Region
Achaia
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Achaia was the strip of the Peloponnese along the Gulf of Corinth, a chain of small coastal plains squeezed between the sea and mountains rising to almost two thousand metres, with Patras as its chief city. Homer called all the Greeks gathered before Troy Achaeans. The region was divided into twelve districts, and from them grew the Achaean League, which at its height held the whole Peloponnese until Rome took Corinth in 146 BC. The geographer Ptolemy set it apart as Achaia proper, and in Roman times a road ran along its coast.