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The river Achelous separates Aetolia from Acarnania to the west; on the north it had boundaries with Epirus and Thessaly; on the east with the Ozolian Locrians; and on the south the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf defined the limits of Aetolia.
In classical times Aetolia comprised two parts: Old Aetolia in the west, from the Achelous to the Evenus and Calydon; and New Aetolia or Acquired Aetolia in the east, from the Evenus and Calydon to the Ozolian Locrians. On the coast the country is level and fruitful, but in the interior mountainous and unproductive. The mountains contained many wild beasts, and aquired fame in Greek mythology as the scene of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar.
The peoples known as the Curetes and the Leleges originally inhabited the country, but at an early period Greeks from Elis, led by the mythical eponym Aetolus, set up colonies. The Aetolians took part in the Trojan WarThe Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of Greece, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. The war figures centrally in Greek mythology and was narrated, under their king Thoas .
They continued for a long time a rude and uncivilized people, living to a great extent by robbery; and even in the time of ThucydidesThucydides (between 460 and 455 BC 395 BC) was an ancient Greek historian. Thucydides was a wealthy Athenian noble and the son of Olorus the King of Thrace. His wealth came from his family's goldmines at Scapte Hyle on the Thracian coast. Thucydides was c (410 BC) many of their tribes spoke a non- Greek languageThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce, and had the habit of eating raw flesh. Apparently the Aetolians set up a kind of united league in early times, but this league first acquired political importance about the middle of the third century BC, and became a formidable rival to the MacedonianAlexander the Great, king of ancient Macedon, on the waterfront at Thessaloniki, capital of Greek Macedonia Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in south-eastern Europe with an area of around 67,000 square kilometres a monarchs and the Achaean LeagueThe Achaean League was a confederation of Greek city states in Achaea, a territory on the northern coast of the Peloponnese. An initial confederation existed during the 5th through the 4th century BC. The Achaean League reformed early in the 3rd century B. The Aetolians took the side of Antiochus IIIAntiochus III the Great (ruled 223 187 BC), younger son of Seleucus II Callinicus, became ruler of the Seleucid kingdom as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. His traditional designation, the Great stems from a misconception of Megas Basileus (Great king against the Roman RepublicSee also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). The Roman Republic traditionally lasted as a representative government of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, typically placed at 44 BC, and on the defeat of that monarch in 189 BC, they became virtually the subjects of Rome. Following the conquest of the Achaeans, 146 BC, Aetolia became part of the Roman province of Achaea.
Aetolia was later invaded by the Turks, who, after a relatively unsuccessful attempt at colonization, took a token amount of slaves and resources from the region, then departed. See Ottoman Greece.
This article incorporates material from Harry Thurston Peck's Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)