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Ionia ( ; Greek alphabet: Ιωνία) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greeks settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who had settled in the region before the Archaic Greece.
Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz River), to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolis to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured significantly in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks.
Ionian cities were identified by mythic traditions of kinship and by their use of the Ionic dialect, but there was a core group of twelve Ionian cities that formed the Ionian League and had a shared sanctuary and festival at Panionion. These twelve cities were (from south to north): Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythrae, Clazomenae and Phocaea, together with the islands of Samos and Chios.Herodotus, 1.142. Smyrna, originally an Aeolis colony, was afterwards occupied by Ionians from Colophon, and became an Ionian city.Herodotus, 1.143, 1.149–150.
The Ionian school of philosophy, centered on 6th century BC Miletus, was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy.
The region comprised three extremely fertile valleys formed by the outflow of three rivers, among the most considerable in Asia Minor: the Hermus in the north, flowing into the Gulf of Smyrna, though at some distance from the city of that name; the Caÿster (modern Küçük Menderes River), which flowed past Ephesus; and the Maeander, which in ancient times discharged its waters into a deep gulf between Priene and Miletus, but which has been gradually filled up by this river's deposits.
Two east–west mountain ranges divide the region and extend out into the Aegean as peninsulas. The first begins as Mount Sipylus between the Hermus and Caÿster river valleys and continues out as the Erythrae peninsula, which faces the island of Chios. The second is the Messogis range between the Caÿster and Maeander ranges, which becomes the Mycale peninsula, which reaches out towards the island of Samos. None of these mountain ranges exceed .
Ionia enjoyed the reputation in ancient times of being the most fertile region of Asia Minor. Herodotus declares "in terms of climate and weather, there is no fairer region in the whole world."Herodotus 1.142.
From the 14th century BC the Great Kingdom of Arzawa was conquered by Suppiluliuma I and it became a vassal of the Hittite Empire.
The city of Ephesus (Hittite Apasa) appears to have been the capital of Arzawa around 1320 BCE, when it rebelled against Mursili II of Hatti. Following the rebellion the great kingdom of Arzawa was carved up into smaller kingdoms, with Arzawa restricted to the region of Ephesus.
An important city was Miletus (Hittite Millawanda/Milawata), ruled by a provincial governor. Miletus, along with several other settlements that were originally founded by non-Greek populations, later received significant Mycenaean Greek settlers during the Late Bronze Age. Miletus was at times allied with the King of Ahhiyawa,identified as the Homeric Achaeans.
In the early 12th century BCE, deterioration climate contributed to the Fall of the Hittite Empire saw cities in Asia Minor destroyed by invaders.
The ancient Greeks believed that the Ionians were the descendants of Ion (either a son or grandson of Hellen, the mythical ancestor of the Greeks) and had Ionian migration from Greece to Asia Minor in mythic times.Pausanias 7.1. The story is attested from the Classical period. Herodotus states that in Asia the Ionians kept the division into twelve cities that had prevailed in Ionian lands of the north Peloponnese, their former homeland, which became Achaea after they left.Herodotus, 1.145. However, the story of the migration is recounted most fully by the Roman-period authors Strabo and Pausanias. They report that the Ionians were expelled from the Peloponnese by Achaians, and were granted refuge in Athens by King Melanthus. Later, when Medon was selected as King of Athens, his brothers, the "sons of Codrus", led a group of Ionians and others to Asia Minor. Simultaneously, the Aeolians of Boeotia settled the coast to the north of the Ionians and the Dorians settled in Crete, the Dodecanese and in Caria.
According to Pausanias, the sons of Codrus were as follows:
But the Ionian League was primarily a religious organisation rather than a political one. Although they did sometimes act together, civic interests and priorities always trumped broader Ionian ones. They never formed a real confederacy. The advice of Thales of Miletus to combine in a political union was rejected. In inscriptions and literary sources from this period, Ionians generally identify themselves by their city of origin, not as "Ionians."
In the eighth century, Ionian Greeks are recorded in Near Eastern sources as coastal raiders: an inscription of Sargon II (ca 709–07, recording a naval expedition of 715) boasts "in the midst of the sea" he had "caught the Ionians like fish and brought peace to the land of Que Cilicia and the city of Tyre".Sargon's inscription in A. Fuchs, Die Inschriften Sargons II aus Khorsabad (1994:40) noted in Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer, 2008:29f. For a full generation earlier, Assyrian inscriptions had recorded troubles with the Ionians, who escaped on their boats.
Art and archaeology show that Ionia was characterised by "openness and adaptability" towards the Lydians, Persians, and their eastern neighbours in this period. Lydian products and luxury objects were widespread.
The Persians used "Yaunā" (Ionian) as a catch-all term for all Greeks, dividing them into "Yaunā of the mainland" in Asia Minor, "Yaunā dwelling by the sea" in the Aegean islands, "Yaunā dwelling across the sea" in the Greek mainland, and "Yaunā with shields on their heads" in Macedonia.
The Athenians advanced an expansive definition of Ionian identity, which included most of the communities under their control and emphasised common descent from Athens. This was probably intended to legitimise their rule over the region. It clashed with the restrictive definition of Ionian identity that was maintained by the Ionian League.
Herodotus, who came from Halicarnassus, a Dorian city in southwestern Asia Minor which was also part of the Athenian Empire, writes in opposition to the Ionian League's claims that "it would be stupid to say that they are more truly Ionian or better born ...."Herodotus, 1.146. He lists other ethnic populations among the settlers: Abantes from Euboea, Minyans from Orchomenus, Cadmeians, , Phocis, Molossians, Arcadian Pelasgians, Dorians of Epidaurus, and others. Even "the best born of the Ionians" had married girls from Caria. He defines Ionians as all peoples who were descended from Athenians and celebrated the Apaturia festival,Herodotus, 1.147. which aligns with the expansive Athenian definition of Ionian identity.
In 396 BC, Agesilaus led a large expedition to Asia Minor to defend the cities and attack the Persians, which landed in Ephesus. From there he invaded Phrygia and Lydia, sacking Sardis in 395 BC. But the outbreak of the Corinthian War forced him to withdraw in 395 BC.
The region was under Persian control by about 390 BC, when the Persian satrap arbitrated a boundary dispute between Miletus and Myus. Sparta, Athens, and the other mainland Greek states formally acknowledged Persian possession of Ionia and the other Greek cities in Asia Minor in the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 BC.Xenophon, Hellenica In this period, Ionia was a separate satrapy, rather than part of Lydia - the only time in the region's history that formed an administrative unit. Ionian cities appear to have retained a considerable amount of autonomy until the conquest of Asia Minor by Alexander the Great in 335 BC.
In the conflict that broke out between Alexander's diadochi after his death in 323 BC and throughout the Hellenistic Age that followed, Ionia was a contested territory, divided between the Antigonid, Seleucid, and Ptolemaic kingdoms. Cities were regularly forced to switch allegiance from one monarch to another, but they were also able to play the kings off against one another in order to get better terms for themselves. Despite the political situation, the Ionian League continued to operate throughout the period.
Following their victory in the War with Antiochus in 189 BC, the Romans placed Ionia under the control of the Attalid Kingdom, which retained the region until it was annexed by Rome in 133 BC.
One of the major theatrical associations of the Hellenistic period was the Synod of the Dionysiac Artists of Ionia and the Hellespont, which was established around 250 BC and had its headquarters successively in Teos, Ephesus, Myonnesus, and Lebedus.
The geographer Strabo treats Ionia as the narrow coastal strip from the Hermus river in the north to the Maeander river in the south (though noting that other authorities included the plain south of the river). He treats Ephesus as its most important city and presents an unbroken tradition of intellectual culture in the region stretching from the Archaic philosophers down to his own day - in contrast to the intellectual life of mainland Greece, which he presents as a thing of the past. Other authors sometimes use "Ionia" as a metonym for the whole province of Asia.
Decreased political agency for the Greek cities under Rome, led to increased focus on cultural identity as a source of civic prestige. In the fierce rivalries that raged between the cities of the Province of Asia in the Roman Imperial period, Ionian cities emphasised their Ionian identity as "one of the purest, 'primordial' forms of Greekness," while their rivals denounced Ionians as overly influenced by orientalism luxury and recalled their support for the Persians in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC. Most sources discussing Ionian founding myths belong to this period. Ionian cities retained local month names and continued to count years by eponymous magistrates rather than adopting era dating like most other cities in Asia Minor. Distinctive Ionian personal names remained common.
Ionia has a long roll of distinguished men of letters and science (notably the Ionian School of philosophy) and distinct school of art. This school flourished between 700 and 500 BC. The great names of this school are Theodorus and Rhoecus of Samos; Bathycles of Magnesia on the Maeander; Glaucus of Chios, Melas, Micciades, Archermus, Bupalus of Chios. Notable works of the school still extant are the famous archaic female statues found on the Athenian Acropolis in 1885–1887, the seated statues of Branchidae, the Nike of Archermus found at Delos, and the objects in ivory and electrum found by D. G. Hogarth in the lower strata of the Artemision at Ephesus.
The Persian language designation for Greek language is Younan (یونان), a transliteration of "Ionia", through Old Persian Yauna. The same is true for the Hebrew language word, "Yavan" (יוון) and the Sanskrit word " yavana". The word was later adopted in Arabic language, Turkish language, and Urdu language as well as in other places.
Many scholars believe the biblical Yavan refers to the alleged ancestor of the ancient peoples of Ionia.The /v/ of Hebrew yavan supports the generally accepted reconstruction of the early form of the name of the Ionians. See: Jewish Language Review, Volume 3, Association for the Study of Jewish Languages, 1983, p. 89.
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