The highly educated men who conceived and wrote the American Constitution, were well acquainted with the constitutions of the cities of ancient Greece, Rome and Carthage. They were interested in circular theories of government and in the ideal of a diverse state, namely a combined democracy and oligarchy as expressed in the works of Plato and Aristotle and perfected by Polybius and Cicero. As a compromise to the above, John Adams recommended negative votes of a confirming importance, the division of power and repeated auditing. Special attention was given to the theoretical and practical aspects of the Confederacy, resulting in James Wilton’s calling the Amphictyonian Council a “Congress of the United States of Ancient Greece”.