Overview of Achaea and Achaean:
The term Achaea (Akhaia/Achaia) and the adjective Achaean based on it refer to a geographic area and its people. Originally Greek, Achaea came under Roman rule and became a Roman province. Another use for the term Achaean is in connection with a Greek confederation, the Achaean Confederacy.
There is debate as to whether Achaea is connected with the Hittite Akhkhiyawas/Ahhiyawas. See, for instance:
- BMCR: Robert Fischer, Die Ahhijawa-Frage. Mit einer kommentierten Bibliographie. Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie 26. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010.
- "Ahhiyawa and Troy: A Case of Mistaken Identity?"
T. R. Bryce
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 26, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1977), pp. 24-32 - The West-Anatolian Origins of the Que Kingdom Dynasty
Achaea is a term used to refer to an area of the northern Peloponnese. Sometimes, in the Homeric epics, it refers to Achilles' home region of Thessaly; elsewhere in the Iliad and Odyssey, the Greeks at Troy are called Achaeans.
Achaean Confederacy or Achaean League:
In the 4th century B.C., 12 Achaean cities of the northern Peloponnese joined together in a confederacy to protect themselves from pirates. The league fell apart. In 280 B.C., 10 of the cities joined together again to try to get rid of Macedonian rule. They succeeded by 228 B.C., but then had to face Sparta, which wished to control the Peloponnese. To get rid of the Spartan threat, the league allied with the Macedonians, with the result that the Macedonians regained control. In 146 B.C., after war between the Achaean League and Rome, Rome dissolved the league, but a new one soon formed, again.
- Achaean League. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
Roman Province of Achaea:
After the fighting between Rome and the Achaean confederacy, Rome annexed Achaea to the Roman province of Macedonia.In 27 B.C., the Romans made Achaea a senatorial province, which included Greece south of Thessaly.
