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The Achaeans (/əˈkiːənz/; Greek: Ἀχαιοί, romanized: Akhaioí) were one of the four major tribes into which Herodotus divided the Greeks, along with the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians. They inhabited the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, and played an active role in the colonization of Italy, founding the city of Kroton. Unlike the other major tribes, the Achaeans did not have a separate dialect in the Classical period, instead using a form of Doric.

Etymology

The etymology of the term Ἀχαιοί is unknown. Robert S. P. Beekes proposed that it originated in a Pre-Greek form*Akay^wa-.^[1] Margalit Finkelberg, while acknowledging that its ultimate etymology is unknown, proposed an intermediate Greek form *Ἀχαϝyοί.^[2]

The term Ἀχαιοί was also used by Homer to refer to Greeks as a whole, and may relate to the Hittite term Ahhiyawa, believed to refer to Mycenaean Greece or part of it.^[3][4][5][6]

History

Map of Classical Achaea.

In the Classical era the Achaeans inhabited the region of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, and later established colonies in Italy including Kroton and Sybaris.^{[7] [8][9][10]} They spoke Achaean Doric Greek, a dialect of Doric Greek.^[11][12] In Hellenistic times, an Achaean Doric koine developed which was eventually replaced by the Attic-based Koine Greek in the 2nd century BC.^[13]

The Achaeans cemented their common identity in the 6th century BC in response to the rising power of Sicyon to the east and Sparta to the south, and during the 5th century BC in response to the expansionism of the Achaemenids.^[14] Herodotus described them as unified nation composed of 12 city-states: Pellene, Aegeira, Aeges, (Achaea) Boura, Helike, Aegion, Rhypes, Patrai, Pherae, Olenos, Dyme and Tritaia.^[15] The rise of Macedonia in the late 4th century BC seems to have destroyed this first Achaean League, with the Macedonians eventually controlling so many of the member city-states that the Achaean federal government had virtually ceased to function.^[16]

After Macedon's defeat by the Romans in the early 2nd century BC, the League was able to finally defeat a heavily weakened Sparta and take control of the entire Peloponnese. However, as the Roman influence in the area grew, the league erupted into an open revolt against Roman domination, in what is known as Achaean War. The Achaeans were defeated at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC and the League was dissolved by the Romans.^[17]

Mythology

According to the foundation myth formalized by Hesiod, their name comes from their mythic founder Achaeus, who was supposedly one of the sons of Xuthus, and brother of Ion, the founder of the Ionian tribe. Xuthus was in turn the son of Hellen, the mythical patriarch of the Greek (Hellenic) nation.^[18]

Both Herodotus and Pausanias recount the legend that the Achaeans (referring to the tribe of the Classical period) originally dwelt in Argolis and Laconia. According to Herodotus, the Achaeans were forced out of those lands by the Dorians, during the legendary Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese.^[19] As a consequence, the Achaeans went to the region known as Aegialus and forced the Aegialians (by now known as the Ionians) out of their land.^[20] The Ionians took temporary refuge in Athens, and Aegialus became known as Achaea.^[21][22]

Pausanias says that 'Achaean' was the name of those Greeks originally inhabiting the Argolis and Laconia, because they were descended from the sons of the mythical Achaeus, Archander and Architeles.^[23] According to Pausanias, Achaeus originally dwelt in Attica, where his father had settled after being expelled from Thessaly. Achaeus later returned to Thessaly to reclaim the land, and it was from there that Archander and Architeles travelled to the Peloponnesus.^[24] It was supposedly for this reason that there was also an ancient part of Thessaly known as Phthiotic Achaea.

Footnotes

References

• Balmuth, Miriam S.; Tykot, Robert H. (1998). Studies in Sardinian Archaeology, Volume 5. Ann Arbor, MI: Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781900188821.
• Bryce, Trevor (2005). The Kingdom of the Hittites (New ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199279081.
• Budin, Stephanie Lynn (2009) [2004]. The Ancient Greeks: An Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537984-6.
• Castleden, Rodney (2005). The Mycenaeans. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-36336-5.
• Chadwick, John; Baumbach, Lydia (1963). "The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary". Glotta. 41 (3/4): 157–271.
• Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29037-1.
• Cline, Eric H. (2007). "Rethinking Mycenaean International Trade with Egypt and the Near East". In Galaty, M.; Parkinson, W. (eds.). Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces II: Revised and Expanded Edition. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. pp. 190–200.
• Cline, Eric H., ed. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-987360-9.
• Cline, Eric H. (2014). 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-40-084998-7.
• de la Cruz, José Clemente Martín (1988). "Mykenische Keramik aus Bronzezeitlichen Siedlungsschichten von Montoro am Guadalquivir". Madrider Mitteilungen (29): 77–92.
• Feuer, Bryan Avery (2004). Mycenaean Civilization: An Annotated Bibliography through 2002. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-78-641748-3.
• Fields, Nic; illustrated by Donato Spedaliere (2004). Mycenaean Citadels c. 1350–1200 BC (3rd ed.). Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781841767628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Fisher, Elizabeth A. (1998). The Mycenaeans and Apulia. An Examination of Aegean Bronze Age Contacts with Apulia in Eastern Magna Grecia. Jonsered, Sweden: Astrom.
• Güterbock, Hans G. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 1. The Ahhiyawa Problem Reconsidered". American Journal of Archaeology. 87 (2): 133–138. doi:10.2307/504928. JSTOR 504928. S2CID 191376388.
• Güterbock, Hans G. (June 1984). "Hittites and Akhaeans: A New Look". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 128 (2): 114–122.
• Huxley, G.L. (1960). Achaeans and Greeks. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
• Kling, Barbara (1989). Mycenaean IIIC:1b and Related Pottery in Cyprus. Lund: P. Aströms Förlag. ISBN 978-9-18-609893-3.
• Latacz, Joachim (2004). Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199263080.
• Mellink, Machteld J. (April 1983). "The Hittites and the Aegean World: Part 2. Archaeological Comments on Ahhiyawa-Achaians in Western Anatolia". American Journal of Archaeology. 87 (2): 138–141. doi:10.2307/504929. JSTOR 504929. S2CID 194070218.
• Moore, A.D.; Taylour, W.D.; French, Elizabeth Bayard (1999). Well Built Mycenae (Volume 10): The Temple Complex. Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips. ISBN 978-1-84-217000-7.
• Nikolaou, Kyriakos (1973). The First Myceneans in Cyprus. Nicosia: Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.
• Olsen, Barbara A. (2014). Women in Mycenaean Greece: The Linear B Tablets from Pylos and Knossos. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-31-774795-6.
• Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders (1894). Tell el-Amarna. London: Methuen & Co.
• Ridgway, David (1992). The First Western Greeks. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-142164-5.
• Runnels, Curtis Neil; Murray, Priscilla (2001). Greece before History: An Archaeological Companion and Guide. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4050-0.
• Stubbings, Frank H. (1951). Mycenaean Pottery from the Levant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Tartaron, Thomas F. (2013). Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107067134.
• van Wijngaarden, Geert Jan (2002). Use and Appreciation of Mycenaean Pottery in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy (1600–1200 BC). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-9-05-356482-0.
• Vianello, Andrea (2005). Late Bronze Age Mycenaean and Italic Products in the West Mediterranean: A Social and Economic Analysis. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 978-1-84-171875-0.
• Acts of the International Archeaological Symposium: "The Mycenaeans in the Eastern Mediterranean", Nicosia 27th March-2nd April, 1972. Ministry of Communications and Works, Department of Antiquities. 1973.