Aetolia

The ancient Region of Aetolia, Greece

Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern prefecture of Aetolia-Acarnania.

Geography

The Achelous River separates Aetolia from Acarnania to the west; on the north it had boundaries with Epirus and Thessaly; on the east with the Ozolian Locrians; and on the south the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf defined the limits of Aetolia.

In classical times Aetolia comprised two parts: Old Aetolia in the west, from the Achelous to the Evenus and Calydon; and New Aetolia or Acquired Aetolia in the east, from the Evenus and Calydon to the Ozolian Locrians. The country has a level and fruitful coastal region, but an unproductive and mountainous interior. The mountains contained many wild beasts, and acquired fame in Greek mythology as the scene of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.

History

The peoples known as the Curetes and the Leleges originally inhabited the country, but at an early period Greeks from Elis, led by the mythical eponym Aetolus, set up colonies. Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions that Curetes was the old name of the Aetolians and Leleges the old name of the Locrians. The Aetolians took part in the Trojan War, under their king Thoas.

The Aetolians set up a united league, the Aetolian League, in early times. It soon became a powerful military confederation; it had originally been organized during the reign of Philip II by the cities of Aetolia for their mutual benefit and protection, and became a formidable rival to the Macedonian monarchs and the Achaean League. The League was one of the more effective political institutions that was produced in its time.

Unlike Achaea, there was a division between full members of the League and allies over which Aetolia maintained a hegemony. This did however allow Aetolia to maintain a much more genuine democracy and the bi-annual meetings of the League assembly coincided with games so that a far higher proportion of the citizens would have attended in person. The Aetolians took the side of Antiochus III against the Roman Republic, and on the defeat of that monarch in 189 BC, they became virtually the subjects of Rome. Following the conquest of the Achaeans by Lucius Mummius Achaicus in 146 BC, Aetolia became part of the Roman province of Achaea.

Aetolia's reputation has suffered from a rather hostile treatment in the sources. Polybius is considered now to have a heavy anti Aetolian bias due to his having relied on Aetolia's opponent Aratus of Achaea.

During the Middle Ages, Aetolia was part of the Byzantine Empire and later passed to the Turks : after a relatively unsuccessful attempt at colonization they took a token amount of slaves and resources from the region, then departed. See Ottoman Greece.

Aetolia was mentioned in Francisco Baltazar's Florante at Laura.

In modern times, Iron Realms Entertainment, a gaming company specializing in MUDS, created a text-based RPG named after Aetolia and vaguely based on its geography (www.aetolia.com). However, the game has its own history, politics, religion etc., and bears little resemblance to historical Aetolia.

(This article incorporates material from Harry Thurston Peck's Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898).)

List of Aetolians

• Aitolos mythology
• Andraemon
• Thoas in Trojan War
• Titormus, wrestler
• Alexander Aetolus (ca.280 BC) poet
• Damocritus, general of Aetolian War
• Dorimachus, Aetolian general[2]
• Nicolaus of Aetolia Hellenistic general
• Theodotus of Aetolia Hellenistic general
• Pyrrhias stadion race Olympics 200 B.C and Pyrrhias Aetolian general in Elis 218 BC
• Agelaus of Naupactus 2th c.BC
• Cosmas of Aetolia (1714 - 1779) monk

See also

• Aetolian League
• List of traditional Greek place names