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In the Greco-Roman world, Ariana was a geographical term referring to a general area of land between Central Asia and the Indus River. Situated far to the east in the Achaemenid Empire, it covered a number of spanning what is today the entirety of Afghanistan, the easternmost parts of Iran, and the westernmost parts of Pakistan.The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008 "Ariana" is Latinized from region; Ἀρ(ε)ιανοί demonym.Pliny, Naturalis Historia, book vi, page 23 The Greek word, in turn, is derived from the term () in Avestan.
During several periods of history, Ariana was governed by the Persians, such as the Achaemenids, the Kushano-Sasanians, and the Sasanian Empire. Other significant rulers were the Ancient Greece and the Greater India, such as the Macedonians, the Seleucid Empire, the Maurya Empire, the Greco-Bactrians, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, and the Parthian Empire (incl. the Kushan Empire and the Indo-Parthians). A historic presence was also established in parts of Ariana by various and other Eurasian nomads, such as the Xionites (incl. the Kidarites and the Hephthalites).
The Greeks also referred to Haroyum/Haraiva (Herat) as Aria, which is one of the many provinces found in Ariana.
The names Ariana and Aria and many other ancient titles, of which Aria is a component element, are connected with the Avestan term Airya-, and the Old Persian term , a self-designation of the peoples of Ancient Iran and Ancient India, meaning 'noble', 'excellent' and 'honourable'.
As a geographical term, Ariana was introduced by the Greeks geographer, Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195 BC) and was fully described by the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC – ca. AD 24).Strabo 2.1.22f
Per Eratosthenes' definition, the borders of Ariana were defined by the Indus River in the east, the sea in the south, a line from Carmania to the Caspian Gates (apparently referring to the pass near the southeastern edge of the Caspian Sea) in the west, and the so-called Taurus Mountains in the north. This large region included almost all of the countries east of Medes and ancient Persia, including south of the great mountain ranges up to the deserts of Gedrosia and Carmania,Strabo 2.5.32 i.e. the provinces of Carmania, Gedrosia, Drangiana, Arachosia, Aria, the Paropamisadae; also Bactria was reckoned to Ariana and was called "the ornament of Ariana as a whole" by Apollodorus of Artemita.Strabo 11.11.1
Strabo mentions that the Indus river flows between Ariana and India. He states that Ariana is bounded on the east by the Indus River, on the south by the great sea and that its parts on the west are marked by the same boundaries by which Parthia is separated from Media and Carmania from Paraetacenê and Persis. After having described the boundaries of Ariana, Strabo writes that the name Αρειανή could also be extended to part of the Persian people and the Medes and also to the northwards Bactrians and the Sogdians. A detailed description of that region is to be found in Strabo's Geographica, Book XV – "Persia, Ariana, the Indian subcontinent", chapter 2, sections 1–9. Dionysius Periegetes (1097) agrees with Strabo in extending the northern boundary of the Ariani to the Paropamisus, and (714) speaks of them as inhabiting the shores of the Erythraean Sea. It is probable, from Strabo ( xv. p.724), that the term was extended to include the east Persians, Bactrians, and Sogdians, with the people of Ariana below the mountains, because they were for the most part of one speech.
By Herodotus Ariana is not mentioned, nor is it included in the geographical description of Stephanus of Byzantium and Ptolemy, or in the narrative of Arrian.
Pliny ( vi. 25) specifies the following ethnicities:
Rüdiger Schmitt, the German scholar of Iranian studies, also believes that Ariana should have included other Iranian peoples. He writes in the Encyclopædia Iranica:
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