Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip fromPhocaea in the north near the mouth of the riverHermus (now theGediz), toMiletus in the south near the mouth of the riverMaeander, and included the islands ofChios andSamos. It was bounded byAeolia to the north,Lydia to the east andCaria to the south. The cities within the region figured significantly in the strife between thePersian Empire and the Greeks.
TheIonian school of philosophy, centered on 6th century BCMiletus, 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.
Greek settlements in westernAsia Minor, Ionian area in green.
Ionia was of small extent, not exceeding 150 kilometres (90 mi) 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 60 to 90 kilometres (40 to 60 mi). 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.[5]
The region comprised three extremely fertile valleys formed by the outflow of three rivers, among the most considerable in Asia Minor: theHermus in the north, flowing into theGulf of Smyrna, though at some distance from the city of that name; the Caÿster (modernKüçük Menderes River), which flowed past Ephesus; and theMaeander, 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 asMount Sipylus between the Hermus and Caÿster river valleys and continues out as theErythrae peninsula, which faces the island of Chios. The second is the Messogis range between the Caÿster and Maeander ranges, which becomes theMycale peninsula, which reaches out towards the island of Samos. None of these mountain ranges exceed 1,200 metres (3,940 ft).
Ionia enjoyed the reputation in ancient times of being the most fertile region of Asia Minor.[3] Herodotus declares "in terms of climate and weather, there is no fairer region in the whole world."[6][7]
Theetymology of the wordἼωνες (Íōnes) orἸᾱ́ϝoνες (Iā́wones) is uncertain.[8] 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 aProto-Indo-European onomatopoeic root *wi- or *woi-, which conveyed a shout made by individuals rushing to help others. Another proposition, put forth byPokorny, suggests that *Iāwones could signify "devotees of Apollo," based on the cryiḕ paiṓn uttered in his worship; the god was also callediḕios himself.[9]
The word may have derived from an early name associated with an unknown nation inhabiting anEastern Mediterranean island. This population was referred to asḥꜣw-nbwt in ancient Egyptian, indicating the people residing in that region. However, the exact nature of this early name and its connection to the termἼωνες remains uncertain.[10]
It may have come from a Proto-Indo-European root *uiH-, meaning "power."[11]
From the 18th century BC the region was a part of theHittite Empire with possible nameArzawa, 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 wasMiletus (theMillawanda/Milawata of Hittites). There is no record of any people named Ionians inLate Bronze Age Anatolia butHittite texts record contact withAhhiyawans ("Achaeans")[citation needed] without being clear on their location.Miletus and some other cities founded earlier by non-Greeks received populations ofMycenaean Greeks.
Greek settlement of Ionia seems to have accelerated following theBronze Age collapse, but the lack of contemporary sources makes the sequence of events unclear.
Gorgone with serpent, Ionia, 575-550 BC.
The ancient Greeks believed that the Ionians were the descendants ofIon (either a son or grandson ofHellen, the mythical ancestor of the Greeks) and hadmigrated from Greece to Asia Minor in mythic times.[12] 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 becameAchaea after they left.[13] However, the story of the migration is recounted most fully by the Roman-period authorsStrabo andPausanias.[14][15] They report that the Ionians were expelled from thePeloponnese byAchaians, and were granted refuge in Athens by KingMelanthus.[12] 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, theAeolians ofBoeotia settled the coast to the north of the Ionians and theDorians settled inCrete, theDodecanese and inCaria.
According to Pausanias, the sons of Codrus were as follows:
Neileus conqueredMiletus from theCretans.[16] Pausanias and most other sources present Neileus as the overall leader of the Ionians.[17]
Damasus and Naoclus settled at Teos, along with Boeotians led by Geres. The city had already been settled by Ionians under Apoecus (whose name literally means "founder") andMinyans who settled underAthamas.[23]
Cleopus gathered a group made up of equal portions from all the Ionian cities and settled them atErythrae, where there were already Cretans, Lycians, Carians andPamphylians.[24]
Pausanias reports that other cities were founded or became Ionian later:
Priene was founded by Neileus' son Aegyptus, along with Philotas, as a joint Ionian and Theban settlement.[20]
Clazomenae was founded by a group of Ionians, who received Parphorus, a descendant of Codrus from Colophon as their founder.[25]
Phocaea was founded by a group ofPhocians from nearDelphi, 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.[26]
Procles son of Pityreus ofEpidaurus, a descendant of Ion, who had been expelled byArgos conquered Samos. Under his son Leogorus, the Ephesians under Androclus conquered the island and the Samians fled toSamothrace and toAnaea, but then reconquered Samos.[27]
Chios was settled by Cretans under Oenopion, then by Carians andAbantes fromEuboea. Oenopion's grandson Hector drove them out and received a tripod and the right to sacrifice at thePanionion from the Ionians (Pausanias expresses uncertainty about how this made them Ionian).[28]
Smyrna had been conquered by the Aeolians, but was later conquered by the Colophonians.[29]
One of the earliestelectrum coins struck inEphesus, 620–600 BC. Obverse: Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch.
In the Archaic period, "the Ionian poleis were among the cultural, intellectual, and political leaders of the Greek world."[30] The region prospered economically due to the contributions ofimmigrants, traders, and other social classes from at least750 BCE to well after510 BCE.[31]
The twelve Ionian cities formed a religious and cultural (as opposed to a political or military) confederacy, theIonian League, of which participation in the Pan-Ionic festival was a distinguishing characteristic. This festival took place on the north slope ofMt. Mycale in a shrine called thePanionium.[3] The foundation took place late in the Archaic period, but the exact date is unclear. This is also when stories of theIonian migration are first attested. All of these initiatives were probably aimed at emphasising Ionian distinctiveness from other Greeks in Asia.[32]
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.[32] They never formed a real confederacy. The advice ofThales of Miletus to combine in a political union was rejected.[3] In inscriptions and literary sources from this period, Ionians generally identify themselves by their city of origin, not as "Ionians."[30]
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 theEuxine Sea and the Propontis from Abydus andCyzicus toTrapezus 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.[3]
In the eighth century, Ionian Greeks are recorded in Near Eastern sources as coastal raiders: an inscription ofSargon 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 QueCilicia and the city ofTyre".[33] For a full generation earlier, Assyrian inscriptions had recorded troubles with the Ionians, who escaped on their boats.[33]
About 700 BCGyges, first Mermnad king ofLydia, invaded the territories of Smyrna and Miletus, and is said to have taken Colophon. His sonArdys conquered Priene. In the middle of the 7th century, theCimmerii ravaged a great part of Asia Minor, including Lydia, and sackedMagnesia on the Maeander, but were defeated when they attacked Ephesus. It was not until the reign ofCroesus (560–545 BC) that the cities of Ionia fell completely under Lydian rule.[3]
The defeat of Croesus byCyrus the Great was followed by the conquest of all the Ionian cities in 547 BC.[34] These became subject to the Persian monarchy with the other Greek cities of Asia, forming part of the satrapy of Lydia. In this position they enjoyed a considerable amount of autonomy, but were subject to local despots (called "tyrants"), who were loyal to the Persian king.
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.[30]
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.[30]
It was at the instigation of one of the tyrants,Histiaeus of Miletus, that in about 500 BC the principal cities ignited theIonian Revolt against Persia. They were at first assisted by the Athenians andEretria, with whose aid they penetrated into the interior and burnt Sardis, an event which ultimately led to thePersian invasion of Greece. But the fleet of the Ionians was defeated off the island ofLade, and the destruction of Miletus after a protracted siege was followed by the reconquest of all the Asiatic Greeks, insular as well as continental.[3]
The victories of the Greeks during thePersian invasion of Greece and the liberation ofThrace,Macedon, and Ionia from the Persian Empire had the effect of enfranchising their kinsmen on the other side of the Aegean, and theBattle of Mycale (479 BC), in which the defeat of the Persians was in great measure owing to the Ionians, secured their emancipation. They henceforth became the dependent allies of Athens within theDelian League. In theAthenian tribute lists, one of the regions of the empire is theIonikos phoros, a region that includes the cities of Ionia, but alsoAeolis andMysia to the north. Caria to the south was initially its own region, but was folded into the Ionikos phoros in 438 BC.[7]
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.[35]
Herodotus, who came fromHalicarnassus, 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 ...."[36] He lists other ethnic populations among the settlers: Abantes fromEuboea,Minyans fromOrchomenus, Cadmeians,Dryopians,Phocians,Molossians, ArcadianPelasgians,Dorians ofEpidaurus, and others. Even "the best born of the Ionians" had married girls fromCaria. He defines Ionians as all peoples who were descended from Athenians and celebrated theApaturia festival,[37] which aligns with the expansive Athenian definition of Ionian identity.[35]
Ionia, Achaemenid Period. Uncertain satrap. Circa 350–333 BC
The Spartans dissolved the Athenian Empire at the end of thePeloponnesian War in 404 BC. The Spartans installedharmosts (governors) in the cities, but had to withdraw them because they had promised Ionia and the other Greek communities in Asia to the Persians.[38][39] In 401, the Ionian cities and Sparta supportedCyrus the Younger, the Persian overlord of Asia Minor, in his attempt to seize the throne from his brother, KingArtaxerxes II but he failed.[40] Artaxerxes taskedTissaphernes, thesatrap ofLydia andCaria, with retaking the Ionian cities, and the Spartans opposed him.[41]
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, sackingSardis in 395 BC. But the outbreak of theCorinthian War forced him to withdraw in 395 BC.
The region was under Persian control by about 390 BC, when the Persiansatrap arbitrated a boundary dispute between Miletus and Myus.[42] Sparta, Athens, and the other mainland Greek states formally acknowledged Persian possession of Ionia and the other Greek cities in Asia Minor in thePeace of Antalcidas in 387 BC.[3][43][44][45] 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.[42] Ionian cities appear to have retained a considerable amount of autonomy until the conquest of Asia Minor byAlexander the Great in 335 BC.[3]
Ephesus was conquered byPhilip II of Macedon in 336 BC in preparation for the invasion of Persia, which took place under his sonAlexander the Great. After thebattle of the Granicus in 334 BC most of the Ionian cities submitted to Alexander, except for Miletus, which was taken only after a long siege. Alexander presented his invasion as a liberation of the Greeks of Asia and therefore treated the Ionians generously, granting them freedom, autonomy, and tax-free status.
In theconflict that broke out between Alexander'ssuccessors after his death in 323 BC and throughout theHellenistic Age that followed, Ionia was a contested territory, divided between theAntigonid,Seleucid, andPtolemaic kingdoms. Cities were regularly forced to switch allegiance from one monarch to another,[46] but they were also able to play the kings off against one another in order to get better terms for themselves.[47] Despite the political situation, the Ionian League continued to operate throughout the period.[46]
Following their victory in theWar with Antiochus in 189 BC, the Romans placed Ionia under the control of theAttalid 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.[48]
Ionia became part of theRoman province ofAsia in 133 BC, which had its capital at the Ionian city of Ephesus.[50] Ionia had no formal place in the Roman administration of the province, which was divided intoconventus districts that were totally distinct from the traditional ethnic divisions of the region.[51] However, the Ionian League continued to function in this period.
The geographerStrabo 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).[52] 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.[53] Other authors sometimes use "Ionia" as ametonym for the whole province of Asia.[54]
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,"[5] while their rivals denounced Ionians as overly influenced byoriental luxury and recalled their support for the Persians in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC.[55] Most sources discussing Ionian founding myths belong to this period.[15] Ionian cities retained local month names and continued to count years byeponymous magistrates rather than adoptingera dating like most other cities in Asia Minor.[56] Distinctive Ionian personal names remained common.[56]
Greeks continued to live in Ionia through theRoman,Byzantine andOttoman Empires but were forced to vacate the region in 1922 after the events of theGreek genocide which culminated with thepopulation exchange between Turkey and Greece. The suburbs ofNea Ionia andNea Smyrni were primarily settled by refugees from Ionia and still maintain an Ionian identity.[57]
From the 7th century BC, Ionia, and in particularMiletus, was home to theIonian school of philosophy. The Ionian school, founded byThales and his studentAnaximander, pioneered a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature. Instead of explaining natural phenomena by recourse to traditional religion/myth, the cultural climate was such that men began to form hypotheses about the natural world based on ideas gained from both personal experience and deep reflection. According to physicistCarlo Rovelli, this was the "first great scientific revolution" and the earliest example of critical thinking, which would come to define Greek, and subsequently modern, thought.[58]
Ionia has a long roll of distinguished men of letters and science (notably theIonian School of philosophy) and distinct school of art. This school flourished between 700 and 500 BC. The great names of this school areTheodorus and Rhoecus of Samos;Bathycles ofMagnesia on the Maeander;Glaucus of Chios, Melas, Micciades, Archermus,Bupalus and Athenis ofChios. 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 inivory andelectrum found by D. G. Hogarth in the lower strata of the Artemision at Ephesus.[3]
ThePersian designation forGreek isYounan (یونان), a transliteration of "Ionia", throughOld PersianYauna.[59] The same is true for theHebrew word, "Yavan" (יוון) and theSanskrit word "yavana". The word was later adopted inArabic,Turkish, andUrdu as well as in other places.
^abcdefghijOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bunbury, Edward Herbert; Hogarth, David George (1911). "Ionia". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 727–728.
^abSargon'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.
^The /v/ of Hebrewyavan 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.
Jan Paul Crielaard, "The Ionians in the Archaic period: Shifting identities in a changing world," in Ton Derks, Nico Roymans (ed.),Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2009) (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, 13), 37–84.
Gorman, Vanessa B. (2001).Miletos, the ornament of Ionia: A History of the City to 400 B.C.E. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.ISBN978-0472037773.
Greaves, Alan M. (2010).The land of Ionia: society and economy in the Archaic period. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN9781444319224.
Hallmannsecker, Martin (2022).Roman Ionia: Constructions of Cultural Identity in Western Asia Minor. Cambridge, United Kingdom: CUP.ISBN9781009150194.
Herrmann, P. (2002). "Das Koinon ton Ionon unter römischer Herrschaft". In Ehrhardt, N.; Günther, L.-M. (eds.).Widerstand, Anpassung, Integration: die griechische Staatenwelt und Rom: Festschrift für Jürgen Deininger zum 65. Geburtstag (in German). Stuttgart: Steiner. pp. 223–242.ISBN9783515079112.
Ma, John (1999).Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor. London: Oxford University Press.ISBN0198152191.
Mariaud, Olivier (2020). "Ionia". In Lemos, Irene S.; Kotsonas, Antonios (eds.).A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean. Hoboken, NJ. pp. 961–984.ISBN9781118770191.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Thonemann, Peter (2015).The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium (First paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1107538139.
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