A Geographical and Historical Description of Asia Minor; With a Map (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1832. Excerpt: ... SECTION VI. IONIA AND LYD1A. General history of the Ionian colonies and their confederacy--Description of the twelve states of Ionia and the adjacent islands--Origin of the Meonians and Lydians--Dynasties of Lydia--Boundaries and topography of that country. 1 HE beautiful country which received the name of Ionia from the Greek colonists who settled on its shores, had, previous to that event, been peopled by a race of barbarians, so often alluded to by the ancients under the indefinite appellations of Leleges and Carians. These, unable to resist their more powerful invaders, withdrew from the coast, and retired across the Maeander, to that portion of Asia Minor which, from the latter people, obtained the name of Caria. (Pherecyd. ap. Strab. XIV. p. 632. Herod. I. 146. Paus. Aeh. 2.) The causes which led to the Ionian migration are well known. The chief of these, according to Thucydides, was the crowded state of Attica; a poor and barren country, unable to support the great influx of population which the disturbed state of Greece had drawn thither. The greatest number of these refugees were Ionians, who had been expelled from the jEgialus of Peloponnese by the Achaeans, and had retired to Attica, the mother country of the Ionian race. At this time a dissension arose between Medon and Neleus, the descendants of Codrus, respecting the succession to the throne of Athens; and when the oracle of Delphi had decided in favour of the former, Neleus determined, in conjunction with the other sons of Codrus, to abandon Attica, and form settlements in Asia Minor, already colonized for many years by the jEolians. The Ionians gladly listened to the proposals made to them, of joining the expedition, and their numbers were soon swelled by a mixed multitude collected from a...