The majority of modern scholars believe that one of the federal institutions of the Achaean league in the 2nd cen- tury BC should have been a council similar to the same institution in any Greek polis. However, no trace of activity of this federal body can be found either in literary or in epigraphic sources. The only evidence supposed to prove the exis- tence of the Achaean council is the frequent mention of the word « boule » in those passages of Polybius that describe the meetings of the federal assembly. It can be concluded after a careful study of these passages that in the lexicon of the Achaean historian «boule» was not the official name of a state institution, but just a synonym for the word «meet- ing». Therefore the supposed existence of the federal council in the Achaean league in the times of Polybius can be questioned with good reason.
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