Caria

For other uses, see Caria (disambiguation).

Location of Caria

Photo of a 15th century map showing Caria.

Caria (Greek: Καρία) was a region of Anatolia situated south of Ionia and west of Phrygia and Lycia. The eponymous inhabitants were known as Carians, and came to Caria before the Greeks. They were described by Herodotos as of Minoan descent

The name of Caria appears in a number of early languages: Hittite Karkija (a member state of the Assuwa league, ca. 1250 BC), Babylonian Karsa, Elamite and Old Persian Kurka. According to some accounts, the land was originally called "Phoenicia", because a Phoenician colony settled there in early times. Afterwards it is said to have received the name of Caria from Kar, a legendary early king of the Carians.

Independent Caria arose as a Neo-Hittite kingdom around the 11th century BC.The coast of Caria was part of the Dorian hexapolis (six-cities) when the Dorians arrived there during the Greek dark ages and occupied former Mycenaean settlements such us Knidos and Halicarnassos (present-day Bodrum). Herodotus, the famous historian was born at Halicarnassos during the 5th century B.C. It was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid empire as a satrapy in 545 BC. The most important town was Halicarnassus, from where its sovereigns reigned. Other major towns were Heraclea by Latmus, Antiochia, Myndus, Laodicea, Alinda and Alabanda.

The Iliad records that at the time of the Trojan War, the city of Miletus belonged to the Carians, and was allied to the Trojan cause.

Halicarnassus was the location of the famed Mausoleum of Maussollos dedicated to Mausolus, a satrap of Caria between 377–353 BC by his wife, Artemisia. The monument became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and from which the Romans named any grand tomb a mausoleum.

Caria was conquered by Alexander in 334 BC.

Lemprière notes that "As Caria probably abounded in figs, a particular sort has been called Carica, and the words In Care periculum facere, having been proverbially used to signify the encountering of danger in the pursuit of a thing of trifling value."

See also

• Aphrodisias
• Carian language
• Melankomas of Caria, an ancient Olympic boxer

External links

• History and culture of ancient Caria
• Black and white photos of Carian cities