Listed 1 sub titles with search on: Various locations for destination: "AFGHANISTAN Country SOUTH ASIAN SUBCONTINENT".
Aria (he Aria, Steph. B.: Areia, Ptol. vi. 17. § 1; Arr. Anab. iii
24,25; Areion ge, Isid. Charax: Eth. Arioi and Areioi, Arii), a province on the
NE. of Persia, bounded on the N. by the mountains Sariphi (the Hazaras), which
separate it from Hyrcania and Margiana, on the E. by the chain of Bagous (the
Ghor Moiwtains), on the S. by the deserts of Carmania (Kirman), and on the W.
by the mountains Masdoranus and Parthia. Its limits seem to have varied very much,
and to have been either imperfectly investigated by the ancients, or to have been
confounded with the more extensive district of Ariana.
Herodotus (vii. 65) classes the Arians in the army of Xerxes with
the Bactrians, and gives them the same equipment; while, in the description of
the Satrapies of Dareius (Herod. iii. 93), the Parthians, Chorasmians, Sogdians,
and Arians (Areioi), are grouped together in the sixteenth Satrapy. Where he states
(Herod. vii. 2) that the Medes were originally called Arii, his meaning is an
ethnographical one.
According to Strabo Aria was 2000 stadia long and 300 broad, which
would limit it to the country between Meshed and Herat,- a position which is reconcileable
with what Strabo says of Aria, that it was similar in character to Margiana, possessed
mountains and well-watered valleys, in which the vine flourished. The boundaries
of Aria, as stated by Ptolemy, agree very well with those of Strabo; as he says
(vi. 17. § 1) that Aria has Margiana and Bactria on the N., Parthia and the great
desert of Carmania (that is the great desert of Yezd and Kirman) on the W., Drangiana
on the S., and the Paropamisan mountains on the E. At present this district contains
the eastern portion of Khorasan and the western of Afghanistan. It was watered
by the river Arius, and contained the following cities: Artacoana, Alexandria
Ariana, and Aria. Ptolemy gives a long list of provinces and cities, which it
is not possible to identify, and many of which could not have been contained within
the narrow limits of Aria, though they may have been comprehended within the wider
range of Ariana.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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