AESYMNĒTES (αἰσυμνήτης), a person who was sometimes invested with unlimited power in the Greek states. His power partook in some degree of the nature both of kingly and tyrannical authority; since he was appointed legally, and did not usurp the government, but at the same time was not bound by any laws in his public administration. The office was not hereditary, nor was it held for life; but it only continued for a limited time, or till some object was accomplished. Thus we read that the inhabitants of Mytilene appointed Pittacus aesymnetes, in order to prevent the return of Alcaeus and the other exiles. Dionysius compares it with the dictatorship of Rome. In some states, such as Cyme and Chalcedon, it was the title borne by the regular magistrates. AETAS. [INFANS; IMPUBES.] AETŌLĬCUM FOEDUS (κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτώλων), the Aetolian league, appears as a powerful political body soon after the death of Alexander the Great, viz. during the Lamian war against Antipater. The characteristic difference between the Aetolian and Achaean leagues was that the former originally consisted of a confederacy of nations or tribes, while the latter was a confederacy of towns. The sovereign power of the confederacy was vested in the general assemblies of all the confederates (κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτώλων, _concilium Aetolorum_), and this assembly had the right to discuss all questions respecting peace and war, and to elect the great civil or military officers of the league. The ordinary place of meeting was Thermon, but on extraordinary occasions assemblies were also held in other towns belonging to the league, though they were not situated in the country of Aetolia Proper. The questions which were to be brought before the assembly were sometimes discussed previously by a committee, selected from the great mass, and called Apocleti (ἀπόκλητοι). The general assembly usually met in the autumn, when the officers of the league were elected. The highest among them, as among those of the Achaean league, bore the title of _Strategus_ (στρατηγός), whose office lasted only for one year. The strategus had the right to convoke the assembly; he presided in it, introduced the subjects for deliberation, and levied the troops. The officers next in rank to the strategus were the hipparchus and the public scribe. The political existence of the league was destroyed in B.C. 189 by the treaty with Rome, and the treachery of the Roman party among the Aetolians themselves caused in B.C. 167 five hundred and fifty of the leading patriots to be put to death, and those who survived the massacre were carried to Rome as prisoners. ĀĔTŌMA (ἀέτωμα). [FASTIGIUM.]