Achaean Sentence Examples

The Achaean kingdom fell before the incoming Dorians, and throughout the classical period the history of Laconia is that of its capital Sparta (q.v.).

Sybaris (721) and Crotona (703) were Achaean settlements; Locri Epizephyrii (about 710) was settled by Ozolian Locrians, so that, had it not been for the Dorian colony of Tarentum, the southern coast of Italy would have been entirely occupied by a group of Achaean cities.

In 243 Corinth was freed by Aratus and incorporated into the Achaean league.

During the Macedonian supremacy the town passed in turn from Cassander and Demetrius Poliorcetes to Antigonus Gonatas, and finally was incorporated in the Achaean League.

Under the dominion of the Roman republic its national league was dissolved, but was revived by Augustus, who also restored to Phocis the votes in the Delphic Amphictyony which it had lost in 346 and enrolled it in the new Achaean synod.

By her treacherous attack upon the frontier-town of Oropus (156) Athens indirectly brought about the conflict between Rome and the Achaean League which resulted in the eventual loss of Greek independence, but remained herself a free town with rights secured by treaty.

In the Homeric poems Laconia appears as the realm of an Achaean prince, Menelaus, whose capital was perhaps Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas, S.E.

Quinctius Flamininus, and became members of the Achaean League.

After the Achaean cities had combined to destroy the Ionic Siris, and had founded Metapontum as a counterpoise to the Dorian Tarentum, there seems to have been little strife among the Italiotes.

The second league is further interesting as the precursor of the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues.

All those parts of Peloponnese and the islands which in historic times were " Dorian " are ruled by recently established dynasties of " Achaean " chiefs; the home of the Asiatic Dorians is simply " Caria "; and the geographical " catalogue " in Iliad ii.

The addition of an "Achaean " group, and the inclusion of this and the Ionic group under a single generic name, would naturally follow the recognition of the real kinship of the " Achaean " colonies of Magna Graecia with those of Ionia.

But in proportion as an earlier date has become more probable for Homer, the hypothesis of Ionic origin has become less tenable, and the belief better founded (I) that the poems represent accurately a welldefined phase of culture in prehistoric Greece, and (2) that this " Homeric " or " Achaean " phase was closed by some such general catastrophe as is presumed by the legends.

Its area coincides also approximately with that of the previous Achaean conquests; and if the Dorians were as backward culturally as traditions and archaeology suggest, it is not improbable that they soon adopted the language of the conquered, as the Norman conquerors did in England.

Language is no better guide, for it is not clear that the Dorian dialect is that of the most recent conquerors, and not rather that of the conquered Achaean inhabitants of southern Greece; in any case it presents no such affinities with any non-Hellenic speech as would serve to trace its origin.

To the incorporation of Mantineia into the Achaean League (233) Tegea replied by allying itself with the Aetolians, who in turn made it over to Cleomenes III.

From the latter it was transferred by Antigonus Doson to the Achaean League (222); in 218 it was again occupied by the Spartans but reconquered in 207 by the Achaean general Philopoemen.

About 235 B.C. Mantineia entered the Achaean League, from which it had obtained protection against Spartan encroachments, but soon passed in turn to the Aetolians and to Cleomenes III.

Mantineia regained its autonomous position in the Achaean League in 192, and its original name during a visit of the emperor Hadrian in A.D.

The thoroughly national character of Heracles is shown by his being the mythical ancestor of the Dorian dynastic tribe, while revered by Ionian Athens, Lelegian Opus and Aeolo-Phoenician Thebes, and closely associated with the Achaean heroes Peleus and Telamon.

Some scholars suppose them to have been of Achaean race, but they were more probably the aborigines of Laconia who had been enslaved by the Achaeans before the Dorian conquest.

In return for the excesses of the democracies Rome dissolved the league, which, however, was allowed to revive under Augustus, and merged with the other central Greek federations in the Achaean synod.

By enrolling it in the Achaean League he secured it against Macedonia, and with funds received from Ptolemy Philadelphus he pacified the returned exiles.

Philopoemen's great merit lies in his having restored to his compatriots that military efficiency without which the Achaean League for all its skilful diplomacy could never stand.

Endeavouring next to expand into Peloponnesus, they allied themselves with Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia against the Achaean league, and besides becoming protectors of Elis and Messenia won several Arcadian cities.

The federal constitution closely resembled that of the Achaean league, for which it doubtless served as a model.

This people had dwelt in the Aegean from the Stone Age, and, though still in the Bronze Age at the Achaean conquest, had made great advances in the useful and ornamental arts.

In Argolis Proetus built Tiryns, but later, under Perseus, Mycenae took the lead until the Achaean conquest.

All the ancient dynasties traced their descent from Poseidon, who at the time of the Achaean conquest was the chief male divinity of Greece and the islands.

The leaders of the Achaean invasion were Pelops, who took possession of Elis, and Aeacus, who became master of Aegina and was said to have introduced there the worship of Zeus Panhellenius, whose cult was also set up at Olympia.

The Achaean and Aetolian Leagues are independent powers, which the Macedonian can indeed check by garrisons in Corinth, Chalcis and elsewhere, but which keep a field clear for Hellenic freedom within their borders.

Subsequently he came into close connexion with the Achaean churches and especially with Corinth, bearing letters from Paul and being charged with promoting the proposed collection for poor Christians in Judaea.

His position is rather that of an overlord, or Bretwalda, like Agamemnon's among the Achaean anaktes.

After several unavailing attempts Aratus contrived to win Argos for the Achaean League (229), in which it remained save during a brief occupation by the Spartans Cleomenes III.

Under the Empire, Argos was the headquarters of the Achaean synod, and continued to be a resort of Roman merchants.

The term, however, came to denote not a nationality but a political status, and though the main body of the perioeci may have been Achaean in origin, yet they afterwards included Arcadians on the northern frontier of Laconia, Dorians, especially in Cythera and in Messenia, and Ionians in Cynuria.

The chief Greek federations were those of Thessaly, Boeotia, Acarnania, Olynthus, Arcadia, Aetolia, Achaea, the most important as well as the most complete in respect of organization being the Aetolian League and the Achaean League.

The Achaean League was likewise highly organized; joint action was strictly limited, and the individual cities had sovereign power over internal affairs.

In the Achaean League the name is given to ten elective officers who presided over the assembly, and Corinth sent "Epidemiurgi" every year to Potidaea, officials who apparently answered to the Spartan harmosts.

The nonDorian dialects, Ionic, Attic and the various forms of Aeolic, are regarded as relatively closely akin, and go by the common name " Achaean."

As the scene which Homer depicts is prae-Dorian Greece; it is reasonable to call his language Achaean.

The historical divergences of Achaean into Aeolian and Ionic were later than the Migration, and were due to the well-known effects of change of soil and air.

To what local variety of Achaean Homeric Greek belonged it is idle to ask.

Thessaly, Boeotia and Mycenae have equal claims. It seems clearer that when once this local variety of Achaean had been used by poets of eminence as their vehicle for national history, it established its right to be considered the one poetical language of Hellas.

In the 3rd century it again passed from tyrant to tyrant, until in 251 it was finally liberated and enrolled in the Achaean League by Aratus.

The Greek dialect of Cyprus points in the same direction; it shows marked resemblances with that of Arcadia, and forms with it a " South Achaean " or " South Aeolic " group, related to the " Northern Aeolic " of Thessaly and other parts of north Greece.'

It was no doubt as a protection against such dangers that the earliest league of twelve Achaean cities arose, though we are nowhere explicitly informed of its functions other than the common worship of Zeus Amarius at Aegium and an occasional arbitration between Greek belligerents.

Antigonus' preoccupation during the Celtic invasions, Sparta's prostration after the Chremonidean campaigns, the wealth amassed by Achaean adventurers abroad and the subsidies of Egypt, the standing foe of Macedonia, all enhanced the league's importance.

Quinctius Flamininus, restored all their lost possessions and sanctioned the incorporation of Sparta and Messene (191), thus bringing the entire Peloponnese under Achaean control.

Augustus instituted an Achaean synod comprising the dependent cities of Peloponnese and central Greece; this body sat at Argos and acted as guardian of Hellenic sentiment.

On the other hand, it is the glory of the Achaean league to have combined city autonomy with an organized central administration, and in this way to have postponed the entire destruction of Greek liberty for over a century.

After twice defeating the forces of the Achaean League in Arcadia, near Mount Lycaeum and at Leuctra,he strengthened his position by assassinating four of the ephors, abolishing the ephorate, which had usurped the supreme power, and banishing some eighty of the leading oligarchs.

But Aratus, whose jealousy could not brook to see a Spartan at the head of the Achaean league called in Antigonus Doson of Macedonia, and Cleomenes, after conducting successful expeditions to Megalopolis and Argos, was finally defeated at Sellasia, to the north of Sparta, in 222 or 221 B.C. He took refuge at Alexandria with Ptolemy Euergetes, but was arrested by his successor, Ptolemy Philopator, on a charge of conspiracy.

Also, some of the prehistoric stocks in Thessaly, like the Achaean Aeacidae, may have regarded him as specially their ancestor.

Similarly the various cities were divided in their allegiance between the Achaean and the Aetolian leagues, with the result that Arcadia became the battleground of these confederacies, or fell a prey to Sparta and Macedonia.

Consul in 146 B.C. Mummius was appointed to take command of the Achaean War, and having obtained an easy victory over the incapable Diaeus, entered Corinth unopposed.

The Achaean League at once deserted the cause of Macedonia, and Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, entered into an alliance with Rome; Acarnania and Boeotia submitted in less than a year, and, with the exception of the great fortresses, Flamininus had the whole of Greece under his control.

His personal influence and skilful diplomacy secured the wavering Achaean states, cemented the alliance with Philip, and contributed mainly to the Roman victory at Thermopylae (191).

Schliemann, thinking it was only a platform levelled as a place of Achaean assembly, paused, and did not resume till November.

The Achaeans having strengthened and enlarged Aroe, called it Patrae, as the exclusive residence of the ruling families, and it was recognized as one of the twelve Achaean cities.

In Achaean Pharae were thirty squared stones, each named by the name of a god.

But Amyclae and Therapne (Therapnae) seem to have been in early times of greater importance than Sparta, the former a Minyan foundation a few miles to the south of Sparta, the latter probably the Achaean capital of Laconia and the seat of Menelaus, Agamemnon's younger brother.

In reality this Dorian immigration probably consisted of a series of inroads and settlements rather than a single great expedition, as depicted by legend, and was aided by the Minyan elements in the population, owing to their dislike of the Achaean yoke.

Nevertheless, it is not probable that without the training introduced by Lycurgus the Spartans would have been successful in securing their supremacy in Laconia, much less in the Peloponnese, for they formed a small immigrant band face to face with a large and powerful Achaean and autochthonous population.

The reign of Cleomenes is marked also by a determined effort to cope with the rising power of the Achaean League and to recover for Sparta her long-lost supremacy in the Peloponnese, and even throughout Greece.

Nabis was assassinated in 192, and Sparta was forced by Philopoemen to enrol itself as a member of the Achaean League (q.v.) under a phil-Achaean aristocracy.

But this gave rise to chronic disorders and disputes, which led g p to armed intervention on the part of the Achaeans, who compelled the Spartans to submit to the overthrow of their city walls, the dismissal of their mercenary troops, the recall of all exiles, the abandonment of the old Lycurgan constitution and the adoption of the Achaean laws and institutions (188 B.C.).

Again and again the relations between the Spartans and the Achaean League formed the occasion of discussions in the Roman senate or of the despatch of Roman embassies to Greece, but no decisive intervention took place until a fresh dispute about the position of Sparta in the league led to a decision of the Romans that Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Arcadian Orchomenus and Heraclea on Oeta should be severed from it.

As the son of Lycortas he was naturally brought into close contact with the leading men of the Achaean League.

In 171 war had broken out between Rome and the Macedonian king Perseus, and the Achaean statesmen were divided as to the policy to be pursued; there were good reasons for fearing that the Roman senate would regard neutrality as indicating a secret leaning towards Macedon.

It was decided to send an Achaean force to cooperate with the Roman general, and Polybius was selected to command the cavalry.

He may just have remembered the battle of Cynoscephalae (197), and, as we have seen, he was actively engaged in the military and political affairs of the Achaean League.

His treatment of Aratus and Philopoemen, the heroes of the Achaean League, and of Cleomenes of Sparta, its most constant enemy, is perhaps open to severer criticism.

Its fortifications were strengthened by the tyrant Nabis, but in 195 B.C. it was invested and taken by Titus and Lucius Quintius Flamininus, and, though recovered by Nabis two or three years later, was recaptured immediately after his murder (192 B.C.) by Philopoemen and Aulus Atilius and remained in the Achaean League until its dissolution in 146 B.C. Subsequently it formed the most important of the Eleutherolaconian towns, a group of twenty-four, later eighteen, communities leagued together to maintain their autonomy against Sparta and declared free by Augustus.

Other titles of kindred meaning are ap X 77yfLS (" founder") and 7ravaXais, the protectress of the Achaean league.

Of the twenty-four cities which originally composed the league, only eighteen remained as members by the reign of Hadrian (see Achaean League).

In Laconia Aristodemus (or his twin sons) effected a rigid military occupation which eventually embraced the whole district, and permitted (a) the colonization of Melos, Thera and parts of Crete (before 800 B.C.), (b) the reconquest and annexation of Messenia (about 750 B.C.), (c) a settlement of half-breed Spartans at Tarentum in south Italy, 700 B.C. In Argos and other cities of Argolis the descendants of the Achaean chiefs were taken into political partnership, but a tradition of race-feud lasted till historic times.

Since the kinship of the latter with the members of adjacent non-Dorian states was admitted, two different explanations seem to have been made, (I) on behalf of the non-Dorian populations, either that the Dorians were no true sons of Hellen, but were of some other northerly ancestry; or that they were merely Achaean exiles; and in either case that their historic predominance resulted from an act of violence, ill-disguised by their association with the ancient claims of the Peloponnesian Heraclidae; (2) on behalf of the Dorian aristocracies, that they were in some special sense " sons of Hellen," if not the only genuine Hellenes; the rest of the European Greeks, and in particular the anti-Dorian Athenians (with their marked likeness to Ionians), being regarded as Hellenized barbarians of " Pelasgian " origin (see Pelasgians).

Archaeological evidence points clearly now to the conclusion that the splendid but overgrown civilization of the Mycenaean or " late Minoan " period of the Aegean Bronze Age collapsed rather suddenly before a rapid succession of assaults by comparatively barbarous invaders from the European mainland north of the Aegean; that these invaders passed partly by way of Thrace and the Hellespont into Asia Minor, partly by Macedon and Thessaly into peninsular Greece and the Aegean islands; that in east Peloponnese and Crete, at all events, a first shock (somewhat later than i soo B.C.) led to the establishment of a cultural, social and political situation which in many respects resembles what is depicted in Homer as the " Achaean " age, with principal centres in Rhodes, Crete, Laconia, Argolis, Attica, Orchomenus and south-east Thessaly; and that this regime was itself shattered by a second shock or series of shocks somewhat earlier than boo B.C. These latter events correspond in character and date with the traditional irruption of the Dorians and their associates.

In politics he was a democrat, and introduced reforms of a popular character (see Achaean League).

A war afterwards broke out with the Achaean League, during which Philopoemen was captured and put to death by the Messenians (183 B.C.), but Lycortas took the city in the following year, and it again joined the Achaean League, though much weakened by the loss of Abia, Thuria and Pherae, which broke loose from it and entered the League as independent members (see Achaean League).

The Aetolian and Achaean leagues (see Aetolia, and Achaean League) were in all respects more important than the preceding and constitute a new epoch in European politics.

He returned in 146 to find Corinth in ruins, the fairest cities of Achaea at the mercy of the Roman soldiery, and the famous Achaean League shattered to pieces (see Achaean League).