ACILEANS, the inhabitants of At:11A IA Prop•ia, so called from the son ol \mints, king ol Thus saly,who, when banished from that kingdom, had settled in Athens. Achicus afterwards recovered possession of Thessaly ; but having committed the crime of man slaughter, was obliged to fly to Laconia, a province of Peloponnesus, where he died, and where his posterity remained under the appenation of Achxans, till they were expelled by the Dores and Ileraclidx. They then laid claim to Achaia ; and having driven out the Ionians, took possession ol the country, under the con duct of their by:tee king Tisanienes, the son of Orestes. The kingdom consisted, as during the time of the Ionians, chiefly of twelve cities, which were divided be tween the himr sons of Tisamenes, who, with their cou sin, a grandson of Orestes, tor some time jointly reign ed over this new Achxan state. At length the form of government was (hanged and a mixed democracy es tablished. Their territory was not extensive, nor their revenues large ; but the inhabitants, though without commerce, or greater industry than w as necessary to pro cure subsistence, were governed by wise and equal laws. Thus united, tlit;ir cities or states formed only one body ; and few causes of envy or objects of ambi tion existing among them, political harmony pervaded every class of the citizens. So celebrated were their magistrates for probity, justice, and love of liberty, that they were at one time the common arbitrators of the Italian Greeks. After the battle of Leuctra, they were chosen umpires in the dispute between the Laced.zeme Mans and the Thebans, who respectively claimed the victory, and their decision was submitted to as impartial and just. They retained their liberty and republican form of government, till the time of Alexander the Great ; after whose death, they became a prey to political dis cord, and were oppressed and enslaved, sometimes by the Macedonian kings, and sometimes by tyrants of their own. Each town attentive to its own interest only, be gan to separate from the rest ; mutual jealousies ensued ; and the common cause of liberty completely languish ed. But the invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus about the 125th Olympiad, B. C. 230, again united the and led them not only to revive their ancient league, but to extend its influence, by receiving other states into the union, till at length it embraced the whole of Greece, except the territory of the Lacedxmonians. By the Aclnean league, all the cities subject to it were govern ed by a great council or general assembly, consisting of a certain number of deputies from each of them, elect ed by a plurality of It was convened ordinarily twice a year, for the purpose of enacting laws, filling \ au:nicks in the magistracy, declaring war, concluding peace, or forming alliances ; and its decisions were binding on all the members of the confederacy. This Assembly had at first two pre sidents, or chief magistrates, nominated alternately by the different states; hut they soon elected only one, who presided in the council, and commanded the army. They and the other magistrates continued in ullice two years successively ; and the pre sident, called Ntratego.v by the Greeks, and prxtor by the Latins, was responsible to the general assembly. The demiurgi, ten in number, next in authority to the prxtur, wee chosen by the assembly, appointed to act as the privy council ol the pra:tor, and had the power, on sonic extraordinary occasions, of summoning the general assembly. Such was the fundamental constitu
tion of the Aclixan conletteracy. But their peace and prosperity were not ol long continuance. rivalry and power of the Laccd;enionian. first reduced them to the necessity of applying or assistance to the sovereigns of Macedon ; and being afterwards overpowered by the A'Aolians, they formed an alliance with Philip, who hav ing successfully supported them against their enemies, re-established their tranquillity, by procuring a general peace. Refusing, how ever, to aid his ambitious pro jects, Philip soon changed his conduct towards them. and even poisoned Aratus, whilst lie was prxtor for the seventeenth time. Under the presidency of IDCD, during the war between Philip and the Romans, about 200 years B. C. the Achxans entered into an al liance with the latter, and at the conclusion of the war, were put in possession of Corinth, delivered from every kind of serf itude, and again permitted to govern them selves by their own laws. In the year B. C. 101, the powerful city of Lacedamion was added by conquest to the Achxan commonwealth, by which means the Achx ans eclipsed all the other states of Greece. But inter nal disputes about the place of holding their general assemblies, and the turbulent spirit of the Lacethemo Mans, soon interrupted their tranquillity. The Achzean league was at this time courted by almost all the Eastern nations : its ancient alliances were renewed ; and its in creasing power became an object of jealousy to the Ro mans. The death of Philopcemen, who was poisoned by the INIessenians, alter they had defeated him, and taken him prisoner, gave a blow to the interest of his country, from which it never completely recovered. The Achxan confederacy became feeble by being disunited ; and in the year before Christ 147, the Romans, who had some time before interfered with its internal policy, decreed, that a great number of the confederate cities should be separated from the general alliance, and in future be governed by their own laws. This, indeed, roused their indignation, and gave a new spring to their exertions ; but the it struggle in the war with the Romans which succeeded, was ineffectual. No longer directed by wise magistrates, or skilful commanders, their spirit of re venge, though ungovernable and savage, could be of no avail against the military talents of the Romans. Ac cordingly in 146 B. C. Mummius, the Roman general, arrived in Greece, defeated the Achxans, plundered Co rinth of its rich spoils, and then reduced it to ashes ; under the ruins of which, the Achxan league seems to have been buried. It was soon after dissolved, and Greece reduced to a Roman province under the name of Achaia, which paid an annual tribute to Rome, and was governed like the other conquered provinces of the empire. During the reign of Nero, it was restored to its ancient liberty ; but it was afterwards reduced to its former state of subjection by Vespasian. Its privileges were in some degree enlarged by Nerva, though it was still governed by a Roman przctor ; and in this state it ocmained till the tune ol Constantine the wbo, to his new 'slot' it the Roman provinces, subjected it to the protect of Iliyricum. See of Univ. /Act. vol.
vi. p. 4d. Juatin, lib. 34. cap. I. and Monikly Review, vol. lxxi. p. 531.