Aetolia

“ But while the modern Artemis is the leader of her nymphs in mischief and even in cruelty, it must not be thought that she is always a foe to man. In Aetolia ‘the lady Beautiful’ is quick to avenge a slight or an intrusion; but for those who pay her due reverence she is a ready helper and a giver of good gifts. Health and wealth lie in her hand, to bestow or to withhold, as in the hands of the Nereids. Hence even he whom her sudden anger has once smitten may regain her favour by offerings of honey and other sweetmeats on the scene of his calamity. ”

“ Aetolia’s prosperity dates from the period of Macedonian supremacy. It may be ascribed partly to the wealth and influence acquired by Aetolian mercenaries in Hellenistic courts, but chiefly to the formation of a national Aetolian league, the first effective institution of this kind in Greece. Created originally to meet the peril of an invasion by the Macedonian regents Antipater and Craterus, who had undertaken a punitive expedition against Aetolia after the Lamian War (322) , and by Cassander (314–311) , the confederacy grew rapidly during the subsequent period of Macedonian weakness. ”

“ But next—this being the most convincing argument to an Aetolian—he pictured to him the great booty that they would get from Messenia, the country being without warning of invasion and being the only one in Greece that the Cleomenic war had spared. Finally he dwelt on the popularity they themselves would gain in Aetolia. ”

“ As soon as ever the season of the year made navigation safe he should fill the whole of Greece with arms and men and horses and encircle its coasts with his fleets; he would shrink from no toil or danger till he had delivered Greece from the yoke of Roman dominion and made Aetolia her foremost State. Supplies of every description would accompany his armies from Asia; for the time being it must be the care of the Aetolians to furnish his troops with an abundant supply of corn and other provisions at a reasonable price. ”

“ Wherefore, men of Aetolia, considering that we, as representatives of the whole body of the islanders and of the Greek inhabitants of Asia, are here to beseech you to put an end to war and to choose peace, because the matter affects us as well as you, show your wisdom by listening to us and yielding to our entreaties. ”

“ ALEXANDER AETOLUS, of Pleuron in Aetolia, Greek poet and man of letters, the only representative of Aetolian poetry, flourished about 280 B.C. When living in Alexandria he was commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus to arrange the tragedies and satyric dramas in the library; some ten years later he took up his residence at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia. His reputation as a tragic poet was so high that he was allotted a place in the Alexandrian tragic Pleiad; we only know the title of one play (Astragalistae) . ”

“ And yet they, if any one, might have been excused if they had put the matter off, and hesitated, and shown fear of entering upon a war with their neighbours; both because they lived upon the frontiers of Aetolia, and still more because they were peculiarly open to attack, and, most of all, because they had a short time before experienced the most dreadful disasters from the enmity of the Aetolians. But I imagine that men of noble nature, whether in private or public affairs, look upon duty as the highest consideration ”

“ In 191 they supported Antiochus badly, and by their slackness in the defence of Thermopylae made his position in Greece untenable. Having thus isolated themselves the Aetolians stood at bay behind their walls against the Romans, who refused all compromises, and, after the general surrender in 189, restricted the league to Aetolia proper and assumed control over its foreign relations. In 167 the country suffered severely from the intrigues of a philo-Roman party, which caused a series of judicial murders and the deportation of many patriots to Italy. ”

“ In course of time the people of Patrae on their own account crossed into Aetolia; they did this out of friendship for the Aetolians, to help them in their war with the Gauls, and no other Achaeans joined them. But suffering unspeakable disasters in the fighting, and most of them being also crushed by poverty, all with the exception of a few left Patrae, and scattered, owing to their love of agriculture, up and down the country, dwelling in, besides Patrae, the following towns: Mesatis, Antheia, Bolina, Argyra and Arba. ”

“ The circuit of Epirus, Ætolia, and Thessaly is intrusted to Marcius and Atilius; they were directed to take a view afterwards of Bœotia and Eubœa, and then to pass over to Peloponnesus, where, by appointment, they were to meet the Lentuluses. Before they set out on their several routes from Corcyra, a letter was brought from Perseus, in which he inquired the reason of the Romans sending troops into Greece, and taking possession of the cities. ”

“ It rises in Mt. Pindus, and, dividing Aetolia from Acarnania, falls into the Ionian Sea. In the lower part of its course the river winds through fertile, marshy plains. Its water is charged with fine mud, which is deposited along its banks and at its mouth, where a number of small islands (Echinades) have been formed. ”

“ Oeta, 7080 ft.) extending to the southern shore of the Gulf of Lamia at Thermopylae; to the S.E., S. and S.W. are the mountains of Aetolia and Acarnania. The Aetolian group, which may be regarded as the direct continuation of the Pindus range, includes Kiona (8240 ft.) , the highest mountain in Greece, and Vardusi (anc. Korax, 8190 ft.) . The mountains of Acarnania with Ὑψηλὴ κορυφή (5215 ft.) rise to the W. of the valley of the Aspropotamo (anc. Achelous) . The Aetolian Mountains are prolonged to the S.E. by the double-crested Liakoura (anc. Parnassus; 8064 ft.) in Phocis ”

“ And one ought not to omit the recently excavated Thermon, the ancient capital of Ætolia, even if it does cost an extra day. The long-known and impressive ruins of Œniadæ, the chief city in Acarnania, also invite one to linger a whole day instead of spending a few hours in passing.
The first five cities of ancient Greece in renown and interest were Athens, Sparta, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth. One can ride from Athens to Thebes or Corinth and back in a single day; he can also reach Argos from Athens in a day, leaving a rather long day’s work for reaching Sparta. ”

“ Doubtless in the more ‘civilised’ parts of Greece (to use the word beloved of the half-educated town-bred Greek) , in the parts where old beliefs and customs are falling into decay and contempt while nothing good is substituted for them, even the lower classes have lost or are losing count and memory of many of those powers whom their forefathers acknowledged; but in the more favourably sequestered villages, let us say, of Aetolia, where superstition still fears no mockery, no peasant would commit the mistake of confounding his Demeter with his Artemis. ”

“ Here again we have the name of Dôrus, or the Dôrians, connected with the tract subsequently termed Ætôlia. That Dôrus should in one place be called the son of Apollo and Phthia, and in another place the son of Hellên by a nymph, will surprise no one accustomed to the fluctuating personal nomenclature of these old legends: moreover the name of Phthia is easy to reconcile with that of Hellên, as both are identified with the same portion of Thessaly, even from the days of the Iliad. ”

“ The hope of recovering the kingdom was presented to Amynander, then an exile in Ætolia, by the letters of his partisans, who informed him of the state of Athamania: and messengers were sent to Argithea, (for that was the chief city of Athamania,) to inform the principal men, that, if they were sufficiently assured of the inclinations of their countrymen, he, having obtained succours from the Ætolians, would come, into Athamania with a chosen body of Ætolians, who constituted the council of that nation, and their prætor, Nicander. ”

“ This range of mountains, which extends from Leucas and the sea on the west, through Aetolia to the opposite sea on the east, is so closely covered with thickets and craggy rocks, that, not to speak of an army, even persons lightly equipped for travelling can with difficulty find paths through which they can pass. The hills at the eastern extremity are called Oeta, and the highest of them Callidromus; in a valley, at the foot of which, reaching to the Malian bay, is a passage not broader than sixty paces. ”

“ The remaining force was soon transported back from Naupaktus to Athens, but Demosthenês remained behind, being too much afraid of the displeasure of his countrymen to return at such a moment. It is certain that his conduct was such as justly to incur their displeasure; and that the expedition against Ætolia, alienating an established ally and provoking a new enemy, had been conceived with a degree of rashness which nothing but the unexpected favor of fortune could have counterbalanced. ”

“ In the view of the author of this genealogy, the Dôrians are the original occupants of the large range of territory north of the Corinthian Gulf, comprising Ætôlia, Phôkis, and the territory of the Ozolian Lokrians. And this farther harmonizes with the other legend noticed by Apollodôrus, when he states that Ætolus, son of Endymiôn, having been forced to expatriate from Peloponnêsus, crossed into the Kurêtid territory, [227] and was there hospitably received by Dôrus, Laodokus and Polypœtês, sons of Apollo and Phthia. ”

“ Otos and Ephialtês even prepared to assault the gods in heaven, piling up Ossa on Olympus and Pêlion on Ossa, in order to reach them. And this they would have accomplished had they been allowed to grow to their full maturity; but the arrows of Apollo put a timely end to their short-lived career. [308]
[p. 137] The genealogy assigned to Calycê, another daughter of Æolus, conducts us from Thessaly to Elis and Ætôlia. She married Aëthlius (the son of Zeus by Prôtogeneia, daughter of Deukaliôn and sister of Hellên) , who conducted a colony out of Thessaly and settled in the territory of Elis. ”

“ But the most outrageous part of their conduct is that they try to rival Rome, and bid me entirely evacuate Greece! The demand in itself is sufficiently haughty and dictatorial: still, in the mouths of Romans, it is tolerable, but in that of Aetolians quite intolerable. What is this Greece, pray, from which ye bid me depart? How do you define it? Why, most of the Aetolians themselves are not Greeks ”

“ Lacedæmonian invasion of Attica suspended for this year. — Foundation of the colony of Herakleia by the Lacedæmonians, near Thermopylæ — its numerous settlers, great promise, and unprosperous career. — Athenian expedition against Melos, under Nikias. — Proceedings of the Athenians under Demosthenês in Akarnania. — Expedition of Demosthenês against Ætolia — his large plans. — March of Demosthenês — impracticability of the territory of Ætolia. — rudeness and bravery of the inhabitants. — He is completely beaten and obliged to retire with loss. ”

“ The federal executive was certainly much more efficient than that of the Achaeans, and its councils suffered less from disunion; but its generals and admirals, official or otherwise, enjoyed undue licence; hence the league deservedly gained an evil name for the numerous acts of lawlessness or violence which its troops committed. But as a champion of republican Greece against foreign enemies no other power of the age rendered equal services. After the first overthrow of the Byzantine empire Aetolia passed to a branch of the old imperial house (1205) . ”

“ In early legend Old Aetolia, with its cities of Pleuron and Calydon, figures prominently. During the great migrations (see DORIANS) the population was largely displaced, and the old inhabitants long remainedin a backward condition. In the 5th century some tribes were still living in open villages under petty kings, addicted to plunder and piracy, and hardly recogniged as Hellenes at all. Yet their military strength was not to be despised: in 426 their archers and slingers easily repelled an Athenian invasion under Demosthenes. ”

“ Reinforcing his Macedonians by a full levy of Epirotes, and being joined by three hundred slingers from Achaia, and the five hundred Cretans sent him by the Polyrrhenians, he continued his march through Epirus and arrived in the territory of the Ambracians. Now, if he had continued his march without interruption, and thrown himself into the interior of Aetolia, by the sudden and unlooked-for attack of so formidable an army he would have put an end to the whole campaign: but as it was, he was over-persuaded by the Epirotes to take Ambracus first ”

“ In order that his reckless adventure might not be ruined through his own inactivity, he sent a message to the Aetolians requesting them to concentrate all their fighting strength at Lamia, where he himself joined them with about 10,000 infantry, made up largely of troops which had come from Asia, and 500 cavalry. The Aetolians mustered in considerably smaller numbers than on any previous occasion, only the leading men with a few of their dependents were present. ”

“ This was just the case with the Aetolians. As long as they were left to themselves, no people in Greece were more loyal to you or more staunch in supporting your active measures. But when Thoas and Dicaearchus brought a storm from Asia, and Mnestas and Damocritus from Europe, and, disturbing the calm of the Aetolian masses, compelled 289 them to become reckless of what they said or did,—then indeed their good disposition gave way to bad, and while intending to do mischief to you they really inflicted damage upon themselves. ”