AETOLIA, a country of ancient Greece, comprehending all that tract now called the Despotat, or Little Greece. It was parted on the east by the river Evanus, now the Fidari, from the Locrenses Ozolae; 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 extended to the Bay of Corinth.

The Aetolians were a restless and turbulent people, seldom at peace among themselves, and ever at war with their neighbours; utter strangers to all sense of friendship or principles of honour; ready to betray their friends upon the least prospect of reaping any advantage from their treachery: in short, they were looked upon by the other states of Greece no otherwise than as 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; jealous defenders of their liberties, for which they were on all occasions willing to venture their lives, and 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 very honourable terms. The constitution of the Aetolian republic was copied from that of the Achaeans, and with a view to form, as it were, a counter-alliance; for the Aetolians bore an irreconcilable hatred to the Achaeans, and had conceived no small jealousy at the growing power of that state. The Cleomenic war, and that of the allies, called the social war,-were kindled by the Aetolians in the heart of Peloponnesus, with no other view than to humble their antagonists the Achaeans. In the latter they held out, with the assistance only of the Eleans and Lacedemonians, for the space of three years, against the united forces of Achaia and Macedon; but were obliged at last to purchase a peace, by yielding up to Philip all Acarnania. As they parted with this province much against their will, they watched all opportunities[7:2:209] of wresting it again out of the Macedonian’s hand; for which reason they entered into an alliance with Rome against him, and proved of great service to the Romans in their war with him; but growing insolent on account of their services, they made war upon the Romans themselves. By that warlike nation they were overcome, and granted a peace on the following severe terms :—1. The majesty of the Roman people shall be revered in all Aetolia. 2. Aetolia shall not suffer the armies of such as are at war with Rome to pass through her territories, and the enemies of Rome shall be likewise the enemies of Aetolia. 3. She shall, in the space of 100 days, put into the hands of the magistrates of Corcyra all the prisoners and deserters she has, whether of the Romans or their allies, except such as have been taken twice, or during her alliance with Rome. 4. The Aetolians shall pay down in ready money, to the Roman general· in Aetolia, 200 Euboic talents, of the same value as the Athenian talents, and engage to pay 50 talents more within the six years following. 5. They shall put into the hands of the consul 40 such hostages as he shall choose, none of whom shall be under 12, or above 40 years of age: the pretor, the general of the horse, and such as have been already hostages at Rome, are excepted out of this number. 6. Aetolia shall renounce all pretensions to the cities and territories which the Romans have conquered, though these cities and territories had formerly belonged to the Aetolians. 7. The city of Oenis and its district shall be subject to the Acarnanians.

After the conquest of Macedon by Aemilius Paulus, they were reduced to a much worse condition; for not only those among them who had openly declared for Perseus, but such as were only suspected to have favoured him in their hearts, were sent to Rome, in order to clear themselves before the senate. There they were detained, and never afterwards suffered to return into their native country. Five hundred and fifty of the chief men of the nation were barbarously assassinated by the partisans of Rome, for no other crime than that of being suspected to wish well to Perseus. The Aetolians appeared before Aemilius Paulus in mourning habits, and made loud complaints of such inhuman treatment, but could obtain no redress; nay, ten commissioners, who had been sent by the senate to settle the affairs of Greece, enacted a decree, declaring that those who were killed had suffered justly, since it appeared to them that they had favoured the Macedonian party. From this time those only were raised to the chief honours and employments in the Aetolian republic who were known to prefer the interest of Rome to that of their country; and as these alone were countenanced at Rome, all the magistrates of Aetolia -were the creatures and mere tools of the Roman senate. In this state of servile subjection they continued till the destruction of Corinth and the dissolution of the Achaean league, when Aetolia, with the other free states of Greece, was reduced to a Roman province, commonly called the province of Achaia. Nevertheless, each state and city was governed by its own laws, under the superintendency of the pretor whom Rome sent annually into Achaia. The whole nation paid a certain tribute, and the rich were forbidden to possess lands anywhere but in their own country.

In this state, with little alteration, Aetolia continued 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 rest, calling them New Epirus, and subjecting the whole country to the profectus pr<etorii 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 Aetolia and Epirus. The former he left to Michael his son, who maintained it against Michael Palaeo-logus, the first emperor of the Greeks, after the expulsion of the Latins. Charles, the last prince of this family, dying in 1430 without lawful issue, bequeathed Aetolia to his brother’s son, named also Charles ; and Acarnania to his natural sons Memnon, Turnus, and Hercules. But great disputes arising about this division, Amurath II., after the reduction of Thessalonica, laid hold of so favourable an opportunity, and drove them all out in 1432. The Mahometans were afterwards dispossessed of this country by the famous prince of Epirus, George Castriot, commonly called Scanderbeg, who with a small army opposed the whole power of the Ottoman empire, and defeated these barbarians in 22 pitched battles. That hero at his death left great part of Aetolia to the Venetians; but they not being able to make head against such a mighty power, the whole country was soon reduced by Mohammed II. whose successors hold it to this day.