Achaean Confederacy

Achaean Confederacy or Achaean League, a confederacy of ten Achaean cities, founded in 280 BC to resist the power of Macedon (it revived an older confederacy that had flourished in the fourth century BC). The Confederacy became the leading power in the Peloponnese, and defeated Sparta in 188. It frequently came into conflict with Rome, however, and in 167 Rome deported to Italy a thousand eminent Achaeans, including the historian Polybius, for political investigation; they were released in 150. In 148 there was again trouble with Sparta. Rome intervened and imposed harsh terms on the Confederacy, which rebelled and declared war; but after a short struggle it was completely defeated by Mummius in 146 and dissolved.