth and national ascendency of this temple which enhanced to so great a pitch the dignity of its acknowledged administrators.

The twelve constituent members were as follows:  Thessalians, Boeotians, Dorians, Ionians, Perrhaebians, Magnetes, Locrians, Oetaeans, Achaeans, Phocians, Dolopes, and Malians.  All are counted as races (if we treat the Hellenes as a race, we must call these sub-races), no mention being made of cities:  all count equally in respect to voting, two votes being given by the deputies from each of the twelve:  moreover, we are told that in determining the deputies to be sent or the manner in which the votes of each race should be given, the powerful Athens, Sparta, and Thebes had no more influence than the humblest Ionian, Dorian, or Boeotian city.  This latter fact is distinctly stated by AEschines, himself a Pylagore sent to Delphi by Athens.  And so, doubtless, the theory of the case stood:  the votes of the Ionic races counted for neither more nor less than two, whether given by deputies from Athens, or from the small towns of Erythrae and Priene; and in like manner the Dorian votes were as good in the division, when given by deputies from Boeon and Cytinion in the little territory of Doris, as if the men delivering them had been Spartans.  But there can be as little question that in practice the little Ionic cities and the little Doric cities pretended to no share in the Amphictyonic deliberations.  As the Ionic vote came to be substantially the vote of Athens, so, if Sparta was ever obstructed in the management of the Doric vote, it must have been by powerful Doric cities like Argos or Corinth, not by the insignificant towns of Doris.  But the theory of Amphictyonic suffrage as laid down by AEschines, however little realized in practice during his day, is important inasmuch as it shows in full evidence the primitive and original constitution.  The first establishment of the Amphictyonic convocation dates from a time when all the twelve members were on a footing of equal independence, and when there were no overwhelming cities—­such as Sparta and Athens—­to cast in the shade the humbler members; when Sparta was only one Doric city, and Athens only one Ionic city, among various others of consideration not much inferior.