The Panhellenion (
Greek: Πανελλήνιον) or Panhellenium was a league of Greek city-states established in the year 131–132 AD by the
Roman EmperorHadrian while he was touring the
Roman provinces of Greece.
Hadrian was
philhellene and idealized the
Classical past of Greece. The Panhellenion was part of this philhellenism, and was set up, with
Athens at the centre, to try to recreate the apparent "unified Greece" of the 5th century BC, when the Greeks
took on the Persian enemy.
The Panhellenion was primarily a religious organization, and most of the deeds of the institution which we have relate to its own self-governing. Admission to the Panhellenion was subject to scrutiny of a city's Hellenic descent.
In 137 AD, the
Panhellenic Games were held at Athens as part of the ideal of Panhellenism and harking back to the
Panathenaic Festival of the fifth century.