MATIA´NA
MATIA´NA (
Μτιανή,
Strab. ii. p.73, xi. p. 509;
Steph. B. sub voce Ματιηνή,
Hdt. 5.52: Eth.
Ματιανός, Eth.
Ματιηνός), a district of ancient Media, in the south-western part of its great subdivision called Media Atropatene, extending along the mountains which separate Armenia, and Assyria. Its boundaries are very uncertain, and it is not possible to determine how far it extended.
It is probably the same as the
Μαρτιανή of Ptolemy (
6.2.5). [
MARTIANE] Strabo mentions as a peculiarity of the trees in this district, that they distil honey (
l.c.). The Matiani are included by Herodotus in the eighteenth satrapy of Dareius (3.94), and served in the army of Xerxes, being armed and equipped in the same manner as the Paphlagonians (7.72). Herodotus evidently considered them to occupy part of the more widely extended territory of Armenia.
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