chapter 10._

ÆTHEL. ÆTHELING.

See ETHEL, and ADEL.

ÆTHELBERT, ÆTHELFRITH, ETC.

See ETHELBERT, etc.

ÆTOLIA. ÆTOLIANS.

"Ætolia, the country of Diomed, though famous in the early times, fell back during the migratory period almost into a savage condition, probably through the influx into it of an Illyrian population which became only partially Hellenized. The nation was divided into numerous tribes, among which the most important were the Apodoti, the Ophioneis, the Eurytanes and the Agræans. There were scarcely any cities, village life being preferred universally. … It was not till the wars which arose among Alexander's successors that the Ætolians formed a real political union, and became an important power in Greece."

_G. Rawlinson, Manual of Ancient History, book 3._

See also, AKARNANIANS, and GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

ÆTOLIAN LEAGUE, The.

"The Achaian and the Ætolian Leagues, had their constitutions been written down in the shape of a formal document, would have presented but few varieties of importance. The same general form of government prevailed in both; each was federal, each was democratic; each had its popular assembly, its smaller Senate, its general with large powers at the head of all. The differences between the two are merely those differences of detail which will always arise between any two political systems of which neither is slavishly copied from the other. … If therefore federal states or democratic states, or aristocratic states, were necessarily weak or strong, peaceful or aggressive, honest or dishonest, we should see Achaia and Ætolia both exhibiting the same moral characteristics. But history tells another tale. The political conduct of the Achaian League, with some mistakes and some faults, is, on the whole, highly honourable. The political conduct of the Ætolian League is, throughout the century in which we know it best [last half of third and first half of second century B. C.] almost always simply infamous. … The counsels of the Ætolian League were throughout directed to mere plunder, or, at most, to selfish political aggrandisement."

_E. A. Freeman, History of Federal Government, chapter 6_.

The plundering aggressions of the Ætolians involved them in continual war with their Greek kindred and neighbours, and they did not scruple to seek foreign aid. It was through their agency that the Romans were first brought into Greece, and it was by their instrumentality that Antiochus fought his battle with Rome on the sacredest of all Hellenic soil. In the end, B. C. 189, the League was stripped by the Romans of even its nominal independence and sank into a contemptible servitude.

_E. A. Freeman, History of Federal Government,