ABSTRACT
In ancient times, Achaia was a district on the northwestern coast of the Peloponnesus. Under Rome, it became a provincial name for the greater part of Greece and was later so called in papal documents. Although the ‘principality of Achaia’ sounded good to certain ears, ‘Morea’ was the name most often applied to the Peloponnesus in late medieval and Turkish times and is what the inhabitants usually called their land, as we read in the Chronicle. The Chronicle prefers ‘Morea’ to ‘Achaia’ 10:1 (approximately 250 instances to twenty-five). The name ‘Morea’ perhaps arose from a word for mulberry, trees that supported the silk industry in the Peloponnesus. See also Romania.
