784 DELPECH but was still remarkable for commerce; and after the destruction of Corinth by the Ko- mans (146 B. C.), it' was the chief emporium of the slave trade, and a flourishing seat of art. The city and temple were plundered and destroyed by Menophanes, general of Mithri- dates, king of Pontus, and the women and children sent as slaves to Asia. At a later period the remains of the splendid ancient buildings were carried away by Venetians and Byzantines ; but interesting ruins still exist. DELPECH, Jacques Mathieu, a French surgeon, born in Toulouse about 1775, murdered in Montpellier, Oct. 29, 1832. In 1793 he joined the army of the Pyrenees as an assistant in the medical corps, and after five years' ser- vice returned to Toulouse, where he was at- tached to the surgical service of the hospital St. Jacques. He finished his education at the medical school of Montpellier in 1802, and soon after took up his residence in Paris, where he acted as surgical assistant to Baron Boyer. In 1812 he was appointed professor of clinical surgery at the school of Montpel- lier, where he continued for the remainder of his life. He was assassinated in the street by a man who immediately afterward committed suicide, and whose motive was never certainly known. Delpech was distinguished alike for skill as a practitioner, especially in the treat- ment of deformities, eloquence and clearness as a lecturer, and generosity. His most im- portant works were : Reflexions sur la cause de Vanevrysme spontane (Paris, 1813) ; Memoire 'sur la complication des plaies et des ulceres connue sous le nom de pourriture d?Mpital (1815); Precis elementaires des maladies re- putees cUrurgicales (3 vols. 8vo, 1816); Chi- rurgie clinique de Montpellier (2 vols., 1823- '8) ; De VorihomorpTiie par rapport d Vespece humaine (2 vols., 1828-'9) ; and Memorial des hopitaux du Midi et de la clinique de Montpel- lier (a monthly journal, 1829 -'31). DELPHI (Gr. AetyoQ, a town of ancient Greece, deriving its importance from its oracle of Apollo, the most famous in the ancient world. It was situated in the S. W. part of Phocis, in a narrow valley, on the river Plistus, at the foot of Mount Parnassus. The remains of the modern village of Oastri, almost en- tirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1870, now occupy a portion of its site. The oracle was the nucleus around which the town grew up. According to the legends, Apollo long searched for a spot on which to found a temple, and at last came to the valley at the foot of Mount Parnassus, which so charmed him that after he had slain a huge serpent which inhabited the place, he established his worship there. From the serpent's rotting (Gr. 7r60m>, to rot) in the ground, the Homeric hymn to Apollo inge- niously derives the name Pytho by which the temple was first known. To obtain priests for his worship, Apollo now changed himself into a dolphin, and conducted into the Crisssean gulf a Cretan vessel which was on its way to DELPHI Cno'ssus; the crew became his priests and worshipped him under the name of Apollo Delphinius (Gr. <feA0tf, a dolphin, whence also the name Delphi). From the antiquity of these legends, which are themselves probably mere attempts to explain the names, it appears that the worship of Apollo was in some way established in this valley in the very earliest times. At the period of the Homeric poems a magnificent temple already stood there, said to have been built by the architects Agamedes and his brother Trophonius, who however were doubtless mythical characters. A city had also sprung up about the shrine of the god. In the earliest times this was subject to the neighbor- ing town of Crissa, and afterward to that city's rapidly increasing seaport of Cirrha, in which crowds of pilgrims landed on their way to the oracle, so enriching the harbor town that it rapidly gained a lasting superiority over Crissa. About the year 598 B. C. complaints arose that the people of Cirrha treated the pilgrims on their way to Delphi unjustly ; and the amphic- tyonic league, comprising representatives of the countries of Greece, rose to avenge the alleged insult to Apollo. In this war, called the first sacred war (595 to 585), they defeated ' and destroyed Crissa, and solemnly dedicated its lands and the territory about it to the Delphic god. A portion was set apart for the Pythian games, which after this time were celebrated with great magnificence. Every matter of profane or ordinary usage was ex- cluded under the gravest penalties from the sacred ground. (See AMPHIOTYONS.) In 548 the temple was burned, and money was at once subscribed throughout Greece to rebuild it. The family of the Alcmgeonids, at that time under sentence of banishment from Athens, contracted to accomplish this for 800 talents, and gained the greatest popularity by far ex- ceeding the terms of their contract, and by erecting mainly at their own cost a much more magnificent building than had been contem- plated. Spintharus of Corinth was the archi- tect. The front of the temple was of Parian marble, and the whole was decorated with the most costly and beautiful ornamentation. In spite of the immense wealth accumulat in Delphi, from gifts and votive offerings pour- ing in constantly from all parts of Greece am~ even from other countries, the sacred charactei of the place protected it from plunderers for two centuries. The army of Xerxes, sent sack it on that monarch's invasion (480), were, according to the legend, driven back in panic by the miraculous interference of Apollo. Ir 357, however, the Phocians themselves, hav- ing been found guilty by the amphictyoni< council of an act of sacrilege, and condemned to pay an enormous fine, rebelled against the sentence and seized Delphi. In the war which followed to compel them to surrender it, they robbed the treasury of the temple to pay the expenses of their defence. Through the inter- ference of Philip of Macedon the sacred city
