a country of ancient Greece. On the east it was separated by the river Evros, now the Fidari, from the Locreenses Ozola; and on the west from Acarnania by the Achelous; on the north it bordered on the country of the Dorians and part of Epirus, and on the south it extended to the Bay of Corinth.

The Etolians were a restless and turbulent people, seldom at peace amongst themselves, and ever at war with their neighbours; strangers to friendship or the principles of honour; and ready to betray those who trusted them, upon the least prospect of reaping any advantage from their treachery; in short, they were looked upon by the other states of Greece as but little better than 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, and jealous defenders of their liberties, for which they were, on all occasions, willing to hazard their lives, and to 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 honourable terms. The constitution of the Eolian republic was copied from that of the Achaean, and constructed with a view to form, as it were, a counter alliance; for the Eolians bore an irreconcilable hatred to the Achaean, and had conceived no small jealousy of the growing power of that state. The Cleonnetic war, and that of the allies, called the Social War, were kindled by the Eolians in the heart of the Peloponnesus, with no other view than to humble their antagonists the Achaean. In the latter contest, this people, with the assistance only of the Eleans and Lacedemonians, held out for the space of three years against the united forces of Achaia and Macedon; but they were at last obliged to purchase a peace, by ceding to Philip the whole of Acarnania. As they parted with this province much against their will, however, they watched all opportunities of wresting it out of the Macedonian's hands; and with this view they entered into an alliance with Rome, which proved of great service to the Romans in their war with Philip; but growing insolent on account of their services, they soon made war upon their allies, by whom they were overcome, and only obtained a peace upon severe conditions. After the conquest of Macedon by Paulus Emilius, they were reduced to a much worse condition; for not only those amongst them who had openly declared for Perseus, but such as were suspected of having favoured him in their hearts, were sent to Rome, in order to clear themselves before the senate; and there they were detained, and never afterwards suffered to return to their native country. Five hundred and fifty of the chief men of the nation were barbarously assassinated by the partizans of Rome, for no other crime than that of being suspected of wishing well to Perseus. The Eolians appeared before Paulus Emilius in mourning habits, and made loud complaints of this inhuman treatment; but they obtained no redress; and ten commissioners, who had been sent by the senate to settle the affairs of Greece, decreed that those who were killed had suffered justly, since it appeared that they had favoured the Macedonian party. From this time the chief honours and employments in the Eolian republic were only conferred upon those who were known to prefer the interest of Rome to that of their country; and as such persons were alone countenanced of Rome, all the magistrates of Eolia became the creatures and mere tools of the Roman senate. In this state of servile subjection they continued until the destruction of Corinth and the dissolution of the Achaean league, when Eolia, with the other free states of Greece, was reduced to the condition of a Roman province, and called the province of Achaea. Nevertheless, each state and city was governed by its own laws, under the superintendence of the prætor whom Rome sent annually into Achaea; the whole nation paid a certain tribute; and the rich were forbidden to possess lands anywhere except in their own country.

In this state Eolia continued, with little alteration, 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 other, calling them New Epirus, and subjecting the whole country to the praefectus praetorii 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 Eolia and Epirus, the former of which he left to Michael his son, who maintained it against Michael Paleologus, the first emperor of the Greeks, after the expulsion of the Latins. Charles, the last prince of this family, having died without issue in 1430, bequeathed Eolia to his brother's son, also named Charles, and Acarnania to his natural sons Memnon, Turnus, and Hercules; but great disputes having arisen about this division, Amurath II. after the reduction of Thessalonica, laid hold of the favourable opportunity thus offered, and in 1432 drove them all out. But the Mahomedans were afterwards dispossessed of this country by George Castriot, prince of Epirus; who, with a small army, opposed the whole power of the Ottoman empire, and defeated the Turks in twenty-two pitched battles. That hero, at his death, left the greater part of Eolia to the Venetians; but the latter not being able to make head against the Ottoman power, the whole country was soon reduced by Mahomed II.