Achaea. Detailed history

In historical times, there were two regions called Achaea, one in southeast Thessaly and the other in the northern Peloponnese between Elis and Sicyon. The poet Homer used the term Achaea to describe both regions. In fact, Homer used the term Achaeans to describe all of the Greeks as they sailed to Troy. From southern Thessaly came the great warrior Achilles, while King Agamemnon came from the south in the Peloponnese, a mountainous and isolated area bounded on the north by the Gulf of Corinth, to the east by Corinthia (Corinth), to the south by Arcadia, and to the west by Elis.

Thessaly was home to the original Greeks, said to be the descendants of human Hellen, with the Greeks being named Hellenes. The area of Thessaly during the Mycenaean period was centered at Iolchus, which was the royal town of Jason and his followers, the Argonauts. From the west came the stories of Achilles and his followers, the Myrmidons, who went to fight Priam, the Trojan king.

The second region lay in the Peloponnese. The mountains, though not high, are steep and prevent communication with the other regions. Chamber tombs indicate that this area had been inhabited during the Neolithic period. During the Archaic period (800-500), there were twelve cities that formed a loose confederation. The original inhabitants were said to be Ionians. There were no natural lines of communication to the south to Arcadia.

Supposedly when the Heraclidae, or the sons of Heracles, returned to Greece during the Dorian migration and took control of Sparta, a group of Achaeans under Tisamenus moved north to the coastal strip called Aigialos and took over expelling the Ionian inhabitants. The Achaeans were said to have emigrated from Argolis after being pushed out by the Dorians in the so-called Dorian invasion after the Mycenaean period.

The general fleeing of the population to less-settled areas like Achaea accounts for the legends of the Dorian invasions (which probably did not occur as given) and the general chaos after the fall of Mycenaean strongholds. It was during the period from 900-700, when the population of Greece increased, that the Achaeans sent colonists to Croton and Sybaris in southern Italy. This was part of the Magna Graecia region and was important for the interaction between the Latins of Italy and the Hellenes of Greece.

The area was governed by the descendants of Tisamenus until the time of its last king, Ogyges, when the inhabitants abolished the kingship and created a democracy. The region created a federation, the Achaean League, in the fifth century and had its capital at Helike, where its twelve towns joined together under the league. Helike arose during the Bronze Age, and Homer, in his poem the Iliad, indicated that they sent troops to Troy under Agamemnon’s command.

The city’s patron god was Poseidon, with its chief temple, Helikonian Poseidon, famous throughout the Classical Age. During the colonization period, Helike established colonies not only at Priene in Asia Minor, but also Sybaris in southern Italy. Helike was destroyed in 373, when an earthquake caused the city and its surrounding area to collapse into the sea with many inhabitants dying.

Another important city was Patras, created by the joining of three villages during the Mycenaean period. The region was known for its rich agriculture and in the fifth century became an important port; in 419 during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, the Athenian general Alcibiades (see the sidebar “Alcibiades,” in the “Aegospotami” entry) recommended to the leaders of Patras that their port be joined to the city by the construction of a series of long walls in imitation to Athens for protection.

The region also had another important harbor at Aegium, one of the twelve Achaean cities west of Helike and east of Patras. Located on the west coast of the Selinus River, Aegium’s position on a bay allowed its harbor to increase in importance, especially after Helike’s disaster. Aegium annexed its territory and supplanted Helike as the chief city of the league. It too could date its history to the Homeric era, when it sent ships to fight at Troy.

The city of Aegeira, located opposite Mount Parnassus near the Gulf of Corinth and Crius River, was another member of the league. Like other cities, Aegeira had a port on the Corinthian gulf and an upper city about a mile from the harbor. The city derived its name from when it was threatened by an invasion from Sicyon and the locals put torches on goats (aiges in Greek) to make their army appear larger. When the enemy fled, the locals renamed the city Aegeira in their honor.

The Achaean region established colonies in the eighth century, specifically in Sybaris, established about 720, and Croton on the southeast side of the Italian peninsula in the Gulf of Taras or Tarentum, a part of the Ionian Sea. Although they were private adventures, their home cities nevertheless supported the endeavors, and they probably were supported by other groups in Achaea.

Originally, Sybaris was called Lupia. The colony was supposed to have been founded by Is of Helike, and probably occurred due to the expansion of the population in that area during the Dark Ages. Its population was probably a mixture of the new Dorians and the original Mycenaeans, and since the region did not have much arable land and few trading contacts, colonization likely seemed a better option than starvation. This colony was then augmented by other settlers from Troezen in the Argolis.

They chose as their site a region on the seacoast four miles wide between two rivers, Sybaris (Coscile) and Crathis (Crati), which not only had fertile fields but had murex fisheries. Although they initially fought the indigenous population, the Serdaioi, they began to intermarry with them and advanced inland. According to a later ancient writer, Strabo, the colony expanded to control a wide territory and twenty-five towns.

They also began to raise livestock, especially sheep, which provided Sybaris with important wool for trade. They made the bull their symbol on coins, not only due to a representation of the river god Crathis, but also their control of livestock. Sybaris used its position at the toe of the boot of Italy to establish conditions for trade both east and west. It soon became a large city, with supposedly over 100,000 people protected by its six-mile walls.

It was faced with constant civil strife, however, supposedly due to the intermarriage between the Greeks and the local population. They had a large army and were in conflict with the nearby town of Croton. In 510, due to civil strife, Croton captured the city and destroyed it by diverting the River Crathis so it flooded the city. Survivors fled to their colonies, and about fifty years later, their descendants returned to establish a new colony, Thurii.

Sybaris also encouraged fellow Achaeans to colonize the region just to the north on the same gulf at Metapontum, as well as to the west at Laus and Scidrus. Perhaps a more important colony of Sybaris was farther north, near the bay of Naples at Paestum. Here, the colony was established about 625, and three of the best Greek temples from that era are preserved.

The earliest, from 550, was dedicated to Zeus and Hera and is now called the “Basilica”; just north of it, another temple was built in 500 in honor of Hera and Athena (although it was known as the temple of Ceres), and nearby was an underground shrine to Hera.

While Achaea did not participate in many of the wars during the fifth century, it did support Sparta. Achaea in 367 joined the Theban general Epaminondas in his invasion of the Peloponnese against Sparta, but upon his departure, the oligarchs regained control of the cities and broke away from Thebes.

The Achaeans then joined a coalition of states, including Sparta, Elea, and Athens, to oppose Thebes under Epaminondas, who attacked at the Battle of Mantinea in 362 in the largest battle yet fought between the Greeks. His aim was to force the Arcadian League, which had broken away from his coalition, back into the fold. Although approaching victory, Epaminondas was killed and the battle halted, with peace made.

The battle and death of the general ensured that the Greek city-states remained fractured until King Philip II of Macedon formed his coalition. Achaea sent troops to Chaeronea to ally with Thebes and Athens against Philip, and in 338 it was defeated. It then joined Philip’s Corinthian League to fight Persia.

The Achaeans created another Achaean League in 280 to combat Macedon. While the original Achaean League was a religious league in the Classical Age, this league, referred to as the Second Achaean League, centered on Dyme, Patrae, Pharae, and Tritaea, and ultimately encompassed the entire region. When Sicyon, Achaean’s traditional enemy, joined under Aratus, the league became a major power. Aratus would lead the league against Macedon until his death in 213.

The league at first supported Rome against Macedon after 200, but in 149 it joined Macedon against Rome due to Rome’s increasing power. Rome destroyed the league in 146 during the Achaean War, resulting in Greece’s submission to Rome.