The Aetolian League was a confederation of small towns and villages drawn together by the desire for mutual defense and financial gain.
Date: Fifth-first centuries b. c.e.
Category: Organizations and institutions; government and politics Locale: West-central Greece
Summary Because of the ruggedness of their homeland, the Aetolians long remained on the periphery of Hellenic history. However, their development of a federal state led to aggressive expansion in the third century b. c.e. The Aetolian (eh-TOH-lee-yen) League saved Delphi from Gallic destruction in 279 b. c.e., then drove across central Greece and acquired influence in Thessaly and the western Peloponnese. The Aetolians, hostile to Macedonia’s Antigonid kings, became allies of Rome against Philip V and engaged in widespread piracy and brigandage.
An annually elected general served as chief magistrate of the Aetolian League. Aprimary assembly, consisting of all men of military age, decided issues of foreign policy and met at least twice a year, in spring and autumn. A representative council, elected from constituent cities in proportion to population, governed between these meetings, following the direction of an important committee, the apokletoi.
Significance Aetolia eventually quarreled with the Roman Republic and sought the support of Syria’s ruler, Antiochus the Great. War against Rome concluded with a negotiated peace in 189 b. c.e. Although the league survived, its importance and influence withered. By the late first century b. c.e., Aetolia was depopulated.
Further Reading
Cartledge, Paul, and Antony Spawforth. Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 2002.
Larsen, J. A. O. Greek Federal States. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Scholten, Joseph B. The Politics of Plunder: Aitolians and Their Koinon in the Early Hellenistic Era, 279-217 B. C.E. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Denvy A. Bowman
See also: Antiochus the Great; Classical Greece; Delphi; Hellenistic Greece; Philip V.
World History
