The guild was of great value in maintaining and enforcing the various privileges of the members. These were very considerable. Musical and dramatic contests among the Greeks were confined almost entirely to the great religious festivals, and regarded as celebrations in honour of the gods. The professionals who took part in them were ministers engaged in the service of the gods, and their presence was necessary for the due performance of the various observances. To enable them to fulfil their engagements, many of the ordinary laws and regulations were relaxed. In the first place actors and musicians were permitted to travel through foreign and hostile states for the purpose of attending the festivals. Even in time of war their persons and property were ensured from violation. Owing to this custom the actors Aristodemus and Neoptolemus were able to travel frequently to and fro between Athens and Macedonia during the height of the war, and to assist materially in the negotiation of the peace.[823] In the second place actors and musicians claimed to be exempt from naval and military service, in order to pursue their professional avocations in Athens and elsewhere. In the time of Demosthenes this immunity from service was occasionally granted, but had not yet hardened into an invariable custom. Demosthenes mentions the cases of two musicians who were severely punished for avoiding military service. One of them was Sannio the chorus-trainer, and the other was Aristides the chorus-singer. Meidias also is said to have used the most strenuous exertions to prevent the chorus of Demosthenes from being exempted from service.[824] At this time, therefore, it seems that such immunity was sometimes granted and sometimes not. Later on the Guild of Artists of Dionysus succeeded in getting the Amphictyonic Council to pass a decree, by which the Athenians were bound as a religious obligation to grant exemption from military service to all members of the dramatic and musical profession. In the same decree the duty of allowing them a safe passage through their territories was enforced upon the Greek nation generally. This decree was renewed towards the beginning of the third century at the request of the Guild. A copy of the decree was engraved on stone and erected in the theatre at Athens, and has fortunately been preserved.[825] A translation of the more important passages will be of interest, as throwing light upon the position of the theatrical profession at Athens. It ran as follows: ‘It was resolved by the Amphictyonic Council that security of person and property, and exemption from arrest during peace and war, be ensured to the artists of Dionysus at Athens; ... that they enjoy that exemption from military service and that personal security which have previously been granted to them by the whole Greek nation; that the artists of Dionysus be exempt from naval and military service, in order that they may hold the appointed