or Ache, in medicine, a term used for any severe pain; as Head-ache, Tooth-ache, &c.

ACHÆANS, the inhabitants of Achaia Propria†, a Peloponnesian state. This republic was not considerable in early times, for the number of its troops, nor for its wealth, nor for the extent of its territories; but it was famed for its probity, its justice, and its love of liberty. Its high reputation for these virtues was very ancient. The Crotonians and Sybarites, to re-establish order in their towns, adopted the laws and customs of the Achæans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, a difference arose between the Lacedæmonians and Thebans, who held the virtue of this people in such veneration, that they terminated the dispute by their decision. The government of the Achæans was democratical. They preserved their liberty till the time of Philip and Alexander. But in the reign of those princes, and afterwards, they were either subject to the Macedonians, who had made themselves masters of Greece, or oppressed by cruel tyrants. The Achæan commonwealth consisted of twelve inconsiderable towns in Peloponnesus. Its first annals are not marked by any great action, for they are not graced with one eminent character. character. After the death of Alexander, this little republic was a prey to all the evils which flow from political discord. A zeal for the good of the community was now extinguished. Each town was only attentive to its private interest. There was no longer any stability in the state; for it changed its masters with every revolution in Macedonia. Towards the 124th Olympiad, about the time when Ptolemy Soter died, and when Pyrrhus invaded Italy, the republic of the Achaeans recovered its old institutions and unanimity. The inhabitants of Patra and of Dyme were the first assertors of ancient liberty. The tyrants were banished, and the towns again made one commonwealth. A public council was instituted, in which affairs of importance were discussed and determined. A registrar was appointed to record the transactions of the council. This assembly had two presidents, who were nominated alternately by the different towns. But instead of two presidents, they soon elected but one. Many neighbouring towns which admired the constitution of this republic, founded on equality, liberty, the love of justice, and of the public good, were incorporated with the Achaeans, and admitted to the full enjoyment of their laws and privileges.—The arms which the Achaeans chiefly used, were slings. They were trained to the art from their infancy, by flinging from a great distance, at a circular mark of a moderate circumference. By long practice they took to nice an aim, that they were sure, not only to hit their enemies on the head, but on any part of the face they chose. Their slings were of a different kind from those of the Bactrians, whom they far surpassed in dexterity.