The Political Institutions of the Achaean Sympolity

This chapter analyses the political institutions of the Achaean federal state. It first analyses the organisation of the political institutions. Primarily, they were based on the pan-Achaean Ecclesia, or federal Assembly of citizens, where each citizen from every member city-state could participate under direct democracy procedures in decision-making, and the federal Boule, or Council, which functioned as a preparatory body of the issues to be discussed at the federal level. The federal government consisted of the institutions of strategos (the general) and the federal government board known as the damiourgoi. The strategos was the head of the ten damiourgoi, and simultaneously, the head of state and head of the federal armed forces. Moreover, the chapter analyses the crucial institutions of isopoliteia (the possession of civil rights by every citizen of a member city-state at the federal level) the concession and the sale of political rights, asylia (immunity) and proxeny the granting of beneficial status to a citizen of another state in exchange for honorary titles with the purpose of promoting interstate trade). It further examines the procedures that the Achaean policymakers followed regarding conflict resolution between city-states on civil and territorial matters. Also, the chapter analyses the administrative organisation at the state and regional levels, the military organisation of the Achaean armed forces and the ‘Common Foreign and Security Policy’ of the Achaean federal state.