Agraei

AGRAEI(Ἀγραῖοι, Thuc. 3.106; Strab. p. 449: Ἀγραεῖς, Plb. 17.5; Steph. Byz. s. v.), a people in the NW. of Aetolia, bounded on the W. by Acarnania, from which it was separated by Mount Thyamus ( Spartovuni); on the NW. by the territory of Argos Amphilochicum; and on the N. by Dolopia. Their territory was called Agrais, or Agyraea(Ἀγραΐς, -ίδος, Thuc. 3.111; Ἀγραία, Strab. p. 338), and the river Achelous flowed through the centre of it. The Agraei were a non-Hellenic people, and at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war were governed by a native king, called Salynthius, who is mentioned as an ally of the Ambraciots, when the latter were defeated by the Acarnanians and Demosthenes in B.C. 426. Two years afterwards (424) Demosthenes marched against Salynthius and the Agraei, and compelled them to join the Athenian alliance. Subsequently they became subject to the Aetolians, and are called an Aetolian people by Strabo. (Thuc. 2.102, 3.106, 114, 4.77; Strab. p. 449; Plb. 17.5; Liv. 32.34.) This people is mentioned by Cicero (in Pison.37), under the name of Agrinae, which is perhaps a corrupt form. Strabo (p. 338) mentions a village called Ephyra in their country; and Agrinium would also appear from its name to have been one of their towns. [EPHYRA, AGRINIUM.] The Aperanti were perhaps a tribe of the Agraei. [APERANTIA] The Agraei were a different people from the Agrianes, who lived on the borders of Macedonia. [AGRIANES]

AGRAEI(Ἀγραῖοι, Ptol 5.19.2 ; Eratosth. ap. Strab. p. 767), a tribe of Arabs situated near the main road which led from the head of the Red Sea to the Euphrates. They bordered on the Nabathaean Arabs, if they were not indeed a portion of that race. According to Hieronymus ( Quaest. in Gen. 25), the Agraei inhabited the district which the Hebrews designated as Midian. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.11. s. 12) places the Agraei much further westward in the vicinity of the Laenitae and the eastern shore of the Red Sea.