AITOLIA Aitolian League 211BC Ancient Greek Coin Piracy and brigandage i46465

Item: i46465

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek AITOLIA, Aitolian League
Bronze 19mm (4.16 grams) Struck circa 211-196 B.C.
Reference: Sear 2321; B.M.C. 7.58-61; SNG Copenhagen 29.
Laureate head of Aitolos right.
AITΩ / ΛΩN above and beneath
spear-head and jaw-bone of boar right; KΛEI
in central field, bunch of grapes to
left.
 
The warlike people of this district produced no coinage until the 3rd Century
B.C., when
the Gallic invasion of Greece occasioned the inauguration of a
Federal currency.

Aetolus  was, in
Greek mythology
, a son of
Endymion
, grandson of
Deucalion
, and a
Naiad

nymph
, or
Iphianassa
. According to
Pausanias
, his mother was called
Asterodia
,
Chromia
, or
Hyperippe
. He was married to
Pronoe
, by whom he had two sons,
Pleuron
and
Calydon
. His brothers were
Paeon
,
Epeius
, and others His father compelled him and
his two brothers Paeon and Epeius to decide by a contest at
Olympia
as to which of them was to succeed him
in his kingdom of Elis
. Epeius gained the victory, and occupied
the throne after his father, and on his demise he was succeeded by Aetolus.
During the funeral games which were celebrated in honor of
Azan
, he ran with his chariot over
Apis
, the son of
Jason
or
Salmoneus
, and killed him, whereupon he was
expelled by the sons of Apis. The kingdom then passed to
Eleius
, son of his sister
Eurycyda
. After leaving
Peloponnesus
, he went to the country of the
Curetes
, between the
Achelous
and the
Corinthian
gulf, where he slew
Dorus
,
Laodocus
, and
Polypoetes
, the sons of
Apollo
and
Phthia
, and gave to the country the name of
Aetolia
. This story is only a mythical account
of the colonization of Aetolia.

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Authenticity.

The Aetolian League (also transliterated as Aitolian
League) was a confederation of tribal communities and cities in
ancient Greece
centered on
Aetolia
in central Greece. It was established,
probably during the early Hellenistic era, in opposition to
Macedon
and the
Achaean League
. Two annual meetings were held
in
Thermika
and Panaetolika. It occupied
Delphi
from
290 BC
and gained territory steadily until, by
the end of the 3rd century BC, it controlled the whole of central Greece outside
Attica
. At its height, the league’s territory
included Locris
,
Malis
, Dolopes, part of
Thessaly
,
Phocis
, and
Acarnania
. In the latter part of its power,
certain
Mediterranean
city-states joined the Aitolian
League such as Kydonia
on
Crete
.

The Aetolians were not highly regarded by other Greeks, who considered them
to be semi-barbaric and reckless. However, their league had a complex political
and administrative structure, and their armies were easily a match for the other
Greek powers. According to Scholten, the Aetolian League consisted of elites at
the top, but was fundamentally a society of farmers and herders. The league had
a federal structure consisting of a federal council in which the level of
representation was proportional to the size of a community’s contribution to the
league’s army, a popular assembly of all citizens which met twice a year, and an
inner council equivalent to a federal government. It could raise armies and
conduct foreign policy on a common basis. It also implemented economic
standardization, levying taxes, using a common currency and adopting a uniform
system of weights and measures.

 Origins of the
League

It is uncertain when the League was founded. It has been suggested that it
may have been founded by
Epaminondas
. Grainger believes it was founded
much later – around the time of the rise of
Philip II of Macedon
. After Philip’s victory of
Chaeronea
Aetolia was granted
Naupaktos
which the Aetolians garrisoned – a
level of organization that suggests some formal government rather than the loose
alliance of earlier times.

 Alliance with Rome

The league was the first Greek ally of the
Roman Republic
, siding with the Romans during
the
First Macedonian War
, and helping to defeat
Philip V of Macedon
at the
Battle of Cynoscephalae
in
197 BC
, during the
Second Macedonian War
. However, it grew
increasingly hostile to Roman involvement in Greek affairs and only a few years
later sided with
Antiochus III
, the anti-Roman king of the
Seleucid Empire
, during the
Roman-Syrian War
. The defeat of Antiochus in
189 BC
robbed the league of its principal
foreign ally and made it impossible to stand alone in continued opposition to
Rome. The league was forced to sign a peace treaty with Rome that made it a
subject ally of the republic. Although it continued to exist in name, the power
of the league was broken by the treaty and it never again constituted a
significant political or military force.

 A Pirate State?

The Aetolian League acquired a reputation for piracy and brigandage. Though
there is some recognition that Polybius was to an extent following an Achaean
bias in his portrayal of the League thus, many modern historians have accepted
this portrayal as in the main justified. For example, Walbank is explicit in
seeing the Aetolians as systematically using piracy to supplement their income
because of the meager resources of their region
while Will simply assumes the truth of the charge. Grainger devotes a whole
chapter to examining Aetolian involvement in piracy along with the charges that
the Aetolians were temple robbers. He finds it hard to credit that Aetolia was
involved in piracy given that Aetolia lacked a fleet of even the basic sort.
Further by contrast with more general historians, those that have made specific
studies of piracy and brigandage barely mention Aetolia. He lists the times that
the Aetolians were accused of temple robbery and argues that the weight of these
accusations should take into account that these are usually made by political
opponents of the League and refer to occasions that were already some way in the
past when the accusations were made.