Milyas () was a mountainous country in ancient south-west

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(modern Turkey). However, it is generally described as being mostly in the northern part of the successor kingdom of

Lycia Lycia (; Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; , ; ) was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğ ...

, as well as southern

Pisidia Pisidia (; , ; ) was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, west of Isauria and Cilicia, and south of Phrygia, corresponding roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey. Among Pisidia's set ...

, and part of eastern

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

. According to

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

, the boundaries of Milyas were never fixed. Its inhabitants used the

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

Milyae Milyas () was a mountainous country in ancient south-west Anatolia (modern Turkey). However, it is generally described as being mostly in the northern part of the successor kingdom of Lycia, as well as southern Pisidia, and part of eastern Phrygia ...

(Μιλύαι), or Milyans. However, the oldest known name for inhabitants of the area is '' Sólymoi'' (Σόλυμοι), Solymi and Solymians – names that are probably derived from the nearby Mount Solymus.

Louis Feldman Louis Harry Feldman (October 29, 1926March 25, 2017) was an American classicist. He was the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University, the institution at which he taught since 1955. Feldman was a scholar of ...

suggested that the Solymoi originally spoke an unattested

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

(this opinion is not commonly supported), whereas the

Milyan language Milyan, also known as Lycian B and previously Lycian 2, is an extinct ancient Anatolian language. It is attested from three inscriptions: two poems of 34 and 71 engraved lines, respectively, on the so-called Xanthian stele (or Xanthian ...

was an

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...

Toponymy

Later the name Milyas was sometimes used to describe only as a part of Lycia. However, after the accession of the dynasty of the Greek Seleucidae in Syria, the name Milyas was limited to the south-western part of Pisidia, bordering upon Lycia, that is, the territory extending from

Termessus Termessos (Greek Τερμησσός ''Termēssós''), also known as Termessos Major (Τερμησσός ἡ μείζων), was a Pisidian city built at an altitude of about 1000 metres at the south-west side of Solymos Mountain (modern Gül ...

northward to the foot of Mount Cadmus. This district, the western part of which bore the name of Cabalia, is afterwards described, sometimes as a part of Lycia (as by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

) and sometimes as part of

Pamphylia Pamphylia (; , ''Pamphylía'' ) was a region in the south of Anatolia, Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the ...

(as by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

). After the conquest of the Greek

Antiochus the Great Antiochus III the Great (; , ; 3 July 187 BC) was the sixth ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 223 to 187 BC. He ruled over the Syria (region), region of Syria and large parts of the rest of West Asia towards the end of the 3rd century B ...

, the Romans gave the country to

Eumenes Eumenes (; ; ) was a Ancient Greece, Greek general, satrap, and Diadoch, Successor of Alexander the Great. He participated in the Wars of Alexander the Great, serving as Alexander's personal secretary and later on as a battlefield commander. Eume ...

, though Pisidian princes still continue to be mentioned as its rulers.

Geography

The Solymi appear to have taken their name from a mountain in Anatolia named Solymus (later Güllük Dagi). The greater part of Milyas was rugged and mountainous, but it also contained a few fertile plains. The name, which does not occur in the

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

ic poems, probably belonged to the remnants of the Milyae, who had been driven into the mountains by invaders from Crete, known as the Termilae, who later referred to themselves as

Lycians Lycians () is the name of various peoples who lived, at different times, in Lycia, a geopolitical area in Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor). History The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the ''Solymoi'' (or ''Solymi''), also kn ...

. Important cities and towns in Milyas included

Cibyra Cibyra or Kibyra (Greek language, Greek: ), also referred to as Cibyra Magna, was an Ancient Greek city near the modern town of Gölhisar, in Burdur Province. It lay outside the north-western limits of the ancient province of Lycia and was th ...

Oenoanda Oenoanda (; ''Oinoanda'') was a Lycian city, in the upper valley of the River Xanthus. It is noted for the philosophical inscription by the Epicurean, Diogenes of Oenoanda. The ruins of the city lie on a highly isolated site west of the mo ...

, Balbura, and Bubon, which formed the Cibyratian tetrapolis. Some authors also mention a town named Milyas, which must have been situated north of Termessus in Pisidia.Polyb. v. 72; Ptol. v. 2. § 12; Steph. B. ''s. v.'' Μιλύαι

References

Geography of ancient Lycia Pamphylia Pisidia Geography of Phrygia Historical regions of Anatolia {{AncientPhrygia-geo-stub