Achæa

See Achaia. Achæan League (a-kē'an lēg). 1. A religious confederation in Achaia, consisting at the time of Hero dot us of twelve cities: Pellene, Ægeira, Ægæ, Bura, Helike, Ægion, Rhypes, Patræ, Phare, Olenos, Dyme, and Tritæa. Later Rhypes and Ægæ fell into decay, and their places in the confederacy were taken by Leontion and Keryneia. In 373 B. C. the number of cities was reduced to ten by the destruction of Helike and Bura by an earthquake. A common sacrifice to Poseidon was held at Helike until that town was destroyed, when Ægion became the center of the confederation, and the common sacrifices were held in honor of Zeus Homagyrios and Demeter Panache a, the chief divinities of Ægion. The confederacy was di olved by the policy of Philip of Macedon and Alexander. 2. A political confederation of Achæan and other Greek cities extending over the period from 281 B. c. to 146 B. C. After the death of Ly. simachus in 280 B. c., the Achæan cities Dyme, Patræ, Tritæa, and Phare formed a confederation to resist the Maced on i an domination, and were afterward joined by the other Achæan cities, except Olenos and Helike. In 251 B. C. the confederation acquired new strength by the acce ion of Sikyon, under the leadership of Aratus. In 245 B. C. Aratus was elected strategus of the league, which under his guidance rapidly rose to national importance. In a short time it embraced Athens, Ægin a, Salamis, and the whole of Peloponnesus, with the exception of Sparta, Tegea, Orc home nos, Mantineia, and Elis. It was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B. C., and with it fell the last stronghold of freedom in Greece. The Achæan League is remarkable as the most perfect type of federal government which has been handed down from antiquity. The confederation was inseparable, every city having equal rights with the others; in foreign affairs the federal government was supreme. Common affairs were regulated at general meetings held twice a year by the IMG:content-0018.png:[blocks in formation] citizens of all the towns. The principal officers were: Achates (a-kā'tēz). The faithful companion, two strategi (after 255 B. C. only one), who, in conjunction "fid us Achates," of Æneas. with the hipparch us or commander of the cavalry, and an under-strategus, commanded the federal army, and were Acheen. See Achin . intrusted with the conduct of war; a state secretary; Achelous (ak-ē-lō'us), or Acheloos (-os). [Gr. and an apparently permanent council of ten demiurgi, Ἀχελῷος .] In ancient geography, a river in who appear to have presided at the great a emblies. Achæi (a-ke'i). [Gr. Ἀχαιοί .] The Achæans, one of the four principal races of the Greeks. Their chief places of abode were southern The aly and eastern Peloponnesus. The name is sometimes extended poetically to all the Greeks. In Homeric times they had a certain preponderance of influence over the other Hellenes.