ÆTOLIA, a country of ancient Greece, bounded on the north by Epirus and Thessaly; on the east by the province of the Locri Ozolæ; on the south by the Gulf of Corinth; and separated on the west from Acarnania by the river Achelous. The part which lay westward of the river Evenus was called old Ætolia, and that lying to the east, new or acquired Ætolia.
The Ætolians 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 Ætolian republic was copied from that of the Achæans, and with a view to form, as it were, a counter-alliance; for the Ætolians bore an irreconcilable hatred to the Achæans, and had conceived no small jealousy at the growing power of that state. The Cleomene war, and that of the allies, called the social war, were kindled by the Ætolians in the heart of Peloponnesus, with no other view than to humble their antagonists the Achæans. 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 Achæa 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 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 Ætolia. 2. Ætolia 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 Ætolia. 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 Ætolians shall pay down in ready money, to the Roman general in Ætolia, 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 prætor, the general of the horse, and such as have been already hostages at Rome, are excepted out of this number. 6. Ætolia shall renounce all pretensions to the cities and territories which the Romans have conquered, though these cities and territories had formerly belonged to the Ætolians. 7. The city of Oenis and its district shall be subject to the Acarnanians.
After the conquest of Macedon by Æmius Paullus, 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 Ætolians appeared before Æmius Paullus 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 Ætolian 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 Ætolia 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 Achæan league, when Ætolia, with the other free states of Greece, was reduced to a Roman province, commonly called the province of Achæa. Nevertheless, each state and city was governed by its own laws, under the superintendency of the prætor whom Rome sent annually into Achæa. 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, Ætolia 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 præfectus prætorii 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 Ætolia and Epirus. The former he left to Michael his son, who maintained it against Michael Palæologus, 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 Ætolia 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 Ætolia to the Venetians; but they not being able to make head against such a mighty power, the whole country was soon reduced by Mahomet II. It is now included in the kingdom of Hellas.