Definitions for "Achaea"
Roman Province on the Aegean peninsula with Athens as the most prominent city.
Achaea (Greek: , Achaïa; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an ancient province and a present prefecture of Greece, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, stretching from the mountain ranges of Erymanthus and Cyllene on the south to a narrow strip of fertile land on the north, bordering the Gulf of Corinth, into which the mountain Panachaicus (1,902 m, the northernmost mountain range in the Peloponnese) projects. Achaea is bounded on the west by the territory of Elis, on the east by that of Sicyon, which, however, was sometimes included in it. The population in 2001 had reached over 300,000.
Achaea was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the modern-day Peloponnese in southern Greece and bordered on the north by the provinces of Epirus and Macedonia. The region was annexed to the Roman Republic in 146 BC after a brutal campaign, in which the city of Corinth was razed by the Roman general Lucius Mummius, its inhabitants slaughtered or sold into slavery, and the temples looted for sculpture for Roman villas. L. Mummius was awarded the cognomen "Achaicus" as "conqueror of Achaea" for his actions.