Achaeans, << uh KEE uhnz, >> were people of ancient Greece. According to the Greek poet Homer, they once lived in the Peloponnesus (Greece’s southern peninsula) and on the islands of Crete, Rhodes, Cephalonia, and Ithaca. The term Achaeans appears in Homer’s epic poem the Iliad to identify the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War. Achaeans are also mentioned in Hittite documents from the 1300’s and 1200’s B.C., found in what is now Turkey. Some Achaeans may have taken part in sea raids on Egypt in the early 1100’s B.C. Later in the 1100’s B.C., Dorian invaders swept across Greece and drove the Achaeans to a region in the northern Peloponnesus. This region later became known as Achaea.
In the 300’s B.C., 12 Achaean cities formed a confederation that was known as the Achaean League. The league played an important part in Greek politics, opposing first the Macedonians and then the Romans. The Romans conquered Greece and broke up the league in 146 B.C.
