The common affairs of the confederate towns were regulated at general meetings attended by the citizens of all the towns, and held regularly twice every year, in the spring and in the autumn. These meetings, which lasted three days, were held in a grove of Zeus Homagyrius in the neighbourhood of Aegium, and near a sanctuary of Demeter Panachaea. Every citizen, both rich and poor, who had attained the age of thirty, might attend the assemblies, to which they were invited by a public herald, and might speak and propose any measure. The subjects which were to be brought before the assembly were prepared by a council (βουλή), which seems to have been permanent. The principal officers of the confederacy were: 1. At first two strategi (στρατηγοί), but after the year B.C. 255 there was only one, who in conjunction with an hipparchus (ἴππαρχος) or commander of the cavalry and an under-strategus (ὑποστρατηγός) commanded the army furnished by the confederacy, and was entrusted with the whole conduct of war; 2. A public secretary (γραμματεύς); and, 3. Ten demiurgi (δημιουργοί). All the officers of the league were elected in the assembly held in the spring, at the rising of the Pleiades, and legally they were invested with their several offices only for one year, though it frequently happened that men of great merit and distinction were re-elected for several successive years. If one of the officers died during the period of his office, his place was filled by his predecessor, until the time for the new elections arrived. The perpetual discord of the members of the league, the hostility of Sparta, the intrigues of the Romans, and the folly and rashness of the later strategi, brought about not only the destruction and dissolution of the confederacy, but of the freedom of all Greece, which after the fall of Corinth, in B.C. 146, became a Roman province under the name of Achaia. ĂCĬES. [EXERCITUS.] ĂCĪNĂCĒS (ἀκινάκης), a Persian sword, whence Horace speaks of the _Medus acinaces_. The acinaces was a short and straight weapon, and thus differed from the Roman _sica_, which was curved. It was worn on the right side of the body, whereas the Greeks and Romans usually had their swords suspended on the left side. The form of the acinaces, with the mode of wearing it, is illustrated by the following Persepolitan figures. [Illustration: Acinaces, Persian Sword. (From bas-reliefs at Persepolis.)] ACISCŬLUS. [ASCIA.] ĀCLIS, a kind of dart with a leathern thong attached to it. [AMENTUM.] ACROĀMA (ἀκρόαμα), which properly means any thing heard, was the name given to a concert of players on different musical instruments, and also to an interlude performed during the exhibition of the public games. The word is also applied to the actors and musicians who were employed to amuse guests during an entertainment, and is sometimes used to designate the anagnostae. [ANAGNOSTES.]