Founding of the Achaean League

Around 280 BC, four cities of Achaea, a region on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, joined together to refound an old federation that had been dissolved under Macedonian rule. Known as the Achaean League, it grew into one of the most important powers in Hellenistic Greece. Its members kept control of their local affairs but shared a common government, army, foreign policy, currency and system of weights and measures. The League was led by an elected general, called the strategos, and decisions were made by assemblies of its citizens. Its great expansion came under Aratus of Sicyon, who brought his city into the League in 251 BC and in 243 BC captured the fortress of Acrocorinth from the Macedonians in a daring night raid. Other cities joined, and eventually the League controlled most of the Peloponnese, including Corinth, Argos and later Sparta. Its later leader Philopoemen was called the last of the Greeks. The League's structure is often cited as an early model of federal government. It lasted until Rome crushed it in 146 BC.