Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Acarnania

​Acarnania, a province of ancient Greece, now called Carnia, It was bounded on the N. by the Ambracian gulf, on the N.E. by Amphilochia, on the W. and S.W. by the Ionian Sea, and on the E. by Ætolia. It was a hilly country, with numerous lakes and tracts of rich pasture, and its hills are to the present day crowned with thick wood. It was celebrated for its excellent breed of horses. The Acarnanians, according to Mr Grote, though admitted as grcs to the Pan-Hellenic games, were more akin in character and manners to their barbarian neighbours of Epirus. Up to the time of the Peloponnesian war, they are mentioned only as a race of rude shepherds, divided into numerous petty tribes, and engaged in continual strife and rapine. They were, however, favourably distinguished from their Ætolian neighbours by the fidelity and stead fastness of their character. They were good soldiers, and excelled as slingers. At the date above mentioned they begin, as the allies of the Athenians, to make a more prominent figure in the history of Greece. The chief town was Stratos, and subsequently Leucas.