2. The Aetolian Rout of the Athenians in 426

Abstract

This chapter examines the Aetolian Rout of the Athenians in 426. In stark contrast to the prevailing practices of their day, the Aetolians developed a sophisticated way of war that complemented, and was not determined by, the advantages of their physical environment. Collectively, the Aetolians recognized potential large-scale threats and made arrangements to protect themselves, and they did this not as a formal koinon, or federal state, but as an ethnos. Jakob Larsen, a key figure in the study of Greek federal states, concluded that the fifth-century Aetolian ethnos must have constituted some sort of political entity, which he called a “tribal state.” The chapter then considers how the Ophionians, Apodotians, and Eurytanians made a commitment to defend each other and formulated a plan as to how they would do so. These three groups even sent representative embassies abroad, suggesting that the Aetolian ethnos also had something along the lines of a foreign policy. From this it would follow that the fifth-century Aetolians had developed some form of government for deciding on issues that impinged on the entire ethnos. Evidently, though, this loose confederation did not require a formal constitution or even standing institutions or offices to function.