MILYAS
MILYAS (
Μιλυάς) is said to have been the ancient and original name of the country afterwards called Lycia (
Hdt. 1.173) ; but during the period of the Persian dominion, it was the name given to the whole mountainous country in the north of Lycia, the south of Pisidia, and a portion of eastern Phrygia. (
Strab. xii. p.573.)
The boundaries of this country, however, were never properly fixed, and the whole of it is sometimes described as a part of Lycia. (Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 1.25.)
After the accession of the dynasty of the Seleucidae in Syria, the name Milyas was limited to the south-western part of
[p. 2.357]Pisidia, bordering upon Lycia, that is, the territory extending from Termessus northward to the foot of mount Cadmus. (
Plb. 5.72;
Strab. xii. p.570, xiii. p. 631, xiv. p. 666.)
This district, the western part of which bore the name of Cabalia, is afterwards described, sometimes as a part of Lycia (
Ptol. 5.3.7,
5.6), and sometimes as part of Pamphylia or Pisidia. (
Ptol. 5.2.12;
Plin. Nat. 5.42.)
After the conquest of Antiochus the Great, the Romans gave the country to Eumenes (Polyb.
Exc. de Leg. 36), though Pisidian princes still continue to be mentioned as its rulers.
The greater part of Milyas was rugged and mountainous, but it also contained a few fertile plains. (
Strab. xii. p.570.)
The inhabitants were called Milyae. (
Μιλύαι, Hdt. 7.77 ;
Strab. xiv. p.667;
Plin. Nat. 5.25,
42.)
This name, which does not occur in the Homeric poems, probably belonged to the remnants of the ancient Solymi, the original inhabitants of Lycia, who had been driven into the mountains by the immigrating Cretans.
The host important towns in Milyas were CIBYRA, OENOANDA, BALBURA, and
BUBON which formed the Cibyratian tetrapolis. Some authors also mention a town of Milyas (
Plb. 5.72;
Ptol. 5.2.12;
Steph. B. sub voce Μιλύαι), which must have been situated N. of Termessus in Pisidia.
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