Caria

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

 

an ancient region in southwestern Asia Minor (in modern Turkey). It was named for the Carian tribe, which settled in the region at the end of the second millennium b.c. The studies of the Soviet scholar V. V. Shevoroshkin have established that the language of the Carians belongs to the Hittite-Luwian (Luvian) group of Indo-European languages. At the end of the second millennium b.c., the coast of Caria and the offshore islands were colonized by the Greeks, who founded the cities of Halicarnassus, Cnidus, Miletus, and Magnesia. In the sixth to the fourth century b.c., Caria was subordinate to the Achae-menids but retained its local rulers and satraps. At the end of the fourth century b.c., it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Later, the region was a dependency of the Seleucids. In 129 b.c., Caria was incorporated into the Roman province of Asia.

REFERENCES

Shevoroshkin, V. V. Issledovaniia po deshifrovke kariiskikh nadpisei. Moscow, 1965.
Robert, L., and J. Robert. La Carie: Histoire et géographie histor-ique…. Paris, 1955.

T. M. SHEPUNOVA