od of the other
under his appropriate local surname. The pacific communion so fostered,
and the increased assurance of intercourse, as Greece gradually emerged
from the turbulence and pugnacity of the heroic age, operated especially
in extending the range of this ancient habit: the village festivals
became town festivals, largely frequented by the citizens of other
towns, and sometimes with special invitations sent round to attract
Theors from every Hellenic community--and thus these once humble
assemblages gradually swelled into the pomp and immense confluence of
the Olympic and Pythian games. The city administering such holy
ceremonies enjoyed inviolability of territory during the month of their
occurrence, being itself under obligation at that time to refrain from
all aggression, as well as to notify by heralds the commencement of the
truce to all other cities not in avowed hostility with it. Elis imposed
heavy fines upon other towns--even on the powerful Lacedaemon--for
violation of the Olympic truce, on pain of exclusion from the festival
in case of non-payment.

Sometimes this tendency to religious fraternity took a form called an
_Amphictyony_, different from the common festival. A certain number of
towns entered into an exclusive religious partnership for the
celebration of sacrifices periodically to the god of a particular
temple, which was supposed to be the common property and under the
common protection of all, though one of the number was often named as
permanent administrator; while all other Greeks were excluded. That
there were many religious partnerships of this sort, which have never
acquired a place in history, among the early Grecian villages, we may
perhaps gather from the etymology of the word _Amphictyons_--designating
residents around, or neighbors, considered in the point of view of
fellow-religionists--as well as from the indications preserved to us in
reference to various parts of the country. Thus there was an Amphictyony
of seven cities at the holy island of Caluria, close to the harbor of
Troezen. Hermione, Epidaurus, AEgina, Athens, Prasiae, Nauplia, and
Orchomenus, jointly maintained the temple and sanctuary of Poseidon in
that island--with which it would seem that the city of Troezen, though
close at hand, had no connection--meeting there at stated periods, to
offer formal sacrifices. These seven cities indeed were not immediate
neighbors, but the speciality and exclusiveness of their in