The Collaborative International Dictionary
Amphictyons \Am*phic"ty*ons\, n. pl. [L. Amphictyones, Gr. ?. Prob. the word was orig. ? dwellers around, neighbors.] (Grecian Hist.) Deputies from the confederated states of ancient Greece to a congress or council. They considered both political and religious matters.
Usage examples of "amphictyons".
Its members, who were called the Amphictyons, consisted of sacred deputies sent from twelve tribes, each of which contained several independent cities or states.
The Pythian games were celebrated in every third Olympic year, on the Cirrhaean plain in Phocis, under the superintendence of the Amphictyons.
He then occupied Delphi, where he assembled the Amphictyons to pronounce sentence upon those who bad been concerned in the sacrilege committed there.
The amphictyons had two sittings a year, one at Delphos the seat of the gods, the other at Thermopylae, the place of heroes.
The Amphictyons had two sessions a year, one at Delphi, place of the gods, the other at Thermopylæ, place of the heroes.
Greece was undone as soon as the kings of Macedon obtained a seat among the Amphictyons.
Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods, ^* and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own country, the Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities.
Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods, ^* and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own country, the Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities.