Aetolia (redirected from Aetolians)

Aetolia (ētōl`yə), region of ancient Greece, N of the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of Calydon, E of the Achelous River (separating it from Acarnania). Little is known of the early population of Aetolia, but later Aetolians, though they had coastal cities, were primarily an inland farming and pastoral people. They had famous shrines at Calydon (to Artemis) and at Thermum (to Apollo).

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Aetolia

District north of the Gulf of Corinth, ancient Greece. Aetolia figures prominently in early legend. By 367 BC it had been organized by various tribes into a federal state comprising the Aetolian League. Coming under Roman rule, it was incorporated into the province of Achaea (see Achaean League) in 27 BC by Augustus. Governed later by Albania and Venice, it came under Turkish rule in AD 1450. It was the scene of fierce fighting in the War of Greek Independence (1821–29). Modern Aetolia is linked with Acarnania as a department of Greece.

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Aetolia

a mountainous region forming (with the region of Acarnania) a department of W central Greece, north of the Gulf of Patras: a powerful federal state in the 3rd century bc. Chief city: Missolonghi. Pop. (with Acarnania): 219 092 (2001). Area: 5461 sq. km (2108 sq. miles)

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Aetolia 

an ancient region in central Greece that was inhabited by Aetolian tribes. Aetolia was one of the most backward regions of the country, as it was surrounded and dissected by mountains and was also distant from the main cultural centers. It rose to political importance around the middle of the third century B.C., however, when the Aetolian League expanded beyond the boundaries of Aetolia; the federation included a number of poléis in northern and central Greece and the Peloponnesus. Aetolia was conquered by Rome in 189 B.C.