TheLeague of Corinth, also referred to as theHellenic League (Greek:κοινὸν τῶν Ἑλλήνων,koinòn tõn Hellḗnōn;[a] or simplyοἱ Ἕλληνες,the Héllēnes),[3] was afederation ofGreek states created byPhilip II[4] in 338–337 BC. The League was created in order to unify Greek military forces underMacedonian leadership (hegemony) in their combined conquest of the PersianAchaemenid Empire.[5][6][7]
King Philip was initially urged byIsocrates in 346 BC to unify Greece against the Persians.[8][9] After theBattle of Chaeronea, the League of Corinth was formed and controlled by Philip.Alexander utilized his father's league when planning his pan-Hellenic invasion of Asia to expand Macedon and take revenge on the Persian Empire.[10] During theHellenistic period, someAntigonid rulers of Macedon shortly revived the league, also known as the 'Hellenic Alliance'.[11]
The title 'League of Corinth' was invented by modern historians because the first council of the League took place inCorinth, though the Greek wordsynedrion is better translated ascongress. The adjective Hellenic derives fromHellenikos meaning "pertaining to Greece and Greeks".[12][13][14] The League was the first time in history that the Greek city-states (saveSparta, by then deprived ofMessenia and long since in terminal decline as a military power) would unify under a single political entity.[15]
From the mid-fourth century BC, the system of city-states (poleis) was gradually challenged by the ideas of pan-Hellenic unity, forwarded by some writers and orators, includingIsocrates, who urged king Philip (in Isocrates'Philippus oration) to unify Greek powers against the Persians.[8] Pan-Hellenic unity was only achieved with the rise of Macedon.[9] Following his victory at theBattle of Chaeronea (337 BC), Philip was able to impose a settlement upon southern Greece, which all states accepted, with the exception ofSparta. Philip had no intention of besieging any city, nor indeed of conquering it, but rather he wanted the southern Greeks as his allies for his planned campaign against the Persians.[16] In the months after the battle, he moved around Greece making peace with the states that opposed him, dealing with the Spartans, and installing garrisons.[17] In mid 337 BC, he seems to have camped nearCorinth and began the work to establish a league of the city-states, which would guarantee peace in Greece and provide Philip with military assistance against Persia.[18] The principal terms of the concord were that all members became allied to each other, and to Macedon, and that all members were guaranteed freedom from attack, freedom of navigation, and freedom from interference in internal affairs.[19] The council then declared war on Persia and voted Philip asstrategos for the forthcoming campaign.[4][20]
The League was governed by theHegemon (leader)[21][22][23] (strategos autokrator[24][25] in a military context),[26] the council (Synedrion),[27] and the judges (Dikastai). Delegates of the member-states (Synedroi) were responsible for administering the common affairs of the League. They were summoned and presided over by a committee of presiding officers (Proedroi), chosen by lot in time of peace, and by the Hegemon in time of war.[19] Decrees of the league were issued inCorinth,Athens,Delphi,Olympia andPydna.[28] The League maintained an army and a navy levied from member states in approximate proportion to their size, while Philip established Hellenic garrisons (commanded byphrourarchs, or garrison commanders) in Corinth,Thebes,Pydna[29] andAmbracia.
All members states of the League of Corinth were listed in the oath they sworn under the 'Treaty of the Common Peace' (Koine Eirene). The peace was watched over by a Macedonian garrison positioned at the heights of theAcrocorinth andChalcis, as well as at theCadmea of Thebes.[30] (A fragmentary inscription of the oath was found in Athens)[31][32]
Oath. I swear byZeus,Gaia,Helios,Poseidon and all the gods and goddesses. I will abide by the common peace and I will neither break the agreement with Philip, nor take up arms on land or sea, harming any of those abiding by the oaths. Nor shall I take any city, or fortress, nor harbour by craft or contrivance, with intent of war against the participants of the war. Nor shall I depose the kingship of Philip or his descendants, nor the constitutions existing in each state, when they swore the oaths of the peace. Nor shall I do anything contrary to these agreements, nor shall I allow anyone else as far as possible. But if anyone does commit any breach of the treaty, I shall go in support as called by those who need and I shall fight the transgressors of the common peace, as decided (by the council) and called on by thehegemon and I shall not abandon--------
The decision for thedestruction of Thebes as transgressor of the above oath was taken by the council of the League of Corinth by a large majority.[33] Beyond the violation of the oath, the council judged that the Thebans were thus finally punished for their betrayal of the Greeks during the Persian Wars.[34][35] The League is mentioned byArrian (I, 16, 7), after theBattle of Granicus (334 BC). Alexander sent 300panoplies to the temple ofPallas Athena in Athens, with the following inscription.
Alexander, son of Philip, and the Hellenes, except theLacedaemonians, from the barbarians inhabiting Asia[36]
Also, Diodorus Siculus (Βίβλος ΙΖ’ 48.[6]) mentions the council's decision in 333 BC, after theBattle of Issus, to send ambassadors to Alexander that will bring theExcellence of Greece (Golden Wreath).[37] During 331 BC after theBattle of Megalopolis, Sparta appealed to Alexander for terms, to which he agreed on condition that the Lacedaemonians now joined the League of Corinth.[38] During the Asiatic campaign,Antipater was appointed deputy hegemon of the League[39] while Alexander personally recommended that the Athenians turn their attention to things; in case something happened to him, Athens would take over the power in Greece.[40]
Antigonus III Doson (r. 229 – 221 BC) revived the Hellenic League, this time better known as the 'Hellenic Alliance',[43] in 224 BC placing himself as the president. The league functioned as an alliance (symmachia) of existing Greek federations under Macedonian hegemony. This alliance consisted not ofpoleis, but rather of larger regional entities, like the Achaeans, Thessalians, Boeotians, Epirotes etc.[44] These federations maintained internal autonomy, but were interdependent with respect to foreign policy.[45] Antigonus' league expanded Antigonid rule in southern Greece recoveringArcadia in 224 BC and defeating kingCleomenes III of Sparta at theBattle of Sellasia in 222 BC.[46] Doson managed to restore internal stability in Macedon and reestablish its position as the dominant power in Hellenistic Greece.[47][48]
^Grant 2017, p. 24 :"...the League of Corinth, a federation that representedto koinon ton Hellenon, the community of the Greeks and their Defenders of their Peace.".
^Cawkwell 1978, p. 171 :"The League of Corinth' is a modern name. It was properly styled 'the Hellenes', the somewhat ambiguous title used for earlier leagues from the Persian Wars onwards, suggesting a large measure of continuity".
^Kinzl 2010, p. 553 :"He [Philip] also recognized the power of pan-Hellenic sentiment when arranging Greek affairs after his victory at Chaironeia: a pan-Hellenic expedition against Persia ostensibly was one of the main goals of the League of Corinth".
^abHarle 1998, p. 24 :"The idea of the city-state was first challenged by the ideal of pan-Hellenic unity supported by some writers and orators, among which the Athenian Isocrates became a leading proponent with his Panegyrics of 380 suggesting a Greek holy war against Persia. However, only the rise of Macedonia made the realization of pan-Hellenic unity possible".
^Davis Hanson 2012, p. 119 :"Afterwards he [Alexander] revived his father's League of Corinth, and with it his plan for a pan-Hellenic invasion of Asia to punish the Persians for the suffering of the Greeks, especially the Athenians, in the Greco-Persian Wars and to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor".
^Erskine 2009, p. 155 :"Following the footsteps of Philip II and his own great-grandfather (and namesake), Antigonos organized yet another 'League of Corinth', although this third version is better known as the 'Hellenic Alliance'".
^Ἑλληνικός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
^Cawkwell 1978, p. 166 :"No sieges followed. Philip intended, as events showed, to master, not to destroy, the independent cities of Greece. Destruction he was reserving for the empire of the Persians, or at any rate the western satrapies, and for that he needed the help of the Greeks".
^Alexander’s letter to Darius after the battle of Issus: «Οι υμέτεροι πρόγονοι ελθόντεςεις Μακεδονίαν και εις την άλλην Ελλάδα κακώς εποίησαν ημάς.Εγώ δε των Ελλήνων ηγεμών κατασταθείς και τιμωρήσασθαι βουλόμενος Πέρσας διέβην ες Ασίαν, υπαρξάντων υμών» Arrian,Alexander Anabasis [2.14.4.]
^Adams, Winthrop Lindsay (2010). "Alexander's Successors to 221 BC". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.).A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, Chichester, & Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 217.ISBN978-1-4051-7936-2
^Erskine 2009, p. 155 :"Unlike previous Macedonian-sponsored alliances of Greek states, however, Doson'ssymmachia was not made up ofpoleis, rather, its constituents were all regional entities: the Achaians, Thessalians, Macedonians, Boiotians, Phokians, Akarnanians and Epeirotes".
^Speake 2021, p. 90 :"One of the most important acts of Doson's reign was the foundation in 224 BC of the so-called Hellenic League, an alliance of existing Greek federations under Macedonian hegemony. The various federations were to be internally autonomous, but interdependent with respect to foreign policy".
Degen, Julian (2022).Alexander III. zwischen Ost und West. Indigene Traditionen und Herrschaftsinszenierung im makedonischen Weltimperium [Alexander III between East and West. Indigenous traditions and the staging of power in the Macedonian world empire]. Oriens et Occidens, vol. 39. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner,ISBN978-3-515-13283-1, pp. 52–249.
Perlman, Shalom (1985). "Greek Diplomatic Tradition and the Corinthian League of Philip of Macedon".Historia34, pp. 153–174.