Aria (
Greek Areia/Aria,
Latin Aria, representing
Old Persian. Haraiva,
Avestan Haraeuua), name of a region in the eastern part of the Persian empire, several times confused with
Ariane in the classical sources. Aria was an Old Persian
satrapy, which enclosed chiefly the valley of the river
Hari Rud (Greek Areios, this being eponymous to the whole land according to
Arrian (
Anabasis 4.6.6) and which in antiquity was considered as particularly fertile and, above all, rich in
wine; its capital was Alexandria (probably since
330 BC), the modern
Herat (northwest
Afghanistan). The land south of
Margiana and
Bactria, in the east of
Parthia and the
Carmanian desert, north of
Drangiana and in the west of the
Paropamisadae is described in a very detailed manner by
Ptolemy (6.17; cf.
Strabo 11.10.1) and corresponds, according to that, almost to the
province Herat of today's Afghanistan. In this sense the term is used correctly by some writers, e.g.
Herodotus (3.93.3, where the Areioi are mentioned together with the
Parthians, Chorasmians, and
Sogdians);
Diodorus (17.105.7; 18.39.6); Strabo (2.1.14; 11.10.1, cf. also 11.8.1 and 8; 15.2.8 and 9); Arrian (Anabasis 3.25.1);
Pomponius Mela (1.12, where we read that “nearest to
India is Ariane, then Aria”).
See more at Wikipedia.org...
Free Download Now!
