Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/33

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 ACHAIA.

League, with it the independence of Greece; but the recollection of the Achaean power was perpetuated by the name of Achaia, which the Romans gave to the south of Greece, when they formed it into a province. (Paus. vii. 16, sub fin.)

The history of the Achaean League has been treated with ability by several modern writers. The best works on the subject are: — Helwing, Geschichte des Achaischen Bundes, Lemgo, 1829; Schorn, GeiekickU GriechenlantTs von der Entstekmy da Aetol, mtd Achmichen Bundes bis auf die Ztrtlonmg Cormths, Bonn, 1833; Flathe's GfxkkkU Macedoniens, vol. ii., Leipz. 1832; Merleker, AcAakomm Libri III., Darmst. 1837; Brandstiter, GrestdL de$ Aetolitcken Landet^ Volkes md Bimdef, Berlin, 1844; Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii., Hamburg, 1843; Thurlwall, History of Greece, vol. iii.

The following is a list of the towns of Achaia from E. to W.: Pellene, with its harbour AristosatK, and its dependent fortesses Olurus and Ganussa, or Donussa: Aegeira, with its fortress Phelloe: Aegae: Bura: Ceryneia: Helice: Aegium, with the dependent places Leuctrum and Erianium: the harbour of Panormus between the promontories of Drepanum and Rhium: Patrae, with the dependent places Boline and Argyra: Olenus with the dependent places Peirae and Euryteiae: Dyme, with the dependent places Teichos, Hecatnmhawn and Langon. In the interior Pharae: Leontium: Tritaka. The following towns, of which the sites are unknown, are mentioned only by Stephanus Byzantinus: Acarra (Ako^"): Alos (AAk): Anace ('Aydiny): Ascheion ('Ao'x«<oi'): Antus (ACirroy): Pella (n^AAa): Phaestus (4«i0T^): Politeia (IIoAfrcia): Psophia (¥wpis): Seolis (ic^s): Tarne (Tdptni): Teneium (T^NMv): Thrius (Opiovs), which first belonged to Achaia, afterwards to Elis, and lay near Patrae. Alternaeus (xiv. p. 658) mentions an Achaean town, named Tromileia (TpofUAcia) celebrated for its cheese.

Respecting the geography of Achaia in general are Muller, Doriuns, vol ii. p. 428, seq.; Leake's Morea, vols. ii. & iii., and Peloponnesiaca; Boblaye, Recherches, p. 15, seq.; Curtius, Peloponnesos yol. i. p. 403 seq.

COIN OF ACHAIA
COIN OF ACHAIA

COIN OF ACHAIA

3. Achaia, the Roman province, including the whole of Pelopannesus and the greater part of Hellas proper with the adjacent islands. The time, however, at which this country was reduced to the form of a Roman province, as well as its exact limits, are open to much discussion. It is usually stated by modern writers that the province was formed on the conquest of the Achaeans in B.C. 146; but there are several reasons for questioning this statement. In the first place it is not stated by any ancient writer that Greece was formed into a province at this time. The silence of Polybius on the subject would be conclusive, if we posMMd entire that part of his history which related the conquest of the Achaeans; but in the existing fragments of that portion of his work, there is no

ACHAIA.17

allusion to the establishment of a Roman province, although we find mention of various regulations adopted by the Romans for the consolidation of their power. 2. Many of these relations would have been unnecessary if a provincial government had been established. Thus we are told that the government of each city was placed in the hands of the wealthy, and that all federal assemblies were abolished. Through the influence of Polybius the federal assemblies were afterwards allowed to be held, and some of the more stringent regulations were repealed. (Pol. xi. 8—10; Paus. vii. 16. § 10.) The re-establishment of these ancient forms appears to have been described by the Romans as a restoration of liberty to Greece. Thus we find in an inscription discovered at Dyme mention of ^ &iro8c8ofjLttnri Korit Kotyhtf ro7s 'EWf}ciy itvihpla, and also of v diroSoOcura rois *Axatots ^^ *PwfuUwy xoJdrtMy language which could not have been used if the Roman jurisdiction had been introduced into the country. (Bockh, Corp, Incript. No. 1543; comp. Thirlwall, vol. viii. p. 458.) 3. We are expressly told by Plutarch (Cim. 2), that in the time of Lucullus the Romans had not yet begun to send praetors into Greece (olhrw ds r^y 'EAAd5a 'Pm/mu<m orfKiniyoits 9i€w4ixiroyro); and that disputes in the country were referred to the decision of the governor of Macedonia. There is the less reason for questioning this statement, since it is in accordance with the description of the proceedings of L. Piso, when governor of Macedonia, who is represented as plundering the countries of southern Greece, and exercising sovereignty over them, which he could hardly have done, if they had been subject to a provincial administration of their own. (Cic. c. Pis. 40.) It is probable that the south of Greece was first made a separate province by Julius Caesar; since the first governor of the province of whom any mention is made (as far as we are aware) was Serv. Sulpicius, and he was appointed to this office by Caesar;. (Cic. ad Fam, vi. 6. § 10.)

In the division of the provinces made by Augustus, the whole of Greece was divided into the provinces of Achaia, Macedonia, and Epeiras, the latter of which formed part of Illyris. Achaia was one of the provinces assigned to the senate and was governed by a proconsul. (Strab. p. 840; Dion Cass. liii. 12.) Tiberius in the second year of his reign (A.D. 16) took it away from the senate and made it an imperial province (Tac. Ann. i. 76), but Claudius gave it back again to the senate (Suet. Claud. 25). In the reign of this emperor Corinth was the residence of the proconsul, and it was here that the Apostle Paul was brought before Junius Gallio as proconsul of Achaia. (Acta Apost. xviii. 12.) Nero abolished the province of Achaia, and gave the Greeks their liberty; but Vespasian again established the provincial government and compelled the Greeks to pay a yearly tribute. (Paus. vii. 17. §§3,4; Suet. Vesp. 8.)

The boundaries between the provinces of Macedonia, Epeirus, and Achaia, are difficult to determine. Strabo (p. 840), in his enumeration of the provinces of the Roman empire, says: *f.fiZ6iiiy *KxaioM ficxpt OffTToAlaf irol AlrvSiy «al 'Airapy<Wv, koI rtyety 'Hxt^nrrucwy iOvwy, Haa rf MoiccSoWf MpoaApiarm, "The seventh (province) is Achaia, up to Thessaly and the Aetolians and Acamanians and some Epeirot tribes, which border upon Macedonia." Most modern writers understand μέχρι inclusive, and consequently make Achaia include Thessaly,