ETOLIA, a country of ancient Greece. On the east it was separated by the river Evenus, now the Fidari, from the Locrenses Ozolae, and on the west from Acarnania by the Achelous; on the north it bordered on the country of the Dorians and part of Epirus, and on the south it extended to the Bay of Corinth.

The Etolians were a restless and turbulent people, seldom at peace amongst themselves, and ever at war with their neighbours; strangers to friendship or the principles of honour; and ready to betray those who trusted them, upon the least prospect of reaping any advantage from ⅛eir treachery; in short, they were looked upon by the other states of Greece as but little better than outlaws and public robbers. On the other hand, they were bold and enterprising in war, inured to labour and hardships, undaunted in the greatest dangers, and jealous dcŕënders of their liberties, for which they were, on all occasions, willing to hazard their lives, and to sacrifice all that was most dear to them. They distinguished themselves above all the other nations of Greece in opposing the ambitious designs of the Macedonian princes, who, after having reduced most of the other states, were forced to grant them a peace upon honourable terms. The constitution of the Etolian republic was copied from that of the Achaeans, and constructed with a view to form, as it were, a counter alliance; for the Etolians bore an irreconcilable hatred to the Achaeans, and had conceived no small jealousy of the growing power of that state. The Cleomenic war, and that of the allies, called the Social War, were kindled by the Etolians in the heart of the Peloponnesus, with no other view than to humble their antagonists the Achaeans. In the latter contest, this people, with the assistance only of the Eleans and Lacedaemonians, held out for the space of three years against the united forces of Achaia and Macedonia; i but they were at last obliged to purchase a peace, by ceding to Philip the whole of Acarnania. As they parted with this province much against their will, however, they watched; all opportunities of wresting it out of the Macedonian’s hands; and with this view they entered into an alliance with Rome, which proved of great service tυ the Romans i in their war with Philip; but growing insolent on account of their services, they soon made war upon their allies, by whom they were overcome, and only obtained a peace upon severe conditions. After the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus Aemilius, they were reduced to a much worse condition; for not only those amongst them who had openly declared for Perseus, but such as were suspected of having favoured him in their hearts, were sent to Rome, in order to clear themselves before the senate; and there they were detained, and never afterwards suffered to return to their native country. Five hundred and fifty of the chief men of the nation were barbarously assassinated by the partizans of Rome, for no other crime than that of being suspected of wishing well to Pcrseus. The Etolians appeared before Paulus Aemilius in mourning habits, and made loud complaints of this inhuman treatment; but they obtained no redress; and ten commissioners, who had been sent by the senate to settle the affairs of Greece, decreed ιat those who were killed had suffered justly, since it appeared that they had favoured the Macedonian party.

rom this time the chief honours and employments in the tohan republic were only conferred upon those who were nρ ' vn to prefer the interest of Rome to that of their country; and as such persons were alone countenanced of 0t ne, all the magistrates of Etolia became the creatures nc mere tools of the Roman senate. In this state of ser- 1 c subjection they continued until the destruction of Corinth and the dissolution of the Acĥaean league, when Etolia, with the other free states of Greece, was reduced to the condition of a Roman province, and called the province of Achaia. Nevertheless, each state and city was governed by its own laws, under the superintendence of the praetor whom Rome sent annually into Achaia: the whole nation paid a certain tribute; and the rich were forbidden to possess lands anywhere except in their own country.

In this state Etolia continued, with little alteration, under the emperors, till the reign of Constantine the Great, who, in his new partition of the provinces of the empire, divided the western parts of Greece from the other, calling them New Epirus, and subjecting the whole country to Úie praefectus praetorii for Illyricum. Under the successors of Constantine, Greece was parcelled out into several principalities, especially after the taking of Constantinople by the western princes. At that time Theodorus Angelus, a noble Grecian, of the imperial family, seized on Etolia and Epirus, the former of which he left to Michael his son, who maintained it against Michael Palaeologus, the first emperor of the Greeks, after the expulsion of the Latins. Charles, the last prince of this family, having died without issue in 1430, bequeathed Etolia to his brother’s son, also named Charles, and Acarnania to his natural sons Memnon, Turnus, and Hercules; but great disputes having arisen about this division, Amurath II. after the reduction of Thessalonica, laid hold of the favourable opportunity thus offered, and in 1432 drove them all out. But the Mahommedans were afterwards dispossessed of this country by George Castriot, prince of Epirus; who, with a small army, opposed the whole power of the Ottoman empire, and defeated the Turks in twenty-two pitched battles. Tþat hero, at his death, left the greater part of Etolia to the Venetians; but the latter not being able to make head against the Ottoman power, the whole country was soon reduced by Mahommed II.