Ionia
Ionia 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 Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who had settled in the region before the archaic period.
Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus, to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolia 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 : Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Erythrae, Clazomenae and Phocaea, together with the islands of Samos and Chios. Smyrna, originally an Aeolic colony, was afterwards occupied by Ionians from Colophon, and became an Ionian city.
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.
Geography
Ionia was of small extent, not exceeding in length from north to south, with the cities located on a narrow band between the sea and the mountains, which varies in width from. So intricate is the coastline that the voyage along its shores was estimated at nearly four times the direct distance. The location of the eastern border with Lydia and Caria was vague in antiquity.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, 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."
Etymology
The etymology of the word Ἴωνες or Ἰᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain its origins. Frisk suggests that it stems from an unknown root, *Ia-, which would be pronounced as *ya-. There are several alternative hypotheses as well:- The word may have originated from a Proto-Indo-European onomatopoeic root wi- or woi-, which conveyed a shout made by individuals rushing to help others. Another proposition, put forth by Pokorny, suggests that *Iāwones could signify "devotees of Apollo," based on the cry iḕ paiṓn uttered in his worship; the god was also called iḕios himself.
- The word may have derived from an early name associated with an unknown nation inhabiting an Eastern Mediterranean island. This population was referred to as wiktionary:ḥꜣw-nbwt in ancient Egyptian, indicating the people residing in that region. However, the exact nature of this early name and its connection to the term Ἴωνες remains uncertain.
- It may have come from a Proto-Indo-European root uiH-, meaning "power".
History
From the 18th century BC the region was a part of the Hittite Empire with possible name Arzawa, which was destroyed by invaders during the 12th century BC together with the collapse of the Empire. Ionia was settled by the Greeks probably during the 11th century BC. The most important city was Miletus. There is no record of any people named Ionians in Late Bronze Age Anatolia but Hittite texts record contact with Ahhiyawans without being clear on their location. Miletus and some other cities founded earlier by non-Greeks received populations of Mycenaean Greeks.Settlement
Greek settlement of Ionia seems to have accelerated following the Bronze Age collapse, but the lack of contemporary sources makes the sequence of events unclear.The ancient Greeks believed that the Ionians were the descendants of Ion and had migrated from Greece to Asia Minor in mythic times. 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. 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:
- Neileus conquered Miletus from the Cretans. Pausanias and most other sources present Neileus as the overall leader of the Ionians.
- Androclus conquered Ephesus from the Leleges and Lydians, conquered Samos, and died defending Priene from Carians. Strabo says that Androclus was the leader of the Ionians and the only legitimate son of Codrus.
- Cyaretus took Myus from the Carians.
- Damasichthon and Promethus found the descendants of Thersander of Thebes at Colophon and settled alongside them, but later Promethus killed his brother and fled to Naxos.
- Andraemon conquered Lebedus from the Carians.
- Damasus and Naoclus settled at Teos, along with Boeotians led by Geres. The city had already been settled by Ionians under Apoecus and Minyans who settled under Athamas.
- Cleopus gathered a group made up of equal portions from all the Ionian cities and settled them at Erythrae, where there were already Cretans, Lycians, Carians and Pamphylians.
- Priene was founded by Neileus' son Aegyptus, along with Philotas, as a joint Ionian and Theban settlement.
- Clazomenae was founded by a group of Ionians, who received Parphorus, a descendant of Codrus from Colophon as their founder.
- Phocaea was founded by a group of Phocians from near Delphi, led by Philogenes and Damon of Athens and then received Deoetes, Periclus and Abartus, descendants of Codrus, as their kings in order to gain recognition as Ionians.
- Procles son of Pityreus of Epidaurus, a descendant of Ion, who had been expelled by Argos conquered Samos. Under his son Leogorus, the Ephesians under Androclus conquered the island and the Samians fled to Samothrace and to Anaea, but then reconquered Samos.
- Chios was settled by Cretans under Oenopion, then by Carians and Abantes from Euboea. Oenopion's grandson Hector drove them out and received a tripod and the right to sacrifice at the Panionion from the Ionians.
- Smyrna had been conquered by the Aeolians, but was later conquered by the Colophonians.
Archaic period
Ionian League
The twelve Ionian cities formed a religious and cultural confederacy, the Ionian League, of which participation in the Pan-Ionic festival was a distinguishing characteristic. This festival took place on the north slope of Mt. Mycale in a shrine called the Panionium. The foundation took place late in the Archaic period, but the exact date is unclear. This is also when stories of the Ionian migration are first attested. All of these initiatives were probably aimed at emphasising Ionian distinctiveness from other Greeks in Asia.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."
Ionians overseas
The cities became prosperous. Miletus especially was, in an early period, one of the most important commercial cities of Greece, and in its turn became the parent of numerous other colonies, which extended all around the shores of the Euxine Sea and the Propontis from Abydus and Cyzicus to Trapezus and Panticapaeum. Phocaea was one of the first Greek cities whose mariners explored the shores of the western Mediterranean. From an early period, Ephesus, though it did not send out any colonies of importance, became a flourishing city.In the eighth century, Ionian Greeks are recorded in Near Eastern sources as coastal raiders: an inscription of Sargon II 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". For a full generation earlier, Assyrian inscriptions had recorded troubles with the Ionians, who escaped on their boats.