[262] Polybius (V. 1) says that in 218 B.C. the assembly met _in accordance with the law_ at Ægium: but king Philip afterwards persuaded the magistrates to transfer it to Sicyon. The important assembly which made the alliance with Rome in 198 B.C. was also held at Sicyon: Livy XXXII. 19. [263] For example, in 224 B.C. Antigonus Dôsôn presented himself at an assembly at Ægium in the spring and at another at the same place in the autumn (Polybius II. 54). The meeting in the spring had to elect the officers for the coming year: and the strategus entered on his duties in May, at the rising of the Pleiades (Polybius V. 1). [264] Livy (XXXII. 22) after recording the proceedings of two days in the special meeting of 198 B.C. says "Only one day was left in which the meeting could act: for the law ordered that on the third day its decision should be made." [265] Livy (XXXII. 22) says that in 198 B.C. when the magistrates were just going to take a vote, most of the _states_ openly showed which way they would vote (omnibus fere populis ... præ se ferentibus quid decreturi essent): then the citizens of Dymê and Megalopolis and some from the Argolid left the assembly: but (XXXII. 23) the rest of the _states_ of the league, when asked in turn how they voted (ceteri populi Achæorum, cum sententias perrogarentur), decided in a certain way. Of the council almost nothing is known: its meetings were held not only at the times of the federal assemblies, but at other times also: for in the year 220 B.C. king Philip had an interview with the council at Ægium about a question of foreign policy, which he would certainly have laid before the assembly if it had been possible[266]. The number of members in the council must have been at least a hundred and twenty, and may have been larger[267]. From the little evidence that we have we may perhaps gather that the council sat for a good part of the year, and acted as a committee of the assembly to prepare the business that had to be laid before it: and, at times when the assembly was not sitting, decided any questions that were not so important as to necessitate a special meeting of the assembly. [266] Polybius IV. 26 προσελθοντος τοῦ βασιλέως πρὸς τὴν βουλὴν ἐν Αἰγίῳ. The business related to a question of war against the Ætolians. [267] The evidence for this is referred to by Bishop Thirlwall (_History of Greece_, vol. VIII. p. 92). In 187 B.C. Eumenes king of Pergamum offered to give 120 talents, on condition that the money was invested and the interest used to pay the councillors (see Polybius XXIII. 7 in Dindorf's edition: XXII. 10 in Mr Shuckburgh's translation). The yearly interest of a talent would be about 720 drachmæ:--a large salary for a councillor. The councillors at Athens were paid about 300 drachmæ yearly, see above, p. 51, note 1.