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Achaian League
JAMES ROY

The Achaian League was an important federal

state in southern Greece in the third and the first
half of the second century BCE. In the classical
period the Achaian cities on the south shore
of the Gulf of Corinth (see CORINTHIAN GULF)
united in a federal state (KOINON). As with
such federal states generally in classical Greece,
membership was based on the ethnos (the common identity of the Achaians), but the koinon
also took in the non-Achaian communities
Kalydon and NAUPAKTOS on the north side of
the Gulf. This koinon broke up for unknown
reasons sometime after 324. Then in 281/0,
Tritaia, DYME, Pharai, and PATRAI in western
ACHAIA formed a new koinon, commonly
known as the Achaian League. The other
Achaian cities joined the reestablished koinon
in the 270s, but the league became important
in interstate politics when, in 251, the
non-Achaian city SIKYON entered it. The koinon
then continued to recruit members from outside Achaia until, at its height in the second
century BCE, it included the whole PELOPONNESE.
It thus became, like the AITOLIAN LEAGUE (which
expanded outside Aitolia), much stronger than
any previous Greek federal state. Our evidence
for the Achaian League comes above all from
literature, especially from the historian POLYBIUS, himself an Achaian politician: there are
relatively few inscriptions, though some are
important, and interesting coins (see Warren
2007; Benner 2008), especially those of the
second century BCE.
The members of the koinon were individual
city-states, which retained some independence
(e.g., each had its own law code); Polybius
(2.378) exaggerates uniformity within the
koinon. Some cities were more influential than
others; an inscription from the end of the third
century BCE listing Achaian nomographoi (legislative officials) shows some bigger cities with
three representatives, others with two, and the
smallest with one; and a newly discovered

inscription of 191182 (Rizakis 2008: no.

116) shows the same system, though with a
different distribution of membership. Furthermore, some cities provided more leading
statesmen than others, notably old Achaia
(Tritaia, Dyme, Pharai, and Patrai), Sikyon,
and MEGALOPOLIS (ONeil 19846). From 255
on the koinon had a single leading official
(strategos): the office could not be held in successive years, but some outstanding figures
held it numerous times, especially Aratos (see
ARATOS OF SIKYON) and PHILOPOIMEN. Besides its
officials, the koinon had a federal council and
a federal citizen assembly: there has been great
debate, still unresolved, to decide how democratic the assembly was, though it is clear that
the leading roles in the koinons politics were
played by wealthy men like Aratos, Philopoimen, and Polybius. The member-states
provided troops for the federal army. The
sanctuary of Zeus Homarios at Aigion in
Achaia was important to the koinon, and meetings of the federal assembly were held there
until in 189/8 it was decided to hold them in
member-cities; we hear of meetings in various
of the larger cities, where there would be adequate facilities, though it is not clear how
meeting places were chosen.
In the third century and in the first half
of the second, interstate politics in the
Peloponnese were complex and dangerous,
with several major powers taking an interest:
besides the Achaians themselves, both the
Aitolian League and SPARTA, particularly
under Kleomenes III (235222) and Nabis
(207192), played a major part (see KLEOMENES
III OF SPARTA; NABIS OF SPARTA). The Antigonid
Dynasty in Macedon (see ANTIGONIDS) and the
Ptolemies in Egypt were also heavily involved.
The Achaian League could not match the
power of the major kingdoms, but its size and
resources gave it political and military significance. In 243, in a surprise attack, Aratos
seized the citadel of ACROCORINTH, which had
been garrisoned by the Antigonids, and brought
CORINTH into the koinon. This weakened
Macedonian influence in the Peloponnese

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 3840.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah09002

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and allowed the koinon to recruit numerous
new members, although in doing so compromises were reached with tyrants like Lydiadas
of Megalopolis and Aristomachos of Argos,
who laid down their tyrannies and took their
cities into the koinon (Aristomachos subsequently broke away again and joined
Kleomenes against the Achaians). However,
by the mid-220s, the threat from Kleomenes
led Aratos to negotiate with ANTIGONOS III
DOSON, who campaigned in the Peloponnese
from 224 and, together with the Achaians,
defeated Kleomenes at Sellasia in 222 (see
SELLASIA, BATTLE OF). The price of Antigonid support was the return of Acrocorinth to
Antigonid control. The Achaians maintained
their alliance with Macedon throughout
Romes first war against Macedon (212205);
during that conflict Philopoimen was Achaian
strategos for the first time (208/7) and rose to
prominence. In Romes Second Macedonian
War (200196), the Achaians finally decided
in 198, despite bitter internal disagreements, to
break with Macedon and ally with Rome; they
were also worried by Nabis of Sparta. Romes
decisive victory over Macedon made it the
strongest power in Greece, and for the following
half-century the Achaians had to decide how
independent they could allow themselves to be
of Romes wishes. While Rome was engaged in
war with the Seleucid Antiochos III (192188)
(see ANTIOCHOS III MEGAS), the Achaians succeeded
in bringing ELIS, Messenia, and Sparta into
the koinon, though at the cost of Roman displeasure, and also with continuing disputes
within the koinon over Messenia and Sparta.
Roman success against Antiochos left Rome
even more powerful in the eastern Mediterranean and eliminated from interstate politics
the Aitolians, who had backed Antiochos.
Although the Achaians maintained diplomatic

contact with, for instance, the Attalids of

PERGAMON, relations with Rome were now the
major issue in Achaian politics. After the Third
Macedonian War (171167) Roman distrust
of those in Achaia less favorable to Rome
led to the capture of 1,000 Achaian hostages
(including Polybius), who were taken to Italy.
Finally in 146, in circumstances that are unclear,
war broke out between Rome and the koinon:
Romes victory led to the break-up of the
koinon and the destruction of Corinth.
A smaller version of the Achaian League was
subsequently reconstituted and continued for
centuries, but was never a major political force.
SEE ALSO:

Ethnos; Macedonian wars; Strategoi.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Beck, H. (1997) Polis und Koinon. Stuttgart.
Benner, S. M. (2008) Achaian League coinage of the
3rd through 1st centuries BCE. Lancaster, PA.
Corsten, T. (1999) Vom Stamm zum Bund.
Munich.
Larsen, J. A. O. (1968) Greek federal states: their
institutions and history. Oxford.
ONeil, J. L. (19846) The political elites of the
Achaian and Aitolian Leagues. Ancient Society
1517: 3361.
Rizakis, A. D. (2008) Achaie III. Les Cites
acheennes: epigraphie et histoire. Athens.
Roy, J. (2003) The Achaian League. In K. Buraselis
and K. Zoumboulakis, eds., The idea of
European community in history, vol. 2: Aspects
of connecting poleis and ethne in ancient Greece:
8195. Athens.
Walbank, F. W. (2000) Hellenes and Achaians:
Greek nationality revisited. In P. FlenstedJensen, ed., Further studies in the ancient Greek
polis: 1933. Stuttgart.
Warren, J. A. W. (2007) The bronze coinage of the
Achaian Koinon: the currency of a federal ideal.
London.