Achaean League in 218 B.C.

Achaean League — Spring 218 BC · The Social War.

The foremost federal state of the Greek world — a republic of free Peloponnesian cities sharing one citizenship, one coinage and one assembly, knit together over two generations largely by the genius of Aratus of Sicyon. In 218 it is the dominant power of the Peloponnese and the chief Greek ally of Macedon, but a junior one: saved from Sparta by Antigonus Doson at Sellasia, it now follows Philip V into the Social War against the Aetolians, with a Macedonian garrison still on Acrocorinth.

A decade ago the League nearly perished: Cleomenes III of Sparta tore away city after city, until Aratus made the fateful choice to call in Macedon. Antigonus Doson crushed Cleomenes at Sellasia in 222 — but the price was Acrocorinth handed back and the League bound into the Hellenic Symmachy. Now, in the Social War, Aetolian raiders harry Achaea while the League leans on Philip V; the elder Aratus and his son trade the generalship, and a young Megalopolitan named Philopoemen is learning war.