Polity · 370 BC – present
Aetolian League
埃托利亚同盟
Polity · 370 BC – present · Century precision · 38.56° N, 21.67° E
The Aetolian League was the federal state of the Aetolians in central Greece, a koinon of tribal communities and cities that met at Thermon and held two assemblies a year. Founded around 370 BC to resist Macedon and the Achaean League, it was long dismissed by other Greeks as semi-barbaric until its warriors broke the invading Gauls in 279 BC and the League rose to a dominant power. It seized Delphi in 290 BC and through the third century annexed Locris, Phocis, Doris, Malis and much of central Greece, standing beside Macedon, the Achaeans and Rhodes as one of the Hellenistic great powers, after early rewards such as Naupactus from Philip II of Macedon in 338 BC. Its complex assembly, council and elected generals governed an expanding federation until it chose the losing side with Antiochus the Great against Rome in the Aetolian War and was broken in 189 BC, reduced to a hollow name under Roman supremacy.
Key facts
- League founded around 370 BC against Macedon
- Victory over the Gauls in 279 BC made it a major Greek power
- Delphi occupied from 290 BC; much of central Greece annexed in the 3rd century BC
- Defeated in 189 BC and forced into treaty with Rome
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