Philomelus the Phocian
Philomelos
Phocian magnate who in 356 BC, with the secret encouragement of King Archidamus III of Sparta and the tacit blessing of Athens, seized the Delphic sanctuary and the temple-treasures of Apollo to fund a Phocian army against an Amphictyonic indictment that had fined Phocis a sum she could not pay (the fine had been levied for cultivating sacred land of Cirrhaea, Diod. 16.23.1–2). Diodorus 16.24.2–3 preserves his political brief to Archidamus: if he could obtain 'the guardianship of the shrine he would annul the decrees of the Amphictyons.' On taking Delphi he killed the noble Delphian faction known as the Thracidae who opposed him and confiscated their property. He led the Phocian army through three campaigns against the Boeotian and Locrian Amphictyons, treating the gold of the temple as an extraordinary war-fund, until in 354 the Boeotians defeated him at Neon and he threw himself off the Phaedriades cliffs above Delphi rather than be taken (Diod. 16.31.4). His successor Onomarchus continued the policy of expending the temple-gold and expanded the war into Thessaly, where Philip II would intervene in 352.