The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League (, koinòn tõn Hellḗnōn; or simply , the Héllēnes), was a federation of Greek states created by Philip II of Macedon in 338–337 BC. The League was created in order to unify Greek military forces under Macedonian hegemony (leadership) in a pan-Hellenic expedition against the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

King Philip was initially urged by Isocrates in 346 BC to unify Greece against the Persians. After the Battle of Chaeronea, the League of Corinth was formed and controlled by Philip. Alexander the Great utilized his father's league when planning his pan-Hellenic invasion of Asia to expand Macedon and take revenge on the Persian Empire. During the Hellenistic period, some Antigonid rulers of Macedon shortly revived the league, also known as the 'Hellenic Alliance'.

The title 'League of Corinth' was invented by modern historians because the first council of the League took place in Corinth, though the Greek word synedrion is better translated as congress. The adjective Hellenic derives from Hellenikos meaning "pertaining to Greece and Greeks". The League was the first time in history that the Greek city-states (save Sparta, by then deprived of Messenia and long since in terminal decline as a military power) would unify under a single political entity.

Philip II of Macedon and the ideas of Panhellenic unity

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, including Isocrates, who urged king Philip (in Isocrates' Philippus oration) to unify Greek powers against the Persians. (strategos autokrator in a military context), the council (Synedrion), 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. Decrees of the league were issued in Corinth, Athens, Delphi, Olympia and Pydna. The League maintained an army and a navy levied from member states in approximate proportion to their size, while Philip established Hellenic garrisons (commanded by phrourarchs, or garrison commanders) in Corinth, Thebes, Pydna and Ambracia.

Treaty of the Common Peace

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 the Acrocorinth and Chalcis, as well as at the Cadmea of Thebes. (A fragmentary inscription of the oath was found in Athens)

Text

Translation

Campaigns of Alexander the Great

The decision for the destruction of Thebes as transgressor of the above oath was taken by the council of the League of Corinth by a large majority. 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. The League is mentioned by Arrian (I, 16, 7), after the Battle of Granicus (334 BC). Alexander sent 300 panoplies to the temple of Pallas Athena in Athens, with the following inscription.

Also, Diodorus Siculus (Βίβλος ΙΖ’ 48.[6]) mentions the council's decision in 333 BC, after the Battle of Issus, to send ambassadors to Alexander that will bring the Excellence of Greece (Golden Wreath). During 331 BC after the Battle of Megalopolis, Sparta appealed to Alexander for terms, to which he agreed on condition that the Lacedaemonians now joined the League of Corinth. During the Asiatic campaign, Antipater was appointed deputy hegemon of the League 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.

Revivals by Antigonid kings

The League was dissolved after the Lamian War in 322 BC. Following the victory of Demetrius I Poliorcetes at the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC, his father, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, assumed the title of Basileus ("King" of Alexander's Empire) by the assembled armies and gained control over the Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean, and most of the Middle East. While Antigonus and Demetrius attempted to recreate Philip II's Hellenic league with themselves as dual hegemons, a revived coalition of the diadochi; Cassander, Ptolemy I Soter, Seleucus I Nicator, and Lysimachus decisively defeated them at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, in which Antigonus I was killed.

Antigonus III Doson (r. 229 – 221 BC) revived the Hellenic League, this time better known as the 'Hellenic Alliance', being placed as the president himself in 224 BC. The league functioned as an alliance (symmachia) of existing Greek federations under Macedonian hegemony. This alliance consisted not of poleis, but rather of larger regional entities, like the Achaeans, Thessalians, Boeotians, Epirotes etc. These federations maintained internal autonomy, but were interdependent with respect to foreign policy. Antigonus' league expanded Antigonid rule in southern Greece recovering Arcadia in 224 BC and defeating king Cleomenes III of Sparta at the Battle of Sellasia in 222 BC. Doson managed to restore political stability in Greece and reestablish its position as the dominant power in Hellenistic Greece.

See also

  • Koinon
  • Symmachia (alliance)
  • Hellenic League (disambiguation)
  • Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
  • Aigai
  • Ancient Corinth

Footnotes

Sources

Further reading

  • 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, , pp. 52–249.
  • Perlman, Shalom (1985). "Greek Diplomatic Tradition and the Corinthian League of Philip of Macedon". Historia 34, pp. 153–174.