The συναρχίαι in the Achaian federation and its member cities

Abstract

The term συναρχίαι (“joint magistracies”), designating the joint meetings of different boards of magistrates, appears in the decrees of the Peloponnesian cities in the 3rd and the 2nd centuries BCE, obviously under the influence of the Achaian federation. The institution itself seems to have been originated in Achaia, but the συναρχίαι in the cities should not be regarded as exact copies of the corresponding federal body, since the local and the federal “joint magistracies” carried out different functions. KeywordsThe Peloponnese; Achaia; koinon; polis; joint magistracies; Greek epigraphy