AETO´LICUM FOEDUS
AETO´LICUM FOEDUS (
τὸ κοινὸν
τῶν Αἰτωλῶν), a confederation of the Aetolian towns and
tribes, which was afterwards joined by towns and cantons of Greece which did
not belong to Aetolia proper. The league appears to have been formed shortly
after the battle of Chaeroneia, in B.C. 338, to counteract the influence of
Macedonia on the affairs of Greece. Its primary object therefore was the
same as that of the later league of the Achaeans. It has been suggested by
Schömann (
Griech. Alterth. ii. p. 102) that there
had existed from very early times a loose kind of confederacy among the
Aetolians, the centre of which was the sanctuary of Apollo at Thermon.
(
Hom. Il. 2.638;
13.217.) In the time of Thucydides (
3.119) the several Aetolian tribes between the
rivers Achelous and Evenus appear to have been quite independent of one
another, although they were designated by the common name of Aetolians ; but
we nevertheless find that on certain occasions they acted in concert, as,
for example, when they sent embassies to foreign powers, or when they had to
ward off the attacks of a common enemy. (Thuc.
l.c.
3.95, &c.) It may therefore be admitted that there did not exist any
regularly organised league among the tribes of Aetolia, and that it was only
their common danger that made them act in concert; but such a state of
things, at any rate, facilitated the formation of a league, when the time
came at which it was needed. The league appears as a very powerful one very
soon after the death of Alexander the Great, viz. during the Lamian war
against Antipater. (
Diod. 19.66;
20.99.) How far its organisation was then
regulated is unknown, though a certain constitution must have existed as
early as that time, since we find that Aristotle wrote a work on the
Aetolian constitution. (
Strab. vii.
p.321.) But it was certainly wanting in internal solidity, and not
based upon any firm principles. In B.C. 204, two of the heads of the
confederacy, Dorimachos and Scopas, were commissioned to regulate its
constitution, and it was perhaps in. consequence of their regulation, that a
cancelling of debts was decreed two years later. (
Plb.
13.1,
Fragm. Hist. 68.) The characteristic
difference between the Aetolian and Achaean leagues, was that the former
originally consisted of a confederacy of nations or tribes, while the latter
was a confederacy of towns. Hence the ancient and great towns of the
Aetolians, throughout the period of the league, are of no importance and
exercise no influence whatever. Even Thermon, although it was the head of
the league, and the place where the ordinary meetings of the confederates
were held (
Plb. 5.8,
18.31,
28.4;
Strab. x. p.463), did not serve as a fortress in times of war;
and whenever the Aetolians were threatened by any danger, they preferred
withdrawing to their impregnable mountains.
The sovereign power of the confederacy was vested in the general assemblies
of all the confederates (
κοινὸν τῶν Αἰτωλῶν,
concilium Aetolorum), and this assembly
unquestionably had the right to discuss all questions respecting peace and
war, and to elect the great civil and military officers of the league. It is
however clear that those assemblies could not be attended by all the
Aetolians, for many of them were poor, and lived at a great distance, in
addition to which the roads were much more impassable than in other parts of
Greece. The constitution of the league was thus in theory a democracy, but
under the cover of that name it was in reality an aristocracy, and the name
Panaetolicum, which Livy (
31.29) applies to the Aetolian assembly, must be
understood accordingly
[p. 1.42]as an assembly of the
wealthiest and most influential persons, who occasionally passed the most
arbitrary resolutions, and screened the maddest and most unlawful acts of
the leading men under the fine name of a decree of all the Aetolians.
We have already mentioned that the ordinary place of meeting was at Thermon,
but on extraordinary occasions assemblies were also held in other towns
belonging to the league, though they were not situated in the country of
Aetolia proper, e. g. at Heracleia (
Liv. 33.3),
Naupactus (35.12), Hypata (36.2, 8), and Lamia (35.43, 44). The questions
which were to be brought before the assembly were sometimes discussed
previously by a committee, selected from the great mass, and called Apocleti
(
ἀπόκλητοι, Suid. s.v.
Liv. 36.28). Some writers believe that the
Apocleti formed a permanent council, and that the thirty men sent out to
negotiate with Antiochus were only a committee of the Apocleti. (
Plb. 4.9,
20.10,
21.3; Tittmann,
Griech. Staatsverf.
p. 727.)
The general assembly usually met in the autumn, when the officers of the
league were elected. (
Plb. 4.37.) The highest
among them, as among those of the Achaean league, bore the title of
στρατηγός, whose office lasted only for one
year. The first whose name is known was Eurydamos, who commanded the
Aetolians in the war against the Galatians. (
Paus.
10.16.2.) The strategus had the right to convoke the assembly; he
presided in it, introduced the subjects for deliberation, and levied the
troops. (
Liv. 38.4.) He had his share of the
booty made in war, but was not allowed to vote in decisions upon peace or
war. (
Liv. 35.25.) This was a wise precaution,
as a sanguine strategus might easily have involved the league in wars which
would have been ruinous to the nation. His name was signed to all public
documents, treaties, and decrees of the general assembly. An exception
occurs in the peace with the Romans, because they themselves dictated it and
abandoned the usual form. (
Plb. 22.15.)
Respecting the mode of election, we are told by Hesychius (s. v.
κυάμῳ πατρίῳ), that it was decided by white
and black beans, and not by voting, but by drawing lots. The authority on
which the statement of Hesychius is based can be of no weight, and we must
suppose that the election was made by voting (see Schömann,
Griech. Alt. ii. p. 105).
The officers next in rank to the strategus were the hipparchus and the public
scribe. (
Plb. 22.15; comp.
Liv. 38.11.) We further hear of
σύνεδροι, who act as arbiters (Böckh,
Corp.
Inscr. vol. ii. p. 633), and
νομογράφοι, who however may have had no more to do with the
making of laws than the Athenian nomothetae. (Böckh,
l.c. pp. 857, 858.)
With the exception of the points above mentioned, the constitution of the
Aetolian league is involved in great obscurity. There are, however, two
things which appear to have had an injurious effect upon the confederacy:
first, the circumstance that its members were scattered over a large tract
of country, and that besides Aetolia proper and some neighbouring countries,
such as Locris and Thessaly, it embraced towns in the heart of Peloponnesus,
the island of Cephallenia in the west, and in the east the town of Cios on
the Propontis; in the second place, many of the confederates had been forced
to join the league, and were ready to abandon it again as soon as an
opportunity offered. (
Plb. 4.25; comp. 22.13, 15;
Liv. 38.9,
11.)
The towns which belonged to the league of course enjoyed isopolity; but, as
it endeavoured to increase its strength in all possible ways, the Aetolians
also formed connections of friendship and alliances with other states which
did not join the league. (
Plb. 2.46.) The
political existence of the league was destroyed in 3.100.189 by the treaty
with Rome, whereby they became subjects of Rome; and the treachery of the
Roman party among the Aetolians themselves caused in B.C. 167 five hundred
and fifty of the leading patriots to be put to death, and those who survived
the massacre were carried to Rome as prisoners. (
Liv.
45.31;
Just. 33.2.) An Aetolian, like
an Achaean, league continued to exist under the Roman dominion as late as
the time of Pausanias (
10.38), but it was
without any political significance. (Comp. Tittmann,
Darstellung der
Griech. Staatsverf. p. 721, &c.; Lucas,
Ueber
Polyb. Darstellung des Aetol. Bundes, Königsberg, 1827,
4to ; K. F. Hermann,
Griech. Staatsalterth. § 183;
Schorn,
Geschichte Griechenl. p. 25, &c.;
Brandstäter,
Die Gesch. des Aetol. Landes, Volkes und
Bundes, p. 298, &c.)
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