IO'NIA (Lat., from Gk. Itovta. earlier 'Iorle, Maria, for *lapovia, la conia, Skt. Verona). The ancient name of the district occupying the centre of the western coast of Asia Minor from (ap proximately) the River Tiermus in the north to Mount Latmus in the south. It received its name from the Ionians, who, according to the mythological account, derived theirs from Ton (q.v.). the son of Apollo by Creusa, a daugh ter of a King of Athens. According to the usual ly received tradition, they were driven out of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians, and removed to Attica, whence bands of them went forth to settle on the coast of Asia (see below in the ac count of the Ionians). Here in historical times we find a league of twelve citiet, whose centre was the Palliation!, a sanctuary of Posei don Heliconius on the promontory of Mycale. The twelve cities, beginning at the north, were Phoexa, Clazomenm, Eryth•a:, Chios (island), Teas, Lebedos, Colophon. Ephesus, Samos (isl and), Priene, Myus, Miletus. The eities flour ished and sent out many colonies both to the north along the Propontis and Black Sea, and to the west. During the seventh century u.c. they suffered from the Cimmerian invasion of Asia Minor, and later were involved in wars with the Lydian kings, to whom in the sixth century they seem to have yielded a nominal submission, and in turn to have exercised a powerful influence upon Lydian art and life. The Persian conquest of Lydia, about B.C. 546, led to the reduction of the Ionian and other Greek cities. They were left to the government of their own tyrants, and merely paid a regular tribute, though nominally under the Satrap of Lydia and Ionia, whose resi dence was at Sardis. About n.c. 500 the Ionian cities revolted from Persia. The insurrection col lapsed with the naval victory of the Persians at Lade in B.C. 494 and the fall of Miletus in the same year. The aid lent to the Ionians by the Greeks gave Darius a pretext for his onslaught upon Greece. On the defeat of the Persians at Myeale by the Athenians and Spartans (n.•. 479), the cities of Asia Minor again revolted, and p-ined the Delian League. They remained de pendent on Athens until the close of the Pelo ponnesian War (n.c. 404), when they quickly fell under Persian rule again, where they remained till the conquests of Alexander the Great. From this period Ionia shared the fate of the neighbor ing countries, and in n.c. 64 was added to the Roman Empire by Pompey. after the third Alith ridatic war. In later time it was so ravaged by the Turks that few traces of its former great are now left.
The name Ionian was not confined to the Greeks of Ionia. In historic times it denoted one of the great divisions of the Greek race, occupy ing Attica and Euhiva, and the most of the is lands of the iEgean, as well as the stretch of coast in Asia Minor, and. course, the col onies sent from these regions. It seems prob able that these were the first Greeks known to the East, as their name was adopted by Eastern nations to denote the Greeks. They were dis tinguished by a dialect distinct from the Dorian and North Greek, though containing several va rieties, and seem also to have possessed greater artistic and literary ability. though also a greater tendency to luxury and ease, and a less vigorous and hardy character. It is generally believed that they came from the mainland of Greece, and gradually spread over their later territory. The movement may well have begun as early as the twelfth century B.C., but probably reeeived its main impulse from the Dorian inva sion, and its attendant migrations. This view was opposed by E. Curtiss. who declared the Ionians had originally come into Asia Minor from the north and crossed from there to the islands and Attica. More recently Bury, while admitting that the Ionians of history came from Greece, has maintained that the name is derived from thu Asiatic tribe which they found in oc cupation of the coast. Curt iris's view, though held by Holm in his History of Urreee, is now generally discredited, nor is Bury's theory as yet more than an ingenious hypothesis. That the race was composed of many elements cannot be doubted, and indeed was recognized by the Greeks themsch4.s. Ilerodotus, while defining Ionians as those who traced their origin to Attica, and celebrated the festival of the Apa turia (see GREEK FESTIVALS), admits that neither Ephesus nor Colophon kept this feast, a fact which seems to indicate a eonsiderable for eign element in these cities. In art, literature, and philosophy. Ionia enjoyed deserved ilistine lion. Her great names are. among others. Mimnermus, Anacreon of Teos, 'nudes, Apelles. Parrhasius. Zen xis, and others mentioned under in xfAN Sellout.. Consult the histories of Greece, especially those of Busolt and Ed. Meyer. in aesch iekte des .1 lin Owns, vol. ii. Mane, 15911; also Curtius, Die lonier ror der ionisehen Wanderang ( Berlin, 1555): Ed. Meyer, Porsehungrn zur Olen Gem-hit-hie, vol.
1892) ; Bury, in English Historical Re:Title (Lon don. 1S90).