Acarnanian League

The Acarnanian League (Ancient Greek: τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Ἁκαρνάνων, to koinon tōn Akarnanōn) was the tribal confederation, and later a fully-fledged federation (koinon), of the Acarnanians in Classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman-era Greece.

History

The League existed since the 5th century BC. It was at the time not a fully-fledged federation (sympoliteia) as elsewhere in Greece, but a loose confederation of the Acarnanian cities. An assembly of representatives met at Stratos, having also the power of negotiating treaties with other states, a supreme court existed at Olpae (in common with the Amphilochians), and there was a common coinage and cult, but no federal officials and no common foreign policy. Thus, although the League sometimes acted for all its members, as in the alliance with Sparta in 390 BC or the joining of the Second Athenian League in 375/4 BCE, at other times individual member city-states acted independently, e.g. during the Third Sacred War, where the cities Alyzia and Anaktorion participated as Theban allies while the rest of the League remained neutral.

The Acarnanians agreed to provide 2,000 hoplites in the struggle against Philip II of Macedon, but as the latter occupied Ambracia, only a handful volunteers participated alongside Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea. As a result, the leaders of the independence faction were banished, and the League became a member of the League of Corinth organized by Philip. During Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia, the Aetolians seized the town of Oiniadai from the League.

With the exception of Alyzia, the Acarnanians remained largely uninvolved in the struggles that followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, but in 314 BCE Cassander arrived in Acarnania and reorganized the League on a truly federal basis. The island of Leucas joined the League soon after, following the eviction of its Macedonian garrison.