The executive officers were the strategus, and ten demiurgi or ministers:--together with a hypo-strategus or under-general and perhaps a secretary of state[268]. The strategus was elected each year in the spring meeting of the assembly and entered on his duties a short time after his election. His office was in its origin military, and he was by right commander in the field and controller of the armed forces: but his most important functions were to act as leader in the assembly--to expound his foreign policy and obtain authority to carry it out--and to manage negotiations with foreign powers: this last part of his work was of such moment that the symbol of his office was a seal[269]. It is shown by the case of Aratus that the Achæans were more anxious that their strategus should be a good foreign minister than that he should be a good commander-in-chief: for though Aratus was a very poor general and lost many battles, his countrymen set such a value on his skill in dealing with foreign affairs that they elected him over and over again--not indeed in successive years, for the constitution forbade it--but as often as the law allowed. [268] Polybius V. 94 ὐποστράτηγος. Strabo VIII. 7. 3 γραμματεύς: but this passage proves the existence of the office of secretary only for the very early days of the re-constituted league soon after 280 B.C. [269] Freeman, _Federal Government_, p. 299, from Polybius IV. 7. The ten demiurgi were also elected by the assembly[270]. They acted collectively as presiding officers in the assembly and determined what questions should be put to the vote[271]: but they also acted as a cabinet or council of ministers to the strategus; for on one occasion a despatch was addressed by Flamininus the Roman general to the strategus and the demiurgi, and the reply to it was written in the name of the same authorities[272]. [270] Livy XXXII. 22 Magistratus (damiurgos vocant: decem numero creantur). The words _magistratus_ and _creantur_ indicate that they were elected. [271] Livy XXXII. 22. [272] Polybius XXIV. 5 in Bekker's and Dindorf's editions: XXIII. 5 in Mr Shuckburgh's translation.