IONIA. It has been suggested that in Mac cab. viii. 8, for the existing reading xtUpap l'Iv6ucim .111igetar, should be read x. r. 'Icovlav Kal Aluatav, on the ground that to include India and Media within the domain of Antiochus III. is to contradict directly the voice of history, which confines this monarch's possessions to this side the Taurus range (Liv. Hist. xxxvii. 56 ; xxxviii. 38). This alteration is purely conjectural, and it is not easy to see, supposing it to be the correct read ing, how the error in the text could have arisen. Michaelis supposes that by a mistake on the part of the translator, 1-1/3 was read for 400, and or 117r1 for 'On, and that the nations intended are the Mysians and the 'Everof (Horn. //. 58o) of Paphlagonia ; but this is still more improbable than the former conjecture, and besides, not only was Paphlagonia not within the domain of Anti ochus, but the Eretians did not at that time exist (Strabo xii. 8). Perhaps the conjectural etnenda tion abOve mentioned may be adopted on the ground of its internal probability ; as the only alternative seems to be to suppose gross geographi cal and historical ignorance on the part of the author. It is followed by Luther (who puts
Ionien' in the text), Drusius, Grotius, Houbi gant, etc. Adopting the reading Ionia, the dis trict referred to is that bordering on the Agear. Sea from Phocaea to Miletus. Its original inhabi tants were Greeks, but in later times a large Jew ish element was found in the population (Joseph. Antiq. XVI. 2. 3). Under the Roman dominion the name Ionia remained, but its towns were dis tributed politically under other provinces. Ptolemy mnks them in Asia Proper, while Strabo (xiv. 632), Pliny (H. IV. v. 31), and Mela (i. 17), speak of Ionia as a distinct territory. In the account which Josephus gives (Antiy. xvi. 2. 3) of the p.p. peal of the Jews in Ionia to Agrippa for exemp tion from certain oppressions to which they were exposed, the ancient name of the country is re tained. He speaks of TOW rAflOos gouSaLcav as inhabiting its cities.—W. L. A.