[5] Acharnae was located in the west-northwest part of the Attic plain, 60 stadia north of Athens, south of Mount Parnes.

[8][9] Their land was fertile; their population was rough and warlike; and they furnished at the commencement of the Peloponnesian War 3,000 hoplites, or a tenth of the whole infantry of the republic.

The largest amount of archaeological evidence dates from the Classical and Hellenistic periods (5th - 2nd centuries BCE).

[13] The total destruction of Acharnae and the abandonment of the temple of Ares, a sanctuary of great importance in the deme, led to the warlike depiction of its citizens.

According to Thucydides the deme offered an army of 3,000 hoplites, 1/10 of the total Athenian army, although this information is believed by historians to be mistaken - there was an analogy of 42 free citizens for every politician of a deme according to the Athenian constitution, thus the number of hoplites Acharnae could offer was only 1,000.

Thrasybulus clashed with all the city's Spartan guard with a force of only 700 men and 2 cavalry divisions attempting to cut off supplies.

A tholos tomb at Menidi suggests Acharnae was once an independent entity; a temple to Ares was later moved to the Athenian Agora.