Caria (redirected from Carians)

Caria (kâ`rēə), ancient region of SW Asia Minor, S of the Maeander River, which separated it from Lydia. The territory is in present SW Asian Turkey. The Carians were probably a native people, but their region was settled by both Dorian and Ionian colonists. Caria was a center of the Ionian revolt (c.499 B.C.) that was a prelude to the Persian Wars. Some of the communities joined (c.468 B.C.) the Delian League. In the 4th cent. B.C. the region was united under a satrapy of princes, of whom the most celebrated was Mausolus. Alexander the Great conquered Caria, and it changed hands often in the wars after his death. In 125 B.C. it was made a Roman province (part of the province of Asia). Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Miletus were famous Carian cities.

---

Caria

Ancient district, southwestern Anatolia. It was one of the most thoroughly Hellenized districts in ancient Anatolia; its territory included Greek cities along the shore of the Aegean Sea and a mountainous interior bounded by Lydia, Phrygia, and Lycia. Absorbed first by Lydia, it later was annexed (6th century BC) by the Persian Achaemenian Empire, one of whose governors, Mausolus, transferred its capital from Mylasa to Halicarnassus. Taken from Persia in 334–332 BC by Alexander the Great, it was incorporated into the Roman province of Asia in 129 BC.